Alternative Career Paths in Presales and Tech

The time has come for pre-sales specializations. Especially because I believe this is a big missing part of career development. Over the last decade I've seen way to many pre-sales roles where the SE/SC is expected to tackle certain "extra" activities without being given the time to get them done. Creating specialization tracks is a way to formalize those requirements and set the expectation around time allocation for these activities. Here are the specializations I can foresee today: - Advocate Specialist: someone who attends conferences, creates external content, contributes to webinars, and helps to drive brand and problem awareness. Closely aligned to the marketing team, this role leans into a mix of writing, speaking, and creative skills. - Deployment Specialist: someone who scopes professional services and performs (small) deployments. Closely aligned to PS + CSM, this role owns best practices around implementation and long term measured adoption. - Enablement Specialist: someone who acts as the "go to" resource when it comes to supporting the enablement team. This can include supporting new hires, providing feedback on enablement materials and training, or participating in field training (as a technical resource). - Solution Specialist: someone who is a deep technical expert in a given product or solution. Often working closely with the product team and maintaining an internal lab environment, this role knows all the nitty gritty of different solutions. While some of these might be full time roles as companies grow, they can also present specialized careers paths for individuals looking to grow in the IC role (vs forcing everyone down the mgmt track). Each role is closely aligned with another internal team, leading to cross-collaboration and supporting GTM as a whole. What do you think...am I missing any specializations? #sales #b2bsales #cybersecurity #startups

What’s the next career step for a Sales Engineer (SE)? I talk to 4+ SEs every day who feel stuck. Some want better compensation. Many crave more growth, learning, and impact. They feel like they’re not maximizing their potential. 𝗪𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗮𝗿𝗲 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗼𝗽𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝘀? You can pursue an 𝗦𝗘 𝗿𝗼𝗹𝗲 𝗮𝘁 𝗮 𝗻𝗲𝘄 𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗽𝗮𝗻𝘆. The job market remains competitive, but there’s still a lot of opportunity out there. 𝗦𝗘 𝗠𝗮𝗻𝗮𝗴𝗲𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁 is a natural next step, but with recent org flattening, there are fewer manager roles than before — making this path more competitive. You could explore 𝗯𝗲𝘆𝗼𝗻𝗱 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗦𝗘 𝗙𝘂𝗻𝗰𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 🔄 Based on what we’ve seen recently, SEs have successfully transitioned into these alternative paths: →  Account Executive – For those who want to own the number and maximize earnings. →  Product Marketing or Enablement – For SEs who want to scale their impact and work more cross-functionally. →  Entrepreneurship 👷 – SEs are perfectly positioned to launch something on their own. Here’s one recent example: Starting an AI Automation Consultancy. With businesses racing to adopt AI tools, the demand is huge — and the barrier to entry is low for business-focused, technical problem-solvers like SEs. -- Don’t get me wrong: I love Sales Engineering. It’s an incredible career path with a strong future. But if you’re feeling stagnant, it’s worth exploring your options. Careers aren’t linear. Find the path that excites you and fills your cup — then go for it! ❓ What other career paths have you taken, or seen other SEs take, beyond the traditional track? Or maybe you love the SE role so much you’ll never leave!

Everyone wants to code. But the jobs are not enough to go round. You're probably trying to break into tech right now and chances are, you're learning software or web development. From Bootcamps to YouTube to freeCodeCamp to Udemy, on and on. Frontend today. Backend tomorrow. Full stack next week. And still, silence from recruiters. Let me tell you something you're probably already suspecting but haven’t heard clearly: Software and web development are some of the most oversaturated tech roles in Nigeria today. It’s not that they don’t matter. They do. But everyone is chasing them. Thousands of beginner devs. Same projects. Same portfolios. Same roadmap. And the jobs? Just a handful are available (in contrast to those who need them), some already get filled before you even hear about them. But wait, tech isn't just code. And that’s the part nobody’s really explained to you yet. The tech industry is wide. The options are real. And some of the best paths are the quietest ones. Allow me show you a few you might not have considered: ➠Cloud Engineering If you can learn AWS, Azure, or Google Cloud, you're already more useful than most. Businesses are scaling, and they need hands. ➠ DevOps Do you love solving puzzles and making systems run smoother? DevOps is the engine room behind great tech experiences. ➠Cybersecurity Attacks are increasing, but defenders are still few. If you can learn how to protect businesses, you become a serious asset. ➠Data Engineering Everyone wants to be a data scientist. But data engineers—the ones who build the pipelines and prep the data—are in shorter supply and high demand. ➠Technical Product Support / Solutions Engineer You’re good with people and tech? This role lets you bring both strengths to the table. No deep coding, but plenty of impact. ♣️Here’s what I’m saying to you: It’s okay if you started with code. But please, don’t box yourself in just because that’s what everyone else is doing. If tech is a big city. Software development is just like a busy street. (Something about this is making me think of Lagos 😂). Anyways, I'd advice that you take a detour because, you might just find the peace, progress, and opportunities you’ve been chasing all along. What path are you quietly curious about, even if no one around you is talking about it yet? You know the drill, don't keep this gist to yourself, share with someone, Dave for the future and repost for reach. Cheers to you and happy new week.