
Ask HN: Pros and cons of Solutions Engineer after being a developer - gizmodo59
I need some advice on a career decision. I have a couple of years as a developer before I got my current job and in my current job I don&#x27;t do a lot of development but when its needed I can always get it done quickly compared to any pre-sales engineer. My question is, is it a right time to move in to presales&#x2F;solutions engineer? Or should I look for a development job and go into solutions engineer after a few years?<p>Any advices&#x2F;experiences from fellow HN&#x27;ers?<p>Background:
2 years as a developer
1.5 year as a consultant&#x2F;developer
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acesubido
It depends on the type of development work you'll be working in. The main role
of a Solutions Engineer is to translate marketing vision into technical specs.
Take note on the word "vision", it means the customer will have high
expectations because usually marketing/sales will present your product like it
can do everything. Solutions Engineers mainly deal with high-touch sales, only
means one thing: large enterprise customers.

If the customers you'll be handling would be up in AWS/Google, it's good, but
if they have on-premise, that means you'll really have to know your stuff
about the following:

\- Feature Lists - translating what the product does into a feature list that
describes perfectly what the customers are looking for. Makes it easier for
them to explain to the board so they can get budget and approach finance and
procurement.

\- Active Directory or Auth0 integrations

\- Network - from DNS/dnsmasq to iptables

\- VA stuff - meeting generic hardening requirements and VA scans, java key
stores, SSL certificates/ciphers and ton of Linux/Unix or Powershell.

\- Linux/Unix - NTP, mail servers if need be, proxying using nginx/apache,
user access, etc.

\- Architecture - explaining the entire product in high-level and how
components integrate with a customers current infrastructure

\- Benchmarking - customers will ask apples to apples comparisons with other
vendors, and they'll stick by your numbers.

\- Appliance/Infrastructure sizing - you'll probably take part by this.
Certain customers will definitely ask data growth and network growth as well.
They need this to line up corporate budget.

and a lot more

So being a web developer is just a piece of the pie. Full stack is a must.

