Fellow SEs, I need your honest take. Am I shooting too high, or is something else going on?
Quick background on me: I have close to 7 years of B2B sales experience spanning telecom and SaaS, with SMB and mid-market as my sweet spot. I have done enterprise work but it is not where I thrive, and I know that about myself.
On the technical side, I hold Network+ and I am currently in the SANS Cyber Academy working toward my GFACT, GSEC, and GCIH. I am also finishing a second bachelor’s in cybersecurity. Networking is solid for me and I am adding to the security stack every day.
Here is the pattern I keep running into: I get through recruiter screens consistently, which tells me the resume is doing its job. But I stall out before I ever get to the hiring manager or a real technical conversation. The roles I have been targeting are at cybersecurity companies, and I genuinely feel like I would shine in a demo or a deep technical interview… I just cannot seem to get that far.
So I am coming here for honest feedback. A few specific questions for the people who have been in the trenches:
Are cybersecurity SE roles a stretch for someone still actively building the security credential stack, even with strong sales fundamentals?
Is there a type of company or product category where my profile would be a stronger fit right now, maybe network security, SASE, or something infrastructure adjacent?
For those of you who made a transition into security SE roles, what actually moved the needle for you?
I want to grow into this space the right way. Just need a clearer read on where I actually stand.