I’ve been doing some career exploration lately and realized I would fit best in a solution architect role. Would it be worth the change in terms of money and career growth from a software engineer/tech lead role? How should I prepare for interviews? Leetcode? (I am considering moving to a different company)
Thanks for the perspective. What I am most worried about is exactly that: my coding skills tanking and the work-life balance, but for what you say it looks like WLB can be better as an SA?
WLB most definitely is better. You will have some hellish weeks each quarter though when trying to close business. You also will have to deal with pure sales people which can be a pain depending on their personality.
If anyone is interested in SA roles ping me if you are ready to interview we have a couple of openings.
Hi. What level of SA you are looking for? I am systems engineer looking for SA role but in infrastructure especially AWS cloud
I made the switch about 8 years ago and can share my perspective. Long term if you were to stay in SWE you’d probably make more money than a SA in sales but the lifestyle is amazing as an SA. If you don’t like talking to customers or dealing w some level of politics and having the flexibility of working from home and making your own schedule, then being an SWE will be more rewarding. As far as comp, you will have years where you make more than as an SWE but at companies like MSFT, AMZN, GOOG SWES definitely earn more. Also, when I did make the switch I was extremely worried about my coding skills tanking (they have) there’s simply no way you can remain as good at a skill without contributing to OSS projects on the side becoming a SA, you won’t be hands on keyboard 24/7 and only do get hands on for POCs and evaluations which are never really production grade.
Do you ever regret the switch? I'm doing the same thing after 10 years as an SWE. I'm hoping to remain hands on as much as possible and switch back to SWE if I don't like it within a year or so - do you think it's doable?
Def doable to switch back after a year or two. Would be hard after that. I honestly don’t regret it because I do like going to see customers and the other perks that come with the job but if you think you’ll miss coding or building things and seeing them go live you won’t get the same satisfaction as being a SWE.