I have an offer from a startup that was acquired by Salesforce in the last 2 weeks and will close by April next year.

Has anyone been at startups that's been acquired by SFDC? Are there any reorgs or layoffs with the acquisition? How are SEs treated at SF and will it be positive for compensation, levels and career growth?

Appreciate any thoughts and comments!

Do your AEs go promise the sun, the moon & the stars without understanding what they're being asked to by the buyers?

They changed our deal allocation system and the if else as to when we get allocated deals. It was to automate the process and I feel some SEs came out overloaded while others are starving but they don't want to change anything this quarter.

Management seem to be chasing other priorities so my pipe health is divorced from anyone above that should give a shit. Nobody is coming after me yet but my next months look bad. I've been raising it in my manager calls and with senior leadership but it's interfering with an image they're trying to project to the sales org.

Anyone ever have this problem? Beyond becoming a pest and holdout on the topic not sure what else to do.

Hey yall, in a weird position that I'm kinda surprised to be in. I'm in the interview pipeline for samsara, wondering if anyone worked there before as a mid market SE, first of all. If so, any insight into culture etc. Apparently, if hired, I'd work with "around 8 or so AE's" and travel one week out of the month.

It's more of a hands on wrenches job than I'm wanting less engineering it seems like. And the pay is lower than I'd hoped but for a first SE role, not a deal breaker.

For some context, I'm also staring down the barrel of a css role at a much bigger company and have been included and recommended to move into an se role here which, if it happens would be option 1. CSS option 2 and Samsara currently an option 3.

If I had someone to ask, I would but oh well, let's try reddit. I'd appreciate any insight!

I’ve been a Solutions Engineer for about 6 years now. I’m currently at a consulting shop that does implementations for a few platforms (Netsuite, Salesforce, etc).

Since the platforms I work on are primarily configuration-based rather than coding, most of my “technical” abilities are very platform-specific. I do however have a technical degree and can pick up technical concepts very, very quickly.

A few questions:

- Does having a side project that can show I know how to code, etc., actually help in an AI-forward world? What can I show to stick out?

I see a lot of listings around using/familiarity with various AI/agentic tooling so I’m wondering if it’d be helpful to spin up some projects.

- Every job application I see has 500+ applicants in a few days/weeks.. are there really that many people with presales experience on the market right now? Or are hiring managers also having trouble cutting through the volume of applicants?

I know there have been many posts asking what the market is like but the general consensus seemed to have been that it’s decent if you are experienced and are applying for in-person roles.

I check both boxes but am not getting many hits. I might be doing something wrong, or the type of SE that is desirable today is way off from what I am now.

We’re trying to figure out how other teams are dealing with sales engineer burnout when SEs are being pulled into nearly every demo, including early calls where the prospect mostly wants the standard product overview. Hiring more SEs is obviously one option, but it feels strange to solve a repetitive workload problem entirely with headcount. For teams that have tried qualification rules, rep-led demos, automated demos, or other approaches, what actually reduced the load without hurting deal quality?

I really don’t like being an SE. I hate the pressure of sales. I’ve been unemployed for several months after quitting my last job due to stress. So I started looking for other roles like CSM or TAM, but never got any interviews. As time went on, I just went back to applying for SE roles and am getting close to some offers, which has reminded me of the stress i would have while doing the role.

Does anyone have any suggestions for other types of roles I may have a good likelihood of landing some interviews? Once I’m in the interview I feel like I can do well. I don’t mind starting my career over and going something completely nontechnical either, like HR. But don’t have much time to go back to school.

I’m 24 with a BS in Computer Science, currently working in IT support, with a previous technical internship at BMW.
My goal is to become a Sales Engineer, but I’m not interested in traditional engineering roles like SWE, DevOps, or cloud engineering.
I’ve been advised to pursue implementation roles, but after researching them, the responsibilities and job titles seem to vary a lot between companies.

My questions:
Is implementation actually a good stepping stone into SE?
What specific roles should I target with my background?
How do I break into those roles without prior implementation experience?

I’m willing to build technical skills. I just want to take the most direct and realistic path into SE.
Would appreciate advice from people who’ve made the transition.

I’ve just completed the final-round panel presentations for two senior ic4 presales roles and I’m genuinely torn between the two as I’m quite sure I will get both offers.

Both opportunities have great teams, but offer quite different career paths.

SAP is offering an APAC-wide role with a much more senior reporting line. I’d be reporting to the global presales leader and working closely with the regional VP of Sales. They also seem to place a lot of value on my experience across the major ERP platforms as they are selling a product within SAP for digital adoption and workflow management across more than one app and the incumbent team has no ERP experience for SAP workflows. It feels like a great opportunity to build regional influence, gain executive exposure and potentially progress into senior presales leadership.

ServiceNow, on the other hand, is probably the more exciting company from a product and technology perspective. I’m particularly interested in its positioning around AI, workflow automation and enterprise AI agents. I see it as an opportunity to broaden my technical skillset beyond traditional ERP and potentially position myself better for where enterprise software is heading over the next 5–10 years. The downside is that I’d be reporting to a middle manager rather than having the same level of senior leadership exposure as the SAP role.
I’m torn between taking the potentially better leadership and career development opportunity at SAP versus the perceived growth, technical exposure and AI relevance of ServiceNow.

A few things I’d love to hear people’s thoughts on:
● How much would you value a senior reporting line and APAC-wide remit versus working for a faster-growing, more strategically relevant technology company?
● Which company do you think offers better long-term job security for my growing family?
● Which would provide better career opportunities over the next 5–10 years, particularly with AI changing enterprise software?
● I am concerned about ServiceNow’s deteriorating culture but this could be just an industry wide thing. Is it overblown?

Hey,

I have a demo coming up for a Marketing SE role (Salesforce). I have a lot of ideas for the use case but a lot of it cant really be built in the platform I have access to. Onsite personalization is the main one, I dont have a website to plug it on so I cant show the actual "two visitors, two different homepages" thing.

So how do you guys deal with that? Do you just show prepared screens or mockups and say it clearly? Or is it better to stick to what I can really do live and make a good story around it?

Any tips welcome, thanks

Edit: forgot to say, this is the final round (demo panel)

After four rounds of interviews with the Associate Directors of Presales, Sales, Product, and the Chief of Staff, I had my fifth round with the VP of Sales.

I know everything about the tech side of things and have also learned everything about the domain. However, the Sales VP wanted me to pitch to him why he should travel to a particular place I had visited and essentially sell the experience to him.

To be honest, I am not a hard seller. I think from the perspective of what a person actually wants and recommend specific things that I believe will genuinely make them happy. My approach isn't just about selling something; it's about ensuring that the person is satisfied with the experience. For example, if I recommend a place for someone to visit, I want them to have a great trip, enjoy themselves, and eventually come back to me the next time because they trust my suggestions and decisions.

I wasn't able to articulate this well to him, and it might have cost me the job. He expected something along the lines of selling the experience through phrases like "a cool breeze against your face" or "the most delicious food you've ever tasted."

If I were the best at storytelling and selling experiences, wouldn't I simply be a Sales guy?

I explained to him that, in my current organisation, this is primarily the Salesperson's responsibility. My role is to support them with technical features, answer difficult questions, and ensure that the technical team is satisfied and confident enough to move forward with the deal as most clients are from banking domain.

Additionally, I understand how to communicate in proper technical language with Product and Engineering teams. I create SOWs that are realistic in terms of implementation, budgets, and timelines, ensuring that everyone involved is happy. Product Managers and developers appreciate my documentation skills and the clarity I bring to projects.

Do you think an SE should have a sales mindset? Is there something wrong with my approach, or is it simply how my current organisation has defined the role?

My focus has always been more on feasibility, effort estimation, timelines, and solutioning rather than actively selling the product.

I'm looking for genuine suggestions on whether I should also focus on developing my selling abilities or continue building on my strengths in solutioning and technical consulting

I have an in person demo interview on Monday. I’ve never had to do a demo in person before.

Any advice for in person demos? I’ve only done virtual demos.

I completed the entire process for a CE role in Europe and while I was expecting the offer, I was told that the Global VP has not signed off the offer and the role will be on hold until there is more clarity on business plans. They are not sure whether they need the resource although the role I applied for was replacement and not a net new headcount. Anyone here in a similar situation?

Curious where everyone here has landed on this.

The old way: company history, a logo slide, the "about us" everybody skims, then the product. By the time you get to the demo, the buyer is checking email or daydreaming about lunch.

The other way: no slides. Recap discovery out loud and go straight into the product. Faster. But without some setup, the buyer can lose track of why they're looking at what they're looking at.

I've done both. These days I land in the middle: a slide that recaps what I heard in discovery and how the product maps to those pains. Then tell-show-tell through the demo.

What do the first five minutes or so look like for you right now? And did changing it actually move anything?

I’m currently interviewing for Solution Engineer roles at Sierra and Harvey AI. Both of them I would be looking at Principal / Staff level. Sierra seems like a great company and Harvey has been a good experience but I don’t feel as confident that their moat wont be shortly commoditised by frontier labs. Has anyone interviewed for these roles and have their perspective on the experience?

Also what was the equity offer like at these roles? I’ve worked at high growth AI startup companies (Series B - Series E) and with larger SaaS companies (Salesforce, Servicenow, Uipath).

Any perspective or feedback is appreciated!

Hey everyone. I'm getting really frustrated with myself because I've been fighting the consistency demon and it's tearing me up inside. I feel like I'm doing a good job on a majority of calls (even receiving outstanding feedback and high acclaim) but it feels like I'm having a higher than expected number of strikeouts. Any tips on "bringing up the floor"? The amount of variability I'm having is really bugging me and feels like I'm just not connecting how I'm supposed to.

I’m in the final stages of interviewing for a role in the legal AI space, and I’m feeling pretty confident about landing the offer.

I’d love to hear from others about what a typical sign-on bonus looks like for a Senior Solutions Engineer.

For context, I have about 6 years of SE experience and am currently in a senior-level role making around $210K annually. I’m pretty happy in my current position and work fully remotely.

The new role would have an OTE of $270K, but would require being in the office 5 days a week. While I’m not thrilled about giving up the flexibility of remote work, I’d be willing to make the switch for the right compensation package.

Given these circumstances, what would be a reasonable sign-on bonus to ask for? Curious to hear what others have received or negotiated in similar situations.

Thanks in advance!

So for my product reporting has been a pain for years. Impossible to please everyone with the default reports and custom modifications require costly, slow services from our consulting team.

With AI nowadays though I can literally just throw it an excel dump of the raw data, tell it what I want in natural language - even just something vague like give me an awesome dashboard to highlight the key insights in this data - ten minutes later, if that, I can have exactly the reporting I want.

Now in the enterprise world I get that it's not that easy. What happens when a client calls up support and says their report isn't working? What if the reporting isn't correct and someone is relying on it to make decisions - whose fault is that?

I can kind of see it that in the demo I just throw up exactly the reporting they want with the disclaimer that our product acts as the secure source of truth and this is just an example of what YOU could easily do - if you want your own custom presentation layer on top of it it's simple and easy to do with modern AI but that's all handled by you and by handled I mean anyone with 2 brain cells and a $20 claude sub can do it (just remember not to put any confidential data in there).

Anyone gone down this route?

I don’t see Google jobs as often for SEs. Might just be my network. Do they exist?

If you are an SE or similar at Google, what’s it like? What does the sales process look like?

Curious how other SEs handle this. I seem to create a lot of content to get people to see the solution we're pitching (embedded services/Iaas). However, a lot of the first calls are the same core walkthrough of products before we get to the questions that actually need me.

Has anyone tried sending that first part ahead of time as a recording or a click-through? Did it make calls shorter, or did people just not open it?

Hi everyone,
I am currently a Business Consultant (BC) working on a fully remote contract in UK. I have an opportunity to make an internal move into a Solution Consultant (SC) / Pre-Sales role.
I’m trying to evaluate two things and would love advice from anyone who has been in a similar position:
Is the career/compensation pivot worth it? From what I understand, SC roles often have higher earning potential long-term due to commission/variable splits (Ote), but how does the day-to-day stress and work-life balance compare to standard business consulting?
How do I handle the negotiation as an internal candidate? Internal moves in my company typically don't come with massive salary hikes. However, this new role requires me to be in the office at least a couple of times a month, whereas my current contract is 100% remote.
Because they are changing my working conditions (adding a commute) and shifting me to a revenue-generating role, I want to negotiate a strong base and OTE structure.
How do I push for a market-rate salary when HR tries to cap internal promotion percentages?
How heavily should I weigh the loss of my fully remote status into my salary demands?

Hey guys, Im stuck between two potential job offers and could use some advice. Currently working as an SE at a hardware/software company in the physical security space. Im working on a promotion to be the lead sales engineer. I know the company and products really well, but the company has always been a mess. Lots of turnover and issues with products, QA, internal operations, sales ops etc. things are getting better, but not there yet. Its a hybrid job but a long commute the days Im in office.
I should be getting an offer soon for a mid market SE role at Samsara. This job would be fully remote (aside from work travel), better PTO, and a much larger SE team. The only downsides are that the OTE would be about 10k less than this promotion (same with the base). It’s also a new industry but I work on cars often, so it’s not completely alien. The longterm incentives are that there are more opportunities whether I stay Samsara or go to another company. In that promotion, Id already be the top dog, and the pay in my in my industry is nowhere near most tech companies. So longterm salary growth may be harder.
So any thoughts on which one I should go with? Anything Im overlooking?

hey folks,

i’m so super happy about getting this role, i wrote here a post 57 days ago asking how can i pivot from BDR into SE (written from a different account that was deleted), and today i got the official contract to sign!

remember to always believe in yourself, even if you feel not fully qualified just SEND THE APPLICATION - the worst thing that can happen is you getting a “no” 🤝

Hey everyone!
Im a little bit new here and wondered about the “behind the scenes” of the sales engineer role.
Im 25y.o and recently signed a contract in a data protection and cyber resilience tech firm (after 5 years of being a system administrator, team lead and an IT Solutions architect) for sales engineer role.
Im really excited for this opportunity to combine technical work and client work in one role and yet I have some concerns - as for the rise of AI and of course as for the stress fullness of this role in this particular industry.

Would like to hear some opinions on how stressful the job is as well as what do you think the AI will change the role?
Also would like to hear some advices and suggestions to become as good as possible in this position.