SWE to SE how did you position your technical background?
I've spent 4 years as a fullstack engineer + devops at different companies, and I've been lucky enough to always been part of the direct client contact / sale. In my recent roles i've actually started to look forward more to the sales than the actual developing.
A bit of context where this transition comes from: I started in my first job creating and maintaining apps for health centers, directly talking to directors and IT teams from hospitals, and recently closed my first client as a solo developer at 11k for a startup that needed major fixes to existing code, plus a client-facing dashboard built from scratch. I understood exactly their needs and actual problems as they had a more unexperienced developer at the moment.
I've also been at every meeting with leads at my current job in a sort of SE role, being asked by the CEO who passed the first filter, and answering the technical aspects of the proposal, but also doing the final project requirements, stack, budget, timings and team effort.
My question is, how did you frame your engineering experience in interviews when you had no quota or history? Is cold applying realistic, or is this basically a networking-driven path?
Happy to share more about my background if useful, and obviously open to chatting with anyone who's hiring or knows teams looking!