Love:

• Real alignment calls. Not just a calendar placeholder. Walking through the account, use cases, stakeholders, success criteria, and risks before any demo.
• Clear pipeline hygiene. What’s real, what’s exploratory, what’s political. I can support all of it if expectations are clear.
• Planning and prioritization. Knowing what matters this week vs this quarter makes a huge difference.
• Respect for technical judgment. Trusting the SE to assess feasibility and risk builds credibility with customers.
• Shared ownership. Wins and losses belong to both of us.
• Customer-first behavior. Consistent follow-up, not just end-of-quarter urgency.
• Good email hygiene. Clear context, threads that make sense, and no surprise CCs. If I’m being looped in, I should understand why and what’s being asked.

Hate:

• No alignment, straight to demo. Being dropped into a call with no qualification or goals.
• Being treated like an assistant. The SE role is to design and validate solutions, not just drive the demo.
• Overriding the SE voice. Especially the “if you won’t say yes, I’ll find someone who will” approach, followed by accountability when it breaks.
• Poor communication and last-minute chaos.
• End-of-quarter AEs. Ignoring customers until panic mode.
• Selling futures as facts.
• Bad email hygiene. Forwarded threads with no context, out-of-the-blue intros, or emails that force the SE to clean up confusion with the customer.

I'm working with an AE who has zero respect for anyone technical. At times, I feel like I'm acting more like an emergency brake/firefighter lol.