So one thing that is different about being a Sales Engineer in the tech space is that there is often true career stability. While other technologies or industries will grow or shrink, an SE that can adapt and learn will always be of value. When I look at my history, I didn’t know the APM space existed (and knew nothing about it) when Compuware reached out to me. I was fortunate enough to have a diverse skill set that made communicating with a myriad of teams easy and credible. Then at Fastly I only knew the concept of a CDN, but my various skills could be leveraged in learning about and discussing the value of what they offered.  After all 4 years had been spent talking about performance – anything higher performance for your application delivery chain than Fastly?  None that I’ve seen yet.

The reason I bring this up is that when an SE looks for work in an area like the SF Bay Area there are often dozens of roles where he or she could be a fit. I’ve made some mistakes during my latest search, but with the current economy have been blessed with literally dozens of opportunities to consider. One of the minor challenges (alright – blessings!) is staying organized and keeping the different roles straight. I’d like to share three tricks that I use to keep them all straight.

The first one is around tracking the actual opportunities you are interacting with. I suggest using a technology like OneNote or perhaps “Notes” on your Mac. Create a section called Opportunities. For each one have a page/tab where the title is the firm name followed by the recruiter name and status. Keep them in alphabetical order by the firm name. So for example “Layer – Ben Wu – On Hold” or “Cloudflare – Billy Kander – No”

On each of those pages keep track of the date you applied, the job description/skill requirements and notes as you work through the process.  I had one where the recruiter started to evaluate me for a different (but plausible) role.  If I’d had the description in front of me I could have caught it earlier.

Especially keep track of the key items they mention (or you figure out) that they are looking for. Plus any time someone points out a spot where you offer specific value or they see a trait that is important to them. Just like technical sales you want to remind folks of the value they are looking for and how you can provide that.

I also keep a section/notebook called Recruiters, sorted by first name. For me first name is more often relevant, since they’ll call and say “Hi Eric, it’s JT” and I’ll need to quickly get to the relevant details. These pages also help in the future. When that recruiter reaches out years later you can say, “Oh yeah, you helped me with (firm) back in (year).” Plus it will be very useful to have context when either you help a friend or past coworker look for work or when/if you start looking again. The contact won’t be as cold since you have context to mention. For example, “Hi Steve, back in January you reached out to me about a role at <firm name>.  A friend of mine recently started looking for a new opportunity and I thought you might have other roles you are sourcing where they could be a fit.”

The third little trick I do is when I save the recruiter’s name in my phone’s directory I add the hiring firm name after their last name. This helps to jog the memory when they do call. “Hi Steve, good to hear from you. Calling about <firm name>?”  This also helps a few years later should they reach out to you again.

Now I do realize that for a lot folks there are not as many opportunities out there and the search is more challenging and limited. I’m keeping my eyes open for other tips that might be more applicable, and of course feel free to share them with me!