Context: I have a B.S. in Computer Science from a top cs school. I
started a hardware company in undergrad, raised a seed round and
worked full time on it for over a year. We shut down recently and I've
been interviewing for software engineering positions. During my time as a
founder, I coded much less than I wanted to and instead focused on nearly every
other aspect of our business. I have a strong foundation and know my cs
fundamentals well, but I don't have any depth with the latest node libraries and
front end frameworks.
I've been interviewing in SF and found that larger companies typically want
really specialized roles and require experience I don't have. Smaller companies
are more open to versatile positions, but I've had multiple companies come back
after onsite interviews say that I would be a good fit for a "customer success" / "support" engineer.
Some companies have defined the role relatively well even though the position is
new for them, and for others I'd be the first hire for that position and it
isn't well defined.
I'm worried that these roles might pigeonhole me in the customer support
category in the same way a QA engineer might have difficulty transitioning to a
software engineer. I'm also worried I won't grow my coding skills as fast as if
I were to take a full-time software engineering position. Finally, these roles
seem to have significantly lower salaries as opposed to even entry level
software engineers and I worry that I'd be undervaluing myself by taking a
salary that is much less than market rate.
1. Does anyone have general advice and perspective on support and customer
success engineering positions?
2. Would I be hurting myself as a software engineer by taking one of these
positions?
3. Are these typically "growth" positions, i.e. are they like a entry level
developer position that leads to software engineering, or do most people who
become support engineers stay support engineers?
I've been interviewing in SF and found that larger companies typically want really specialized roles and require experience I don't have. Smaller companies are more open to versatile positions, but I've had multiple companies come back after onsite interviews say that I would be a good fit for a "customer success" / "support" engineer.
Some companies have defined the role relatively well even though the position is new for them, and for others I'd be the first hire for that position and it isn't well defined.
I'm worried that these roles might pigeonhole me in the customer support category in the same way a QA engineer might have difficulty transitioning to a software engineer. I'm also worried I won't grow my coding skills as fast as if I were to take a full-time software engineering position. Finally, these roles seem to have significantly lower salaries as opposed to even entry level software engineers and I worry that I'd be undervaluing myself by taking a salary that is much less than market rate.
1. Does anyone have general advice and perspective on support and customer success engineering positions?
2. Would I be hurting myself as a software engineer by taking one of these positions?
3. Are these typically "growth" positions, i.e. are they like a entry level developer position that leads to software engineering, or do most people who become support engineers stay support engineers?