Crossroads in my career - input / perspective valued.

Hi guys,

I've been working as a Network Infrastructure Specialist for around 8 years now, I've worked on a multitude of projects with the organisations I've been employed with (all enterprise organisations- no vars/msp) lots of infrastructure transformations, project delivery and support. Very hands on and technical.

I recently got notice of redundancy from my current employer (retail sector) and it's made me weigh up where I want to go in my career. The end goal is to work as a systems engineer / solutions architect for a vendor (or as close as I can get)

I've been presented with the opportunity to go into network infrastructure pre-sales with a Cisco premier partner. This isn't a hands on technical role but will give me that business and customer engagement experience that I see alot of systems engineer positions looking for. My only concern is that my technical skillset might get dull as time goes on, however I plan to keep labbing / studying on the side of I take this position.

Has anyone in this sub made a similar move? Any customer facing systems engineers got any advice? Alternative routes? Is this an advisable move to get to where I want to be?

Thanks 🙂