Transitioning into GTM Engineering

I’m trying to transition into a GTM Engineer role and would love some real, practical advice from people already doing it.

Quick background:
– 4+ years as a frontend engineer (Angular, large-scale govt platforms)
– Worked on flows handling 10K+ daily transactions
– Often ended up doing product thinking work (fixing broken user journeys, reducing failures, improving flows)

Now I’m shifting toward GTM because I’m more interested in:
– figuring out how products actually get users
– building outbound systems / experiments
– working closer to revenue vs just shipping features

What I’ve started doing so far:
– Learning tools like Clay, Apollo, Sheets-based workflows
– Trying to define ICP (early-stage AI SaaS founders)
– Thinking about outbound experiments + tracking responses

Where I’m stuck:

1. What does “good” look like for a beginner GTM Engineer? (portfolio / proof of work wise)
2. How do I move from “learning tools” -> actually running real campaigns?
3. Is it realistic to land freelance / entry roles without prior GTM experience if I can show execution?
4. What would you do if you were starting from scratch today with my background?

Not looking for generic advice would really appreciate specific suggestions, examples, or even things I might be doing wrong.

Happy to share progress as I go if that helps others too.