Sales vs Software Engineering: major personality differences (duh)

In tech-driven businesses, both Sales and Software Engineering play crucial roles in a company’s success. These are the two most important functions that make startups succeed. This post examines the personality differences between professionals in these two fields, based on data from Gyfted. Understanding these distinctions can provide valuable insights for founders, hiring managers, job seekers, and team leaders. The data below is presented is derived from a Gyfted study involving 1,320 applicants across Sales and Account Executive roles and Software Engineering positions. The study measured five key personality traits: Openness, Conscientiousness, Extraversion, Agreeableness, and Neuroticism (Big Five / Five Factor model / OCEAN).

Key Findings

1. Openness to experience: both Sales & Software Engineering professionals show high levels of openness, with Software Engineers displaying a slightly higher average. This suggests both roles require individuals receptive to new ideas, with Software Engineering potentially demanding more innovative thinking.
2. Conscientiousness: Software Engineers exhibit a marginally higher level of conscientiousness compared to Sales professionals. This likely reflects the meticulous nature of coding and problem-solving required in software development.
3. Extraversion: Sales professionals demonstrate way higher levels of extraversion compared to Engineers. This aligns with the outgoing nature often associated with sales roles, where interpersonal interactions are frequent and crucial. Engineers are, pretty much, pretty introverted – and everybody knows this who know engineers or have worked in tech companies.
4. Agreeableness: this is interesting, as there is a slightly higher average level in agreeableness for Sales professionals. This suggests that while both roles benefit from cooperative individuals, Sales may require more emphasis on building rapport and maintaining relationships. However, we know from empirical data that this could be different. Our data (applicant) sample is very skewed in engineering towards junior software developers. As we recruit and screen more engineers, we expect to see much lower levels in agreeableness in our data.
5. Neuroticism: Software Engineers show slightly higher levels of neuroticism compared to Sales professionals. This could indicate that Sales roles may benefit from individuals who are more emotionally stable in high-pressure situations.

And how do these manifest themselves in the workplace? Everybody knows “sales” tend to be loud, full of energy, talking sports (especially in the US) and celebrating wins in a big time. And everybody knows engineers tend to be more quiet, geeky, disagreeable and brilliant. The former – extrovert, adventurous, people-oriented. The latter – focused, curious, opinionated and tending to argue a lot with all the other teams in the company (why? Because 2+2=4, whereas in Sales that is not necessarily the case, ie. 2+2 could be 3, 3.5 or 4 — depending on what the customer wants and what it’ll take the get the customer over the line [like selling features that aren’t there yet!]).

Differences between job tasks in Sales & Engineering

Sales roles involve:

• Building and maintaining client relationships
• Identifying and pursuing new business opportunities / prospects
• Presenting products or services to potential clients
• Negotiating contracts and closing deals
• Meeting sales targets and quotas

Software Engineering tasks include:

• Designing and developing software applications
• Writing and testing code
• Debugging and troubleshooting technical issues
• Collaborating with cross-functional teams
• Staying updated on new technologies and best practices

Sales and Engineering work differs fundamentally

The nature of work in Sales and Software Engineering is markedly different, per below are the main highlights of each.

Sales work is:

• Highly social and interpersonal
• Results-driven with clear, often short-term goals
• Requires adaptability to different client personalities
• Success often measured in quantitative metrics (e.g., revenue generated)
• Work environment can be very unpredictable, stressful and fast-paced. For sure it is more cyclical in terms of hiring and firing relative to software engineering.

Software Engineering work:

• Often involves long periods of focused, individual work
• Project-based with longer-term objectives
• Requires logical thinking and problem-solving skills
• Success measured in both quantitative (e.g., code efficiency) and qualitative (e.g., user experience) terms
• Work environment tends to be more structured and predictable

These key differences in work nature likely contribute to the personality variations observed between the two roles, per the above analysis.

Implications for Hiring

For Employers

• When hiring for Sales, prioritize candidates with high extraversion and great communication skills
• for Software Engineering positions, look for individuals with very high openness, and low agreeableness
• Consider using personality assessments to better match candidates to roles

Personality traits are just one factor in determining job fit and success, but understanding these differences can provide valuable guidance to founders, startups, recruiters and job seekers. By aligning individual strengths and preferences with role requirements, organizations can build more effective teams, and professionals can find positions where they’re more likely to thrive.