[apohn]

Part of the issue might come from being from PreSales. Does your resume strongly reflect that you were in a PreSales role? Should it? If you are applying for PreSales roles, then yes. If you are trying to get out of PreSales, then no.

In my last job I was part of the PreSales organization and my official title was a PreSales one. My team was very technical, but IMO PreSales people are technical "experts" only in the sense that they are knowledgeable about the product they sell and the architecture around their product. Basically, they can talk the talk but how much they can actually do is very narrowly focused. Many PreSales people typically aren't truly experts, even in the products they sell.

I decided to get out of PreSales and into a lead technical role and spent 4 months applying to positions and getting nowhere. Eventually I figured out it was because my resume reflected I was PreSales person and this was a huge "Jack of all trades, master of none" red flag for people. I changed my resume and completely de-emphasized the PreSales aspects and focused on all the deep technical consulting work I had done. I did the same thing in interviews, and made sure people understood I was in a very technical role and I was not spending 40 hours a week giving demos.

It still took me time to land a new job, but I started to get interviews and eventually offers after those changes to my resume.