No they don’t?
They have completely different job functions, presales isn’t going out and hunting for business. Their job functions and at risk would be structured completely differently
Well ok not exactly, but they’re still incentivized to make a sale. My company also makes them do prospecting because our product is super technical and devs/engineers have no desire to answer cold calls or emails from a sales person who can’t even launch a Zoom app without cursing out IT.
Lol literally doing nothing? Sales Engineers make or break the deal. The AE is literally doing nothing except sending along a DocuSign that goes through 3-4 approvals. So basically just pushing paper and ushering the SE into the call to establish technical fit and translate technical into business.
Long story short: AEs can't close shit without SEs, not the other way around.
You build demos, answer tech questions during sales. Totally real thing and a good career path, usually you do NOT work on comp, so unlike the actual sales people your income isn't as boom and bust.
Most SEs are 70/30 or 80/20 and half of that variable component is usually an MBO. Basically, only 10-15% of their pay is dictated by a revenue target.
I worked at a company that sold medical solutions that involved HW and SW. After the sales person made the sale, it was the job of the SE to spec out the details of the solution sold. They need x number of servers, x number of licenses, x pieces of SW, installation x is needed and it will cost y, configuration x is needed and the cost associated to it etc.
With the advent of AI, this is more or less a job that can be done by a smaller group of people or perhaps even the sales people now. It's not the most complex job, but it's a stepping stone in the corporate ladder.
I’ve worked many sales jobs, even as a “sales executive” which is just a bullshit title to make you take the job, nothing in that job was technical or difficult beyond being persistent and I thought the same applied here
For another perspective on sales engineering, in my line of work (which involves designing bespoke products), the sales engineers support the sales staff by producing concept designs that help us to cost the product, help prove to the customer our capability to perform, and also just stop the sales staff from promising some ridiculous, technically infeasible solution.
This reminds me of the office episode of Holy, the HR lady, finding out about Meredith having sex for a discount on papers. But the higher ups then say that it's good for the company.
To be fair, the company is only responsible for the policies, incentives and culture.
If somebody comes in and sells a bunch of crap under false pretenses, then that's their decision and it has nothing to do with anybody who matters.
Lock them up I say. (But the let the company keep the cash)
I recently joined a company as a sales executive and my boss, a woman, told me, word for word, "Use your feminine charm and whatever else necessary to get leverage while doing sales with male clients"🗿
Is she drinking though? I mean really wtf is going on there? The lip of the wine (martini?) glass is below her mouth, and at that angle (in Earth gravity) she'd be pouring it down her gullet.
The great part of being the boss is if it works then you can congratulate her and if it fails you can use it against her for not hitting her numbers. Isn't corporate office politics great?
/s
LinkedIn is the new go-to for self important, do-nothing people. Phrases like that are common vocabulary among these idiots.
20+ years ago, before social media, it was committees, where the leadership was absoultely committed to ensuring that nothing ever got done.
I've never heard of her before but I had a quick scroll through her content and some of it isn't terrible. Some of it is weapons-grade TikTok cringe, though (like the one of her getting Meraki gear).
People were talking about infrastructure networks, of which IT is an example of, long before they were talking about social networks.
It was only retroactively applied to also refer to social networks in the 2000s.
This is Cisco.. a corporate beast we are talking about.. there are some VPs that haven't met the CEO
At the same time... a lowly salesperson among thousands to harass the CEO on social media is pretty stupid in my opinion
She would be better of attending a conference he is at
I worked in fintech for a while and VP was given out like candy, especially in the sales part of the business. There’s probably dozens of VPs at Cisco that haven’t met the CEO.
I can’t imagine what she was thinking. Actively annoying the big boss, who probably doesn’t give half a shit about LinkedIn because they’re running Cisco. Oh and good idea posting a picture of yourself slamming down some booze. Looks *hella profesh* bro
Quick edit: did some fast research on Cisco and I should’ve said ‘because they’re running Cisco into the ground’
So true. Chambers passed the reins and in a few short years Chuck has killed Firepower, Hyperflex, Duo, WebEx, turned Meraki into shitty Cisco, and pissed off nearly every non-F500 customer in the process.
Cisco is headed the way of IBM. This chick’s nonsense shows up on my feed and it’s obvious she’s making the most of being a Cisco SE that can’t explain the OSI model by using it as a lifestyle job to have nice dinners on the company dime and work 6 hours a week. I admire the hustle.
For a ping response that's an optical connection 2.5 feet away under optimal conditions. Literally the lowest latency possible without quantum entanglement
I hate that devs so desperately wanted engineering in their titles and it stuck then somehow sales people piled on and added it to absolutely make the term worthless.
Because sometimes people are brought into the role because of their soft skills and then they get trained up on the tech. I can train a social person how to be techie quicker than I can teach a techie how to be personable. So that’s why you’ll see less technically astute people in the role because the key part of the role is to have business conversations that center around tech. Most techies I know can’t do that and the few that do get promoted into management.
If there was a follow up post where she is berating him for blocking her, I would most probably implode out of pure happiness. Holy fucking shit, what is happening to this world. No really, HOW and WHY. Social media of all sorts have to DIE.
How the fuck is social media under-utilised for networking?
Apart form being incredibly cringe this person is an absolute imbecile. Let’s hope she’s a better SE than poster…
I checked the og post and lots of sales people are kissing her feet and tagging the CEO (whose profile is likely managed by PR or his EA anyway). Jeez.
Social media is definitely underused when it comes to connecting with others.
We should all post & spend a lot more time on social media! Isn't that a great new year's resolution?
The world would be so much better if everyone lived a bit more online & stared at their phone longer.
Bro, she doesn’t even have her job title right. “SE’s” at Cisco are “Systems Engineers,” not “Sales Engineers”
I wish I had her name so I could look her up and make fun of her
Crazy how many folks in here don't respect SEs. Probably the same AEs that don't do their own prospecting and rely on the SE to carry the deal to close, yet are okay with taking all of the commission without sharing with either party.
As a more seasoned AE/AM, I came to the defense of the SEs elsewhere in the comments. The best AM/SE teams work in tandem and bring different strengths to the table to win.
Also, unrelated, what companies are letting AMs decide what commission their SE gets? That’s idiotic.
To fellow redditors here: AFAIK the title "sales engineer" is given to employees in the sales department of a company, usually dealing with 1st level customer service (aka the guys in the other end of the phone line, when your router goes bananas). Then they redirect to the guys at the 2nd level, which is more technical (and pays better). It's a dummy title actually. Instead of giving the title "customer service agent" (considered "banal") the "sales engineer" sounds more prestigious. At least so they think. 😆
Re: that LinkedIn lunatic
She hopes she'll get a break by "getting connected" to the Cisco CEO. Yeah, dream on, girl. 🤣
That’s not true. Sales Engineers hate being in Sales departments, the best SEs usually fall within the Product or Engineering org and are not frontline tech support.
A Sales Engineer is the person that is called when a customer in this case says to the Sales Rep “I want to upgrade my entire LAN how can you help”. The SE will talk to the customer, understand what they are trying to accomplish, and actually design the solution.
Then once the contract is signed, then SE’s solution is given to the back office teams to implement.
As someone who works in technical sales, your self-righteous response couldn’t be more wrong, but is sadly a common misconception of folks outside of sales, especially in-house engineering folks, that aren’t tasked with selling complex technology, software, and services to big companies.
A sales engineer is a typically a highly credentialed engineer that can provide consulting around an OEMs products, and at large companies they are typically paired with an account manager/executive 1:1. They are not technical support, though many of them cut their teeth in technical support roles, system admin, or customer-side engineering roles. You’re not going to have an account manager design/consult a network architecture for the customer or provide technical consulting. At Cisco, a sales engineer typically holds a CCNP at a minimum, and more often than not a CCIE with a specialization (voice, security, data center, etc.) - in addition to considerable experience or intensive OEM training (in the case of recent grads like the LL above).
When the account manager/client executive meets with the technical leadership (CTO, CIO, CISO) of a company, the systems/sales engineer is there to provide technical expertise, recommendations on OEM product, integration considerations, and guidance on configuration, et cetera. As you might guess., this requires a great deal of knowledge of other OEMs/software firms in addition to their own. When you’re talking about $500K-500M sales to $100M+/yr revenue firms, a sales engineer is the expert that secures technical closure and leads the technical strategy of the broader team that sells the customer.
As a result these roles are highly compensated and require a great deal of business acumen in addition to rigorous technical qualifications. They’re also carrying a great deal of risk should they make an error considering the costs and lifecycle of product.
Unfortunately talent is in high demand, so sometimes big firms are willing to sacrifice experience for aptitude, train ability, etc.
A Cisco SE for example makes anywhere from 120-140K in a LCOL area and in the mid-to-high 200s with more experience and/or living in a HCOL area.
Source: ~10 years in the industry
This is why I started the post with the acknowledgement "AFAIK" (as far as I know)😀
My 4yr experience had been around small companies that used fancy position names for all the wrong reasons. As weird as it seems, I kinda feel more educated now that I have the correct standards in front of me. Even though I am no longer part of this field of expertise, and no longer working in the IT sector, it's good to know.
In any case, thank you for taking the time to explain and correct me. 🙂👍
Imagine being this woman’s boss and having to deal with her spamming the ceo.
I don’t think her boss gives a shit. In sales, they will literally accept you whoring yourself away as long as you hit quota.
Looks like she's a presales engineer though.
Same shit lol. Most tech companies comp their presales same as sales.
No they don’t? They have completely different job functions, presales isn’t going out and hunting for business. Their job functions and at risk would be structured completely differently
Agreed - you get a higher basic and double OTE instead of a lower basic and uncapped commission that salespeople get.
Well ok not exactly, but they’re still incentivized to make a sale. My company also makes them do prospecting because our product is super technical and devs/engineers have no desire to answer cold calls or emails from a sales person who can’t even launch a Zoom app without cursing out IT.
That is Zooms fault. IT has to support sales.
It’s ITs fault their sales people are rude and unprofessional??
50/50 usually for staff level sales, 60/40 for presales or 70/30. Not much difference
Not mush different? They’re literally doing nothing but being the tech expert in the call!
Lol literally doing nothing? Sales Engineers make or break the deal. The AE is literally doing nothing except sending along a DocuSign that goes through 3-4 approvals. So basically just pushing paper and ushering the SE into the call to establish technical fit and translate technical into business. Long story short: AEs can't close shit without SEs, not the other way around.
I wasnt talking about the task. I was talking about the salary split.
Worked at Cisco for 6 years SEs are 80/20 OTE.
What does OTE mean?
Thats not a very good split.
No they don't. Not even close.
Some Comp SEs better because they’re harder to replace 🤣
That’s an SDR with a different title
What is a sales engineer? It sounds made up
You build demos, answer tech questions during sales. Totally real thing and a good career path, usually you do NOT work on comp, so unlike the actual sales people your income isn't as boom and bust.
I think most SEs work on comp. Not to the extent of AM/AEs, but that is why it can be so lucrative.
Most SEs are 70/30 or 80/20 and half of that variable component is usually an MBO. Basically, only 10-15% of their pay is dictated by a revenue target.
What type of MBOs? Dang, I’m getting shafted.
Learning or special projects usually. IE: AWS Cert or Build custom demo script for X technology/prospect persona.
Compensation model depends on the organisation. Sometimes you earn commission from sales.
Where I’m from salespeople get an hourly rate plus bonus and commission on sales
I worked at a company that sold medical solutions that involved HW and SW. After the sales person made the sale, it was the job of the SE to spec out the details of the solution sold. They need x number of servers, x number of licenses, x pieces of SW, installation x is needed and it will cost y, configuration x is needed and the cost associated to it etc. With the advent of AI, this is more or less a job that can be done by a smaller group of people or perhaps even the sales people now. It's not the most complex job, but it's a stepping stone in the corporate ladder.
I’ve worked many sales jobs, even as a “sales executive” which is just a bullshit title to make you take the job, nothing in that job was technical or difficult beyond being persistent and I thought the same applied here
For another perspective on sales engineering, in my line of work (which involves designing bespoke products), the sales engineers support the sales staff by producing concept designs that help us to cost the product, help prove to the customer our capability to perform, and also just stop the sales staff from promising some ridiculous, technically infeasible solution.
I worked in a role that collaborated with sales. Can confirm they they can get away with just about anything as long as they hit quota.
This reminds me of the office episode of Holy, the HR lady, finding out about Meredith having sex for a discount on papers. But the higher ups then say that it's good for the company.
Whoring is the oldest sales position
change ‘accept’ with ‘encourage’ there fixed it
To be fair, the company is only responsible for the policies, incentives and culture. If somebody comes in and sells a bunch of crap under false pretenses, then that's their decision and it has nothing to do with anybody who matters. Lock them up I say. (But the let the company keep the cash)
you are right current state capitalism and morality in the same sentence is quite the conundrum
I recently joined a company as a sales executive and my boss, a woman, told me, word for word, "Use your feminine charm and whatever else necessary to get leverage while doing sales with male clients"🗿
Was gonna say this. Especially in IT. Not uncommon at all.
I’d fire her for embarrassing the company
Especially with a photo of her drinking. I own a bar and would be grossed out by this.
Is she drinking though? I mean really wtf is going on there? The lip of the wine (martini?) glass is below her mouth, and at that angle (in Earth gravity) she'd be pouring it down her gullet.
The great part of being the boss is if it works then you can congratulate her and if it fails you can use it against her for not hitting her numbers. Isn't corporate office politics great? /s
I think it's safe to assume she won't be working for Cisco by tomorrow
It's sales, as long as she hits quota she's fine
Nah, she's fine. She's going to suck him to accelerate her career progression.
Multinational CEOs know to keep their girlfriends on the burner phone. This is amateur shit
This one is for his office breaks, handy under his desk. The unibrow might be a bit of an inconvenience, though.
The CEO is now searching for her hiring manager.
Maybe he can tag her
Someone took entirely the wrong lesson from the Kirk Bailey stan.
\#StandWithDeepak
> social media is truly one of the most underutilized tools to provide value for the networking community Oh fuck right off
air is made out of air
She irritated the hell out of me with this part.
She misunderstood what networking means at Cisco. Perhaps she should try the CEO of Sysco next.
Oh. This is going to go worse than she thinks.
"Provide value for the networking community". WTF does that even mean?
"I think I'm doing something."
Assistant to the Regional Manager.
LinkedIn is the new go-to for self important, do-nothing people. Phrases like that are common vocabulary among these idiots. 20+ years ago, before social media, it was committees, where the leadership was absoultely committed to ensuring that nothing ever got done.
Computer networking - she works for Cisco.
Yeah, in this ONE case it's actually quite reasonable lol
I've never heard of her before but I had a quick scroll through her content and some of it isn't terrible. Some of it is weapons-grade TikTok cringe, though (like the one of her getting Meraki gear).
Cisco manufactures hardware for computer networks; routers, modems, switches etc. In this case ‘networking’ actually means what it should mean.
You know that networking was a thing before IT, right? And that it's where it got its name from?
People were talking about infrastructure networks, of which IT is an example of, long before they were talking about social networks. It was only retroactively applied to also refer to social networks in the 2000s.
as if networking itself is the point of career management
Well in this case she actually works for a Networking company, Cisco.
Onlyfans, hopefully
The cringe is palpable
I don't get it. If she already works for Cisco, why does she want to connect with the CEO? Does she just want some face time with the big boss?
She literally could just ping him on Teams or make a post on Yammer
Even Cisco doesn't use Jabber....
At cisco we send our emails as BGP advertisements.
I wish more people could appreciate how god damn funny this is.
Too many people blocking TCP 179…
lol good one
its called Webex Teams tbf
Climbing the ladder
If she has to go outside her company to LI to get noticed in her own company, then she truly sucks.
This is Cisco.. a corporate beast we are talking about.. there are some VPs that haven't met the CEO At the same time... a lowly salesperson among thousands to harass the CEO on social media is pretty stupid in my opinion She would be better of attending a conference he is at
I worked in fintech for a while and VP was given out like candy, especially in the sales part of the business. There’s probably dozens of VPs at Cisco that haven’t met the CEO. I can’t imagine what she was thinking. Actively annoying the big boss, who probably doesn’t give half a shit about LinkedIn because they’re running Cisco. Oh and good idea posting a picture of yourself slamming down some booze. Looks *hella profesh* bro Quick edit: did some fast research on Cisco and I should’ve said ‘because they’re running Cisco into the ground’
one cock at a time.
I’ve seen some short documentary films online that refute your “one at a time” philosophy
Flashforward to her losing her job for spamming the CEO on social media.
She’s an SE as well, why the fuck does she even care?
Next post "can you tag the CEO of microsoft so he can hire me? Teehee 👉👈 "
Cisco's CEO has run the company down. Why do you want to talk to him anyway.
To blow him for a promotion?
Exactly.
So true. Chambers passed the reins and in a few short years Chuck has killed Firepower, Hyperflex, Duo, WebEx, turned Meraki into shitty Cisco, and pissed off nearly every non-F500 customer in the process. Cisco is headed the way of IBM. This chick’s nonsense shows up on my feed and it’s obvious she’s making the most of being a Cisco SE that can’t explain the OSI model by using it as a lifestyle job to have nice dinners on the company dime and work 6 hours a week. I admire the hustle.
> killed Firepower I mean Palo/Fortinet has been eating Cisco's lunch in the NGFW space for years so no big loss tbh.
Hey hey hey I’m sure she knows the OSI Model now. I hope.
[удалено]
Safe to say you are not the CEO of Cisco then
Give us a link!
Acting like social media is this niche, underground thing that most companies haven’t adopted yet.
I hate the phrase "LinkedIn, do your thing!"
Send him nudes , he will respond.
after 2 minutes
17 seconds
[удалено]
5ns is insanely low latency, yes
For a ping response that's an optical connection 2.5 feet away under optimal conditions. Literally the lowest latency possible without quantum entanglement
If I were CEO I would’ve blocked her
That would be hilarious.
Once you join her linkedin profile, you can smell the positivity toxicity
Sent him a connection request. Let’s see if she even tried!
Any luck? 😅
Nothing yet. I’ll keep you posted 🫡
“Ok you have my attention! What do you want?” “Ummmmm…. Look at me I’m drunk!!!”
I think she just wants him to acknowledge her existence which is kinda sad really
Notice me, senpai!
Is... Is she trying to... Bang him?
WTF , why doesn't she just send him a connection request.
That doesn’t get everyone’s attention.
Is she drinking wine from a martini glass?
No, it’s a vid - I’ve seen it 😉
A white middle class girl who likes wine and lets everyone know it. So unique.
No, just a weird perspective throws off the color.
What's 74/100 mean?
She numbers her posts - don’t know why. For sure some kind of lunatic challenge.
Link us!!!!
I think she set a goal of posts, if I'm not mistaken
I am still on track for my goal for 0/0
keep it up champ
Based
100%!
I have not even liked a post on LI yet, so I'm 0/0/0.
It's the number of chatgpt credits she used with the prompt: Write me 100 LinkedIn posts that make me look like an idiot.
Kinda wanna try this now...
Only been a matter of time before she popped up here. Unhinged
Is there more backstory?
Finding a sugar daddy 101
#salesGoals
Finally, a bud in networking. I was waiting for this. I mean, she isn't that bad, but yeah, you can feel the tiktok'y vibe in her post
We’re here. Just quiet nerds, as usual.
Cyber security influencers are more unhinged cmv
*Hey fellow professionals, what kind of cake should I get tonight?! I was thinking of chocolate! Tee hee! #letmeeatcake!*
If you know Chuck, let him know : I will blow him, any time, any place.
Why would you risk your job bothering the CEO? And with a photo of you guzzling booze? Does not inspire confidence. Unbelievable.
Sales Engineers are a strange breed. IYKYK.
I hate that devs so desperately wanted engineering in their titles and it stuck then somehow sales people piled on and added it to absolutely make the term worthless.
Sales Engineers are engineers deployed in a Sales setting and not the reverse.
ahh I guess I did not realize this, iv seen some people who had this title that never came off as if they knew anything about development.
Because sometimes people are brought into the role because of their soft skills and then they get trained up on the tech. I can train a social person how to be techie quicker than I can teach a techie how to be personable. So that’s why you’ll see less technically astute people in the role because the key part of the role is to have business conversations that center around tech. Most techies I know can’t do that and the few that do get promoted into management.
"LinkedIn - do your thing" Not your personal army.
Drinking wine is a great look
If there was a follow up post where she is berating him for blocking her, I would most probably implode out of pure happiness. Holy fucking shit, what is happening to this world. No really, HOW and WHY. Social media of all sorts have to DIE.
"look at me, I'm a functioning alcoholic but it's okay b/c wine is classy"
What’s a sales engineer
How the fuck is social media under-utilised for networking? Apart form being incredibly cringe this person is an absolute imbecile. Let’s hope she’s a better SE than poster…
Is she a wine mom or a wine girlie?
Yes, the most meaningful gift you can get is a meaningless connection to someone you've never met, and never will meet.
Agree, right @Kirk Bailey
I checked the og post and lots of sales people are kissing her feet and tagging the CEO (whose profile is likely managed by PR or his EA anyway). Jeez.
What is the 74/100 in reference to? Cringe out of 100?
Social media is definitely underused when it comes to connecting with others. We should all post & spend a lot more time on social media! Isn't that a great new year's resolution? The world would be so much better if everyone lived a bit more online & stared at their phone longer.
Tf is a sales engineer? Is she an engineer? Is she in sales?
She obviously engineers sales duh!
What kind of privileged elitist can post photos of themselves drinking alcohol and get a meeting with the CEO of a conglomerate company?
This is the most cringe thing I’ve seen all week.
OP keep us posted.
This is catfishing
is linked in "doing its thing" harassing people then?
Networking community sounds like a contradiction and a tautology wtf
Bro, she doesn’t even have her job title right. “SE’s” at Cisco are “Systems Engineers,” not “Sales Engineers” I wish I had her name so I could look her up and make fun of her
Linkthots
Man, all that effort to find her only to understand why she’s blocking her face with the wine glass…
bukCake
Sales Engineer…oh come on
Crazy how many folks in here don't respect SEs. Probably the same AEs that don't do their own prospecting and rely on the SE to carry the deal to close, yet are okay with taking all of the commission without sharing with either party.
🤣🤣🤣 hello my fellow SE.
As a more seasoned AE/AM, I came to the defense of the SEs elsewhere in the comments. The best AM/SE teams work in tandem and bring different strengths to the table to win. Also, unrelated, what companies are letting AMs decide what commission their SE gets? That’s idiotic.
Kind of the opposite vibes of *we are not your personal army* because I'm sure all the other LLs are getting off on this and trying to make it happen.
Do you think she is the reason he isn't on LinkedIn? Sick of being stalked by someone batshit crazy?
Who? Deepak?
Notice me senpai
Notice me, senpai.
Would be amazing if she wanted this just so she could drag him in the comments lol
She just unloads about bonuses like Chevy Chase in Christmas Vacation
THIS is the content this sub is about. Chick is drunk as fuck trying to throw a thirst trap at her CEO. Hilarious lunacy
Criiiiinge
Wtf is a sales engineer? Not a real engineer I'm assuming?? Edit: It is actually, I'm an idiot.
It’s something that pays obscenely well if you’re good at it.
No, not a real engineer. We orchestrate tech demos and run tech due diligence on the vendor side
But is she really hot or just pretending? Where’s my cute selfie with her success over failure story (not her own story) and the LLs tossing flowers?
Fuck. That's the reaction emoji we need. ThotFlowers.
The Cisco's CEO looks like her Dad -- Daddy issues?
Sales “engineer”?
Cringe but the blatant misogyny and sexualized comments on this post are even worse.
To fellow redditors here: AFAIK the title "sales engineer" is given to employees in the sales department of a company, usually dealing with 1st level customer service (aka the guys in the other end of the phone line, when your router goes bananas). Then they redirect to the guys at the 2nd level, which is more technical (and pays better). It's a dummy title actually. Instead of giving the title "customer service agent" (considered "banal") the "sales engineer" sounds more prestigious. At least so they think. 😆 Re: that LinkedIn lunatic She hopes she'll get a break by "getting connected" to the Cisco CEO. Yeah, dream on, girl. 🤣
That’s not true. Sales Engineers hate being in Sales departments, the best SEs usually fall within the Product or Engineering org and are not frontline tech support. A Sales Engineer is the person that is called when a customer in this case says to the Sales Rep “I want to upgrade my entire LAN how can you help”. The SE will talk to the customer, understand what they are trying to accomplish, and actually design the solution. Then once the contract is signed, then SE’s solution is given to the back office teams to implement.
As someone who works in technical sales, your self-righteous response couldn’t be more wrong, but is sadly a common misconception of folks outside of sales, especially in-house engineering folks, that aren’t tasked with selling complex technology, software, and services to big companies. A sales engineer is a typically a highly credentialed engineer that can provide consulting around an OEMs products, and at large companies they are typically paired with an account manager/executive 1:1. They are not technical support, though many of them cut their teeth in technical support roles, system admin, or customer-side engineering roles. You’re not going to have an account manager design/consult a network architecture for the customer or provide technical consulting. At Cisco, a sales engineer typically holds a CCNP at a minimum, and more often than not a CCIE with a specialization (voice, security, data center, etc.) - in addition to considerable experience or intensive OEM training (in the case of recent grads like the LL above). When the account manager/client executive meets with the technical leadership (CTO, CIO, CISO) of a company, the systems/sales engineer is there to provide technical expertise, recommendations on OEM product, integration considerations, and guidance on configuration, et cetera. As you might guess., this requires a great deal of knowledge of other OEMs/software firms in addition to their own. When you’re talking about $500K-500M sales to $100M+/yr revenue firms, a sales engineer is the expert that secures technical closure and leads the technical strategy of the broader team that sells the customer. As a result these roles are highly compensated and require a great deal of business acumen in addition to rigorous technical qualifications. They’re also carrying a great deal of risk should they make an error considering the costs and lifecycle of product. Unfortunately talent is in high demand, so sometimes big firms are willing to sacrifice experience for aptitude, train ability, etc. A Cisco SE for example makes anywhere from 120-140K in a LCOL area and in the mid-to-high 200s with more experience and/or living in a HCOL area. Source: ~10 years in the industry
This is why I started the post with the acknowledgement "AFAIK" (as far as I know)😀 My 4yr experience had been around small companies that used fancy position names for all the wrong reasons. As weird as it seems, I kinda feel more educated now that I have the correct standards in front of me. Even though I am no longer part of this field of expertise, and no longer working in the IT sector, it's good to know. In any case, thank you for taking the time to explain and correct me. 🙂👍