Ask HN: I liked Sales Engineer, how can I get more?

Was a software dev for almost a decade now and worked 1 year as a solution/sales engineer, primarily as a technical subject matter expert on our product as part of the pre and post sales cycle. I friggin loved it.

I enjoyed explaining complicated technical subjects to CEOs, put together technical workshops for developers, and built our proof-of-concept, eventually automating about a week of work to minutes.

However, all the SE roles I see require 3~5 years of experience. If the company did well I would've stayed :/

So now my world is uncertain. I haven't coded for a few years and I enjoyed SE far more and I just felt natural at it unlike coding which was an uphill battle....it eventually stressed me out and I was so happy when I transitioned to SE....

tldr; sales/solutions engineer with 1 yr at a failing startup, living the paradox-most entry level SE jobs I see being posted require ~3+ years of exp.

so its a double whammy:

Lack of Sales ---> Lack of Customer Facing Time --> Lack of Quality Experience ---> Lack of SE roles I fit for ---> HN @ 3AM

I just don't know what to friggin do. Obviously working at that startup was a mixed blessing but now I can't go back to software dev and I can't move forward in my SE career path ㅠ_ㅠ