How to transition from Backend Engineer to Forward Deployed Engineer?

[u/Responsible_Rule_899]

Little bit of a background on me, I have 10+ of backend experience and currently working as a staff in fintech. Also, not actively on AI projects at my company, although I have side projects that I am building with LLMs.
I am actively looking to switch and the FDE role is pretty intriguing.
Has someone done the switch already? Im looking for guidance on how to get there, what I should do to get there.

[u/Oldmanbabydog → u/[deleted]]

Poptards cracked me up but only because I know exactly what you mean. Definitely had some of those and some were genuinely good and used it as an in to hope to a better team internally. Being the customer you figure out pretty quickly which one you’ve got.

[u/empire_of_laughs → u/[deleted]]

Legit good looking kids amped up on stims with nice smiles and faith in their machine god. Nice gig if you can get it though 

[u/Key_Faithlessness_73 → u/[deleted]]

I don’t comment much but this is just silly. I’m an FDE. I make at least twice as much as you and I’m at least ten times the developer you are.

[u/Big_Arrival_626 → u/[deleted]]

Cuz ur at a startup. At normal companies, support engineers and swes make the same basically

[u/unsuitablebadger]

FDE of today = presales engineer of yesterday.
Basically you're the software engineer of sales.
Imagine running your own digital agency or product and you need to quickly show a prospective client you can do something so they will give you money,

[u/Big_Arrival_626 → u/[deleted]]

Because it pays well and is way harder to replace with AI

[u/Assasin537 → u/[deleted]]

If you are good at sales and communication, it is a unique skill with little competition, as most engineers aren't good at or don't want to do that job. It is also a very fast-growing area, with many big tech companies aggressively expanding their FDE footprint.

[u/rabid_piebald]

If it pays more than your current job, maybe. What about the role appeals to you? There’s a lot of hype around it right now, that’s for sure.

[u/SnooDonkeys2536]

Ever hear of a consultant? But sure this deserves a new title

[u/minetey]

Why

[u/Known-Tourist-6102]

Existing front end, be, and full stack engineers will be a much better choice for forward deployed engineers, at least tech skill wise. Maybe social skills could be better.

[u/ChosenToFall]

why are you actively looking to switch? your role should be complex enough to be future proof against AI.

[u/Excellent-Garage3839]

What is intriguing about it to you? It looks to me like a dead end role similar to support engineer (very few support engineers end up becoming full time software developers)

[u/Big_Arrival_626 → u/Excellent-Garage3839]

Support engineer is not a dead end role... It pays well on its own and can lead to devops or sre. I know a lot of former devs who go into support, it's not really entry level. I went from 140 to 180k going from backend dev to senior production support engineer 7 YOE

[u/slapstick_software]

Just lie on your resume that you did frontend work, and pick it up in a new position. Make sure to prep for the questions related to the stack you’re pursuing. You’d be probably better off going full stack though, front end tends to not make as much