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At least in my company's market, a 'sales engineer' role is definitely going to be commisioned, and it seems like it meets the "demonstrating, guiding, training
by ploer 17y ago
At least in my company's market, a 'sales engineer' role is definitely going to be commisioned, and it seems like it meets the "demonstrating, guiding, training, advising, etc." criteria.
Lots of oportunities to work with customers, lots of technical involvement, and a strong position to influence product direction. It's also good background if you think you might want to move into product management at some point (or if you eventually get interested in engineering management, for that matter).
But (again, probably depending on market), the travel demands can be pretty significant, and you have to thrive within the culture and pressures of a sales organization. Personally, I think I'd burn out on it pretty quickly.
- hboon 17y agoBeing a sales engineer is usually commissioned and you get to do lots of demonstrations and presentations, working with customers (read: more prospects than paid customers). It is a very useful experience because you get to do part of a sales job (selling, convincing people, handling disagreements, presentations) as an engineer. However a lot depends on the size of the company. If the company is fairly large and established, you will hardly be able to influence product direction. In fact, you will most likely be in the position where you might be able to provide feedback to the product team, but you will almost never have the chance to do any hands on improvement to the product. Obviously that is because you are not part of product development/R&D, but believe me, that feeling sucks if you are a good engineer. If you have never done it before and the opportunity presents itself, jump at it. I learnt tons when I was a sales engineer.