Nice, sales skills can be useful (but also sometimes harmful)!

I think the biggest boost for your chances would be if you build solid open source app/library/service and put it on your GitHub. You can wisely choose the technologies that the companies you are interested in also use - and if you do well and actually learn those technologies, then you put those technologies in your CV, which is what recruiters scan for and that's how you get your foot in the door. The engineering managers then usually go and check your GitHub, check if you write good code, not just stupid copypasta...