

Ask HN: Depth or breadth? - careeradvice

I&#x27;ve been a &quot;full-stack&quot; programmer since finishing my Master&#x27;s in CS 6 years ago. My job had evolved from full-time coding to more of a management position until I switched jobs to get back to full-time coding. I&#x27;m currently working with some very senior developers and get to work closely with them and learn their tricks.<p>I enjoy coding, but I find that doing nothing but coding is starting to wear me down. I could stick with it for another couple of years, but I&#x27;m realizing that my long-term career goals are probably more in a &quot;Development Manager&quot; type of position where I can still be close to the code, but don&#x27;t necessarily spend every day writing it.<p>I&#x27;ve been offered a Sales Engineer position within the same company, which isn&#x27;t what I&#x27;d want to do long-term, but it would be a nice opportunity to gain breadth in my field. I&#x27;d be exposed to a lot of new technologies and would gain a surface-level knowledge of dozens of new tools. This position sounds refreshing and like more fun to me than what I&#x27;m doing now, but I&#x27;m unsure about the long-term career prospects&#x2F;compensation&#x2F;stability in these positions compared to a full-stack developer. (Are these valid concerns?)<p>I&#x27;m not sure how to proceed. If I don&#x27;t plan to build my career around writing code 24&#x2F;7, is it worth my time to try to build myself up from a &quot;B+ programmer&quot; to an &quot;A programmer&quot;? Or should I switch and focus on gaining breadth in my field?
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sokoloff
A sales engineering position will likely offer you a chance to get a lot more
exposure to the business side of your company and a greater awareness of the
revenue reality, how sales happen, what your prospective and repeat customers
are saying/thinking about your product(s), etc.

"It is not the employer who pays the wages. Employers only handle the money.
It is the customer who pays the wages." \- Henry Ford

That type of exposure, assuming you take advantage of it, will likely serve
you well. Whether it's a better long-term prospect than a coding position
isn't something I can judge for you and your company, but I'd encourage you to
try it, especially if you've been 6 years at the current company.

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lastofus
This is fantastic advice. I went software engineer -> sales engineer ->
software engineer without any issue career wise.

Seeing the sales side of business gave me a very valuable understanding of how
businesses work, which in turn has made it 10x easier to be a consultant for
companies. It makes it much easier to talk to company owners who want to hear
about the value I offer them and their business as opposed to babbling on
about whatever cool technology I think I'm hot shit in.

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calcsam
If you're offered an intercompany transfer, why don't you counteroffer with
something like:

"I'd love a change to test-drive the day-to-day aspects of the job before I
can give a full-throated yes. Why don't I spend a month in this new role
before we proceed?"

