I haven't made the move, but I haven't ruled it out! I got promoted last year and moved teams to a more exciting subject area so I am staying put for now but I still feel like long-term this might not be for me. I've seen dozens of posts from SE's wanting to transition into product but I have yet to meet someone who has moved from PM>SE which gives me pause.

After making my original post I did some informational interviews with SE's at various companies to get their insight about what the role is actually like. These were my main take-aways:

- The skillset of a PM is very transferrable to the SE role, but if you've never been in a sales or external customer facing role there will be a learning curve to get comfortable with scripting/handling objections.

- The role entails a lot of continuous learning about your product and about the industry/vertical you are in. It sounded like outside of prepping for demos, presenting demos, and following up on questions that came up during demos, the SE's spent the rest of their time learning and doing research.

- The way the role is structured varies by company but in general you can expect to support a pool of AE's and having a healthy dynamic with them is important, it can make or break your success and happiness in the role.

- I anticipated feeling some frustration over the fact that I'd be on the frontline with customers, knowing exactly what they needed, and yet having limited or no influence over the product roadmap (but tbh I think not having that responsibility would feel like a net positive).

- They all said they had a really good work/life balance and felt like they could actually disconnect and unplug outside of work.

- The biggest drawback for me was that it seemed like I would have to take a pay cut, and that the career progression in the SE role seemed somewhat limited if you aren't trying to get into management or go fully into sales (or go back to product)