| I'm 36, have a degree in engineering (biomedical, not software), an MBA, and went through a coding bootcamp. I've been at a high-growth B2B SaaS startup (Segment) for the past 5 years in various technical, customer-facing roles, most recently Sales Engineering and now a pure Sales / Account Executive role. I made the move to Sales because I enjoyed the Sales Engineering role at the time, and thought I wanted more of the Sales side of things because 1) it's a more generalizable skill-set not tied to my company specifically, 2) more autonomy, 3) more earning potential, and 4) I thought it'd be more fun. I thought this would be my career path that I would be successful in and eventually grow into management. The problem is that I'm not that good at it (yet). I'll probably get better, but will likely get fired before I really get up to speed. Part of this is on me, and part of it is the stage that the company. I'm now having a bit of an existential crisis because of my age and not knowing what to do now. I could try Sales at another SaaS startup, but I've questioned that path as I don't relate to the average salesperson as well as more technical folks. Going back to Sales Eng isn't exciting. Customer Success seems like a slog. Product could be an option, but unsure how good I'd be / I don't have product experience. I've always been interested in the startup scene, so the VC space is interesting, but no experience there / hard to break in to. Given the space I've worked in, a job like Customer Data Platform manager would be a good fit, but limited opportunities there; also potentially a Growth or Analytics type role at another startup. I previously did analytics. I also feel a bit behind career-wise as I haven't managed people. I thought I figured out a good path forward career-wise in Sales but realizing that I'm not as good as I thought has been a punch in the gut. Any advice / types of jobs I should consider? |
You picked this for a reason. What was that reason? That drive that got you here in the first place can be re-kindled.
I found myself in a job, that I'd had for a long time. I was stuck. External situations made the job harder than it was previously (un happy customers) I didn't have the skill set to improve those situations. Looking back I should have just made that clear to management but I got let go and had to move on. Now I'm in a similar role but much happier. I make a real positive impact on the business here. I don't have the same dread of getting up and going to work.
Change can help, moving on might be a good thing for you.