The rise of Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) and the customer-facing technology market has placed a premium on technology professionals who have the ability to interface with customers, understand their needs and address their concerns.
In fact, some of the most in-demand roles in technology involve direct interaction with customers such as sales engineer, implementation engineer, technical account manager, customer success manager, solutions consultant, solutions architect, customer experience manager and more.
Transitioning into any one of these roles, perhaps even for a year or two, can expand your skillset and ability to climb the career ladder… but will your technical skills suffer as a result?
The good news is you don’t have to lose your technical experience while working a new, interesting role. Here are several ways that you can preserve your tech knowledge while building complementary soft skills in a customer-facing role.
Keep Your Finger on the Pulse
Although Brian Dudek has been successful in transitioning to more strategic roles throughout his career, he still needs to keep his knowledge of solutions architecture, networking security and cloud security current to develop and execute comprehensive cybersecurity strategies for client companies as VP of cyber strategy for VDA Labs.
How does he manage to keep his finger on the pulse? He engages in self-study. For instance, he finds time to develop and maintain his knowledge of enterprise servers, networking and operating systems, and more by “tinkering” in his home lab. He also teaches IT security and infrastructure classes at the college level and provides one-on-one mentorship to students.
Both mentorship and networking can help you keep abreast of advances and changes in technology. For instance, when mentors offer instruction on how to perform particular tasks or develop useful skills, they also keep their skills sharp. Any type of learning exchange or partnership can help you maintain your previous technical experience in a new role or setting.
Be Intentional About Learning
One of the biggest obstacles to maintaining your technical skills is time management, noted Hector Padilla, studio technical director for Timbre Games. You need to be intentional about learning to stay connected and keep your skills sharp; otherwise, it won’t happen.
For example, Padilla recommends blocking out two hours every week to read Hacker News and forums or communities related to your skillset and team’s tech stack. Once you’ve identified something you need to learn, set aside another hour to sit in on code, tool or systems architecture reviews to obtain a deeper understanding of the solutions and technology.
How do teams using that technology meet dependencies or deal with software fragility? Knowing these things will not only help keep your skills current but enhance your knowledge of your company’s products and make you a better resource to customers.
Dudek also recommends shadowing or observing technical professionals in their work environment. “I sit with the app development team every week so I can see how they’re dealing with security risks,” he explained.
He also works side side-by-side with engineers and architects to observe the latest configuration management techniques and participates in solution delivery and compliance tasks. Occasionally, he sits in on updates and cut-overs (i.e., switches from old systems to new ones) to fortify his knowledge of networking protocols and configurations critical to security and cybersecurity compliance.
Even if you take a break from coding and/or decide to pursue a customer-centric role, you need to understand what professionals in hands-on roles are doing differently and why they’re doing it that way to keep your technical knowledge fresh.
“Don’t allow yourself to get out of synch with your team,” Padilla warned. Being a little bit rusty is okay, but you need to maintain a deep understanding of the work your team is doing and the tools they’re using to sustain career flexibility.
Get Hands-On
If you’d ultimately like to pursue a specialized individual contributor role, team lead, senior engineer or even CTO, you’ll need to perform some hands-on coding and technical tasks to maintain and improve the skills you already have.
One way to maintain your technical chops is to review the code from the developers that support your customers and make comments and suggestions for improvement. Another great way to stay close to the code is to participate in pair programming sessions or side projects that exercise your baseline skills.
When a new AI tool comes along for software development, testing and monitoring, watch videos or tutorials about its functionality, then start using free, open-source tools to automate tasks (or work on side projects) to gain hands-on experience.
While you’ll probably end up writing a lot less code in your new role, the key is to write just enough to still stay sharp in case you want to move back to a more technical position—or forward to a leadership or consulting role.
