As someone who finished a Mechanical Engineering degree and decided they didn’t want to be an engineer, I enjoyed this column in Evaluation Engineering by Malcolm Levy: Sales Engineers Are Still Engineers.
It’s a basic article about career choices for both managers and engineers, but worthwhile because these are people we depend on to sell our products.
“So having transitioned from design engineer to sales engineer, you no longer are considered an engineer by your contemporaries, but more like a sleazy car salesperson who is not worth talking to. This perception may have come about for all the wrong reasons. The truth is that most respectable engineering companies hire sales people with good, if not great, engineering backgrounds.”
“Well, there is an intermediate step you can take: move from pure design engineering to marketing where a great deal of interfacing will take place with customers to help define and develop the next product. Another option is to transfer into product support or applications engineering, each having a fair amount of time in front of customers and, in many cases, supporting a sales engineer. “
As a sales engineer, I thrived on being depended on. And still today as a marketer. It is being able to speak to both the customer and our engineers and ‘translate’ each of their needs to each other.
Very nice evaluation…Keep doing the good work!Eshanvi.
Very nice evaluation…Keep doing the good work!Eshanvi.