Moving From Help Desk to Sales Engineer

Question

I've been thinking a lot about what I want to do next and what type of companies I'd like to work for, I recently applied to Jr Sales Engineer position at a large software company and the role seemed like a great opportunity. For whatever reason, they didn't pick me as their candidate.

I used this resume to get my foot in the door, but as you can tell I have no sales exp other than recommending softwares to acquaintances and colleagues family and friends. I feel that this only gets me so far.

What routes to an entry-level job as a Sales Engineer are available to someone without prior sales experience or training (e.g. classroom training? online certification? internship? highlighting analogous experience on resume)?

Answer 1

I'd suggest talking with your boss, HR, or someone in management for some ideas. Maybe the hiring manager -- and ask them if there is anything that you could do to prepare for the position.

The alternative is to seek a sales job outside the company and go to that. Or even perhaps get a part time sales job somewhere else and work 2 jobs. Then next time an opening comes up you can use that experience.

Or wait for an opening and be bold. I moved from QA to developer 20 years ago when I saw a developer get fired and I immediately walked into the manager's office and asked for the job. He gave me a chance because he didn't feel like going through a lengthy process to hire someone.