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Careers in Sales & Solutions Are Changing. So Is Better Career.
- Yuji Higashi
- 20 hours ago
- 8 min read
In this article:
The SaaS and AI job market is changing fast.
Layoffs are still happening across tech, and for many people, job searches are taking longer and feeling more competitive.
At the same time, hiring is happening, and there are some incredible opportunities being created.
AI-native companies are growing quickly. New categories are emerging almost overnight. Startups are raising significant capital and building GTM teams earlier. And companies are rethinking what they need from their Sales and Solutions organizations.
The result is a job market that can feel uncertain and contradictory.
Companies are laying people off while others are competing aggressively for great talent. New roles are emerging while traditional roles are changing. And the skills that made someone successful even three years ago aren't necessarily the skills that will make them successful over the next five.
We're seeing this firsthand every day through our recruiting and coaching work.
The Solutions Engineer role is evolving rapidly.
Technical depth matters more. AI fluency is quickly becoming an expectation. Companies increasingly want Solutions professionals who can go beyond running demos - people who can understand complex customer environments, prototype solutions, work closely with Product and Engineering, and help customers realize value.
We're also seeing the continued rise of Forward Deployed Engineers (FDE), more technical Solutions Engineers (SE), and hybrid roles that don't fit neatly into the traditional PreSales model.
Sales is evolving too.
Account Executives (AE) are selling increasingly technical products to sophisticated buyers. They need stronger AI and product fluency and the credibility to navigate complex conversations with both technical and executive stakeholders.
All of this creates opportunity.
It also makes navigating your career harder.
Every day, we hear questions like...
What skills should I be building?
Which companies are actually worth joining?
Should I become more technical?
Is leadership still the right next step?
How do I position myself for AI-native companies?
What does a great career path look like as these roles change?
There isn't one answer.
That's why we're investing more in Better Career than we ever have before.
Introducing the Better Career Network
Over the past few years, we've built Better Career around three primary ways of helping people:
🎯 Career Coaching: helping people navigate job searches, career transitions, interviews, negotiations, and career growth
🔎 Recruiting: connecting exceptional Sales and Solutions talent with high-growth technology companies
🌎 Community: bringing professionals and leaders together through events, networking, and shared learning
We've increasingly realized these things shouldn't exist separately.
A mentor can change the way you think about your career.
Someone you meet at an event today might introduce you to your next company two years from now.
A recruiter might bring you an opportunity you never would have found yourself.
And the coach who helps you land one job might help you navigate another major career decision years later.
Careers are long... The support around them should be too.
That's why we're building the Better Career Network - the career platform built specifically for Sales, Solutions, and PreSales professionals.
Some pieces already exist today. Others are brand new. And we're significantly investing in and improving all of them.
Here's where we're headed:
🤝 Mentorship Program
Sometimes the best career advice comes from someone who's already navigated the decision you're facing.
We've already had 65+ experienced Sales and Solutions professionals sign up as mentors, from senior ICs to experienced executives.
We're building a structured way to connect professionals with people who can share their experience, offer guidance, and occasionally open a door when the right opportunity comes along. Learn more about becoming a mentor. We will open applications for mentees soon.
👤 Your Sales & Solutions Professional Profile
LinkedIn and your resume tell part of your professional story.
But neither was built specifically for Sales or Solutions professionals.
We're building a professional profile and portfolio designed around the experience employers actually care about.
For an AE, that might mean quota attainment, deal sizes, segments, buyers, industries, methodologies, and products sold.
For a Solutions professional, it could include technical skills, discovery, demos, POCs, integrations, APIs, AI experience, industries, sales cycles, and customer segments.
The goal is to create a much richer picture of what you're actually great at - and make it easier for the right employers and opportunities to find you.
💼 Curated Jobs & Hidden Opportunities
We already have a Sales and Solutions job board.
We're working on making it 10X better (coming in October 2026)!
We'll pull relevant roles directly from company career sites to create a much broader view of the market, while making it easier to find opportunities that actually match your experience.
But the best opportunities aren't always sitting on a job board.
Through our recruiting work and relationships with hiring leaders, we'll surface hidden opportunities that may not be publicly advertised.
And we'll identify a key point of contact - a recruiter, hiring manager, employee, or someone else who can help you get closer to the opportunity.
Because clicking "Apply" and hoping someone sees your resume doesn't work like it used to.
🏢 Employer Solutions - Find the best talent faster
The Better Career Network isn't just being built for professionals. We're also creating better ways for great companies to find and hire exceptional Sales and Solutions talent.
Employers will be able to access our Talent Network to discover professionals based on the Sales and Solutions skills and experience that actually matters - not just keywords on a resume.
And for companies that want more hands-on support, we'll continue expanding our specialized recruiting services for AEs, SEs, FDEs, and other Solutions roles.
The goal is to create a better connection between both sides of the market: helping great people discover great companies, and helping great companies discover great people.
💻 Virtual Meetups & Roundtables
Our in-person events have shown us how valuable it is to get the right people together.
Now we want to create more of those opportunities regardless of where you live.
We'll host virtual meetups, roundtables, networking sessions, and small-group conversations around topics like AI, career development, breaking into PreSales, the evolving FDE role, leadership, and technical skills.
These won't just be webinars.
The goal is to create spaces where people can actually participate, learn from each other, and build relationships.
🌎 More Community Events
We're also expanding our in-person community.
Today, we bring together Solutions and PreSales professionals through community meetups and executive dinners around the world.
We're going to do more - for both ICs and leaders - while introducing more content-focused events around AI, career development, FDEs, leadership, and the changing Solutions profession.
We're also expanding partnerships with organizations including Coform, SolutionExec, PreSales Advisory Group, and others to create more opportunities for the broader community to connect.
📊 Career Research & Insights
There's still surprisingly little reliable career data specifically for PreSales & Solutions professionals.
We're going to invest more heavily in changing that.
That means better data and research around compensation, hiring trends, career paths, skills, job-market activity, and how these roles are evolving.
What should an Enterprise SE actually be earning?
Where is hiring growing?
Which skills are becoming more valuable?
How is AI changing what employers expect?
Our recruiting and coaching businesses give us a unique view into both sides of the market. We want to turn more of that information into useful insights for the entire community.
One Platform, Throughout Your Career
The part we're most excited about isn't any individual feature.
It's what happens when they're connected.
Imagine having a professional profile that actually reflects your Sales or Solutions experience.
It helps surface jobs that match your background.
You find an opportunity you're excited about - along with someone who can help you get connected.
You talk to a mentor who's made a similar career move.
You use market data to understand what you should be earning.
You meet other professionals through an event or roundtable.
And when you need deeper support, you can work with an experienced career coach who understands your role and where you're trying to go.
Then you land the job.
But your relationship with Better Career doesn't end there.
You keep building your network. You become a mentor. You attend an event. You get promoted. You hire people for your own team.
And when you're eventually ready for your next move, we're still there.
That's the Better Career Network we're building.
Our Biggest Investment in Career Coaching Yet
The Network isn't the only thing we're investing in.
We're also making our biggest investment yet in our career coaching programs.
We've always believed great career coaching should come from people who actually understand the roles you're pursuing.
People who have carried quotas, run discovery, delivered demos, managed enterprise sales cycles, hired teams, interviewed hundreds of candidates, and sat on the other side of the hiring table.
That's why we're adding experienced VP of Sales, Solutions leaders, and Recruiters to our team and bringing even more operator experience directly into our programs.
If you're interviewing for an Enterprise AE role, we want you preparing with someone who understands what a VP of Sales is evaluating.
If you're trying to become an SE leader, we want you talking with someone who has actually built and managed Solutions teams.
And if you're trying to break into PreSales, navigate a layoff, negotiate an offer, or make a major career decision, we want you to have someone experienced in your corner.
We're also improving the programs themselves with more AI, stronger job-search resources, deeper interview preparation, better market intelligence, and new programs built for today's market.
And we're already seeing some incredible outcomes.
13 Recent Career Wins 🎉
Recently, 13 Better Career coaching clients landed new roles:
Account Executive — $217K OTE
Account Executive — $180K OTE
Sr. Account Executive — $190K OTE
Enterprise Account Executive — $327K OTE
Solutions Consultant — $153K OTE
Sales Engineer — $175K OTE
Sales Engineer — $225K OTE
Solutions Engineer — $250K OTE
Solutions Engineer — $210K OTE
Sr. Solutions Consultant — $248K OTE
Sr. Solutions Engineer — $180K OTE
Academy Sales Engineer — $117K, landing his first SE role
Associate Solutions Consultant — $210K OTE, landing his first PreSales role 🤯
The numbers are exciting, but the stories behind them are even better.
One client worked with us two years ago to land her first Sales Engineer role. When she was ready for her next move, she came back and landed an even better role at $225K OTE.
Another was unexpectedly laid off and landed a $250K Solutions Engineer role at an incredible company, with a quick path toward management.
And two others broke into PreSales for the first time.
These folks worked incredibly hard and stayed committed to the process. We're incredibly happy for them and grateful they trusted us to be part of their careers.
And We're Just Getting Started
We have a lot coming.
New team members. New coaching programs. More events. New partnerships. Mentorship. Better career resources. And, most importantly, the Better Career Network platform that will bring more of this together.
We'll be sharing several big announcements starting in September.
Technology will keep changing.
Roles will keep evolving.
The job market will have its ups and downs.
Our goal is to build the place Sales and Solutions professionals can turn to throughout their careers - not just when they need their next job.
Stay tuned. We're excited for what's next.
Yuji Higashi is the Co-Founder of Better Career, where he helps Sales and Solutions professionals build careers they’re excited about.
Previously, Yuji built and led global PreSales teams at Outreach as the company scaled from $2M to $120M ARR and at Apptio as it grew from $10M to $100M ARR and went public. He also co-founded PreSales Collective and PreSales Academy, helping build one of the world’s largest communities for PreSales professionals.
Throughout his career, Yuji has hired, interviewed, and coached thousands of professionals and developed a deep network of GTM leaders across the tech industry.
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