stephenmontague.devYou're Too Personable for This Field - And That's Not an Insult
You're Too Personable for This Field - And That's Not an Insult
I was sitting at my desk, churning through Jira tickets faster than my product owner could write them, selling life insurance on the side after hours, and trying to figure out how to be a new dad - all at the same time. And somewhere in the middle of all of that, I had a realization - "Why am I working so hard to build someone else's dream without seeing the results I believe I deserve?"
The realizations
Now, taking a step back, I had become pretty efficient as an engineer. I think it is safe for me to say that I was one of the first people to fully adopt AI into one's work processes. I'll never forget people saying things like, "Don't just blindly paste code into the code base from ChatGPT!" LOL because I was doing that left, right, and center. I mean I thought through the problems and tested my code thoroughly, but when I say I stopped writing code, I mean that I stopped directly writing code. By the numbers that my manager showed me, I was the most efficient developer at that company. My product owner could not give me enough work in my sprints because I was just churning through tickets.
This is when I started to realize that my work and effort was not directly correlating to the amount of money I was making. While I was working my tail off at my job that paid the bills, cold calling people after work to try and sell life insurance, and trying to become a new dad, I kept coming back to that question. And right around the same time, I was reached out to about a new role that Temporal was hiring for.
When I took the interview for the "Technical Business Development Representative" at Temporal, I hadn't yet realized how unhappy I was. I took the interview because I was wanting to explore my options - the card I had to play was "I don't need a new job," and I would only take a job where it was clear that I was going to be in a better spot with the change. I am very aware of the saying, "The grass is always greener on the other side," and I didn't want to make another change in my life if it wasn't going to show a clear winning path.
However, as I continued along down the interview process, I kept getting more and more excited. One of the interviewers expressed concern that I may not want to be in a sales motion because I had never been in one before. Would I want to have to do outbound motion, or how would I feel about the tedious tasks that come along with a sales motion? These were all fair questions, and it is really what got my gears turning. I thought about it for a while, and I remember telling the hiring manager, "I've become tired of working to build someone else's dream because I want to be able to build my own dream. Now, this job at Temporal will still be working on someone else's dream, but I realize now that moving into the sales motion will at least directly pay me based on the amount of effort that I put into the work that I am doing."
A second realization - and honestly the bigger one
Obviously, I ended up taking the job at Temporal. There were a multitude of reasons other than I could make more money faster, but I'd be lying if I said that wasn't one of the main reasons. Money isn't everything - I am a firm believer in this - but at the end of the day, I work to make money so that I can take care of my family, and sales fast tracked my earnings potential.
I officially started in December which was a really quiet month, so I got to spend the month diving into Temporal by going through learning courses, and I got access to Cursor, so I started building because getting my hands dirty is the best way for me to learn. Honestly, I was building more than I had been able to when I was a dedicated software engineer. I built a project for myself to learn, then I built a demo to understand what a prospect I had talked to was talking about, then I built another project to learn another part of Temporal - and this is when it started to click for me.
I love to build, but I actually hated writing the code.
I don't think I had fully admitted it to myself yet because I worked really hard to figure out how to write code. I didn't have a background in it prior to my graduate program, so I kind of had this sense of pride that "Yes I do love this!" because I had just worked so hard to get to the point where I was. But man - I really do not like to code. Writing code was the requirement to solve the problems I was facing or bring to life the designs I was thinking through in my head. I am so glad that I have figured this out. It has removed a huge burden off of my shoulders because deep down I knew I was in the wrong field, and a lot of times I felt like a fraud when I was talking with my colleagues.
What the AI tools actually revealed - and what I only fully understood in hindsight - is that what I was good at was never the syntax. It was understanding the problem deeply enough to articulate it well. That's what let me ship good code without caring about writing it myself. Systems thinking and problem definition.
The things I told myself before I jumped
I almost talked myself out of it. A few times.
My first thought was that I'd be selling out. There is always that struggle between development teams and sales teams, and I've made the joke myself that I joined the dark side. Engineers look down on sales - I was one of them. That took me a while to get over.
Then I told myself I wasn't a seller. I'm more personable than the stereotypical engineer, sure, but I still consider myself an introvert (my wife would disagree). Being personable and being an extrovert aren't the same thing though, and I think I knew that deep down. What I was actually good at was explaining things clearly and making technical concepts land with people who weren't technical. I just hadn't connected the dots that those are exactly the skills this role rewards.
Then there was the commission piece. I actually took a base salary cut and now 30% of my on target earnings are technically not guaranteed. My wife and I had just had our first baby and she wasn't going back to work, so I needed to make money, not gamble it. But, after doing the math, the upside seemed to significantly outweigh the loss in base earnings, and I was right.
And I was scared to give up what I had worked so hard for. I didn't have a background in software engineering prior to my graduate program. I worked really hard to get to the point where I could call myself a software engineer, and walking away from that felt like throwing it all away. But here's what I've realized - I didn't throw it away. The technical foundation is actually what makes this role work. Four months in, I'm more technical now than I was as a software engineer. I'm talking to companies across every industry, working through different architectures and problem domains, and building constantly. The surface area of what I'm exposed to is dramatically wider than it ever was inside one engineering org.
What is the role, actually
So what the heck am I actually doing? What is a "Technical BDR?"
The role I'm in at Temporal is new. Temporal is an extremely technical product, so the goal with this position is to close the gap between a standard Business Development Representative and the technical nature of Temporal as a whole. A standard BDR spends their day examining signals and leads for people who expressed interest in Temporal, reaching out via phone, email, LinkedIn, etc., and then trying to book a meeting with the prospect and the Account Executive they're paired with.
The Technical BDR goes a little deeper. What if a BDR could qualify a prospect in or out before the prospect arrives at the Account Executive's feet? What if a BDR could take the initial 30 minute discovery meeting on their own, so that by the time it reaches an AE, the prospect is more deeply vetted and the opportunity actually makes sense to continue pursuing?
In practice, I'm sitting at the intersection of three functions - BDR, Solutions Architect, and Account Executive. And that intersection is exactly where a personable engineer who loves people and problems but hates the red tape can thrive. The career path also forks in more ways than just one from here, which was another big reason I accepted the role.
I've pitched the role's title should be "Business Development Engineer" but we'll see how that one plays out.
Where am I now
The decision to get here was really hard. I was thinking about a lot of things before I made the change. I had great flexibility in my old role - even with all the extra work I was asking for, I still had time to take my dog for a long walk or go hit some golf balls in the backyard during the middle of the work day. And then there was that base salary cut, which was a really scary thought given that my main goal was to make sure my wife didn't have to go back to work.
I'm 4.5 months in now and I'm just now really settling in. Honestly, for a long time I thought I had made a mistake. Imposter syndrome is such a deep rooted issue that I experience, and it took me a while to settle into this new experience. The role is a lot of work. Sitting in the middle of three functions can be tough, and being the first person to work through it has come with some challenges too.
But here's where I actually am: I'm a stronger software engineer. I'm stretching myself significantly. I'm on pace to make a significant amount more than I would have if I had stayed - even with an expected promotion. And I'd say I'm more outgoing than the stereotypical software engineer, so it's been fun getting to work with prospects and customers.
This choice to switch into a new career has been one of the better decisions I've made.
The door is open
Temporal is already seeing the value in the Technical BDR position and may continue to invest in it going forward. If any of this resonated with you and you're wondering if this type of career change is something you'd want to explore, I'd love to chat about it. Send me a message on LinkedIn or shoot me an email at stephen.montague@temporal.io.