Post: #1

What are your thoughts on this career path?

What are the pros/cons compared to a regular engineer job?

Post: #2

By the way, does anyone have reasonable salary/bonus estimates?

Post: #3

Good topic. It's an interesting field. I used to build high tech laser tools for the semiconductor industry.
Once you got good enough you could go into sales or tech support. The tech support guys had it easy.
If you spoke English and Fluent Chinese you could sit on your ass and answer 2 phone calls a day and make
$100k a year. The sales guys needed an Engineering background plus some other discipline like Physics
or Photonics.

Lasers or medical are good fields to explore if you want to get into sales as an Engineer.

Post: #4

Do you have an engineering background?

Post: #5

I'll also throw in a question about your work environment. Is sales a lot more stressful than a regular engineering job?

Post: #6

(07-10-2014 08:06 PM)Fighting888 Wrote:  Do you have an engineering background?

I have a BS in Electrical Engineering.

Post: #7

Oh cool.

How'd you like sales in comparison to the hands-on work?

Post: #8

(07-10-2014 09:04 PM)Fighting888 Wrote:  Oh cool.

How'd you like sales in comparison to the hands-on work?

I don't do sales. I think I'll end up there eventually though.

Post: #9

What makes you prefer sales over what you're currently doing?

Money? More interesting work? Lifestyle?

I've heard some people say sales engineering is a lot more stressful.

Post: #10

(07-10-2014 09:18 PM)Fighting888 Wrote:  What makes you prefer sales over what you're currently doing?

Money? More interesting work? Lifestyle?

I've heard some people say sales engineering is a lot more stressful.

Well first you start off working hourly. Then you bounce around every two years for more pay and experience. Then they'll only pay you salary. The only way to make more money is to work for salary plus commission or start your own business.

Post: #11

Is sales engineering for a large corporation better than a smaller company?

I have a friend who landed a sales engineering position with Boeing and likes it a lot.

Post: #12

I work for an Autodesk reseller, in our channel, I'd say half of our sales reps come from a technical background. We've had 2 application engineers turn into sales engineers. Im on the inside and I regret not getting an engineering degree (i have a BS in Marketing/Minor in CS)

Post: #13

How do you like your job Kaotic?

Post: #14

The reseller I work for has an awesome environment, im a jack of all trades for the inside. Leads, small sales, subscription management, license, activation,

I just would like to get paid more (im currently in the middle of getting a raise).

My vp actually recruited me from my other job.

Sales reps come and go (if you aren't performing good), the application engineers never leave and we keep adding more.

The only friction we usually have is working with Autodesk ironically.

Where you located ?

Post: #15

Do you feel like sales is overly stressful compared to other engineering positions?

I'm in the PNW. I was thinking about aerospace sales engineering.

Post: #16

(07-10-2014 10:10 PM)Fighting888 Wrote:  Do you feel like sales is overly stressful compared to other engineering positions?

I'm in the PNW. I was thinking about aerospace sales engineering.

Dude, just post all your questions at once. That way people can answer them all in one post.

Post: #17

I started out in tech support, then moved into administration, systems engineering and when i started my own show started doing pre sales/sale as well.

I do not regret moving off to do my own thing and had to work for some small, medium and large places first to work out how they did it as well as how not to do it. I do not possess a degree of any sort and hold many industry certs for technical, project management and management.

Pre sales is good money if you work for a good employer and perform well but having uncapped commission is also a major factor in this area.

Most of my mates who work pre sales engineering roles for large OEM's are on 180k OTE and beyond.

You have to work for it because no one gives away that sort of money but it is worth it if you excel and enjoy it. The other great thing about these skills are they are valued globally i.e. Cisco or EMC etc...

Other major perks are endless lunches, expense accounts, car allowance, phone paid, flexible work hours, work from home etc... as long as you help the sales team close leads and land deals you can pretty much do what ever you fucking want....and lots of training.

However it has its up and downs too so keep that in mind because its not all beer and celebrations, when you fuck deals up it hurts and hurts bad, and you wear the blame with the rest of the team when they fuck up because of the way most companies stricture their commission.

Hope this helps and best of luck with your career

Post: #18

Answer to original poster question - commissions! I have been in sales for 4.5 years getting commissions. I have a technical background and could have been a prototypical engineer. Cannot imagine not getting commissions. It drives you to kick ass and perform in the field. If you're a great sales guy you can negotiate your commission rates and other perks.

Post: #19

I was studying petroleum engineering and I wanted to do this for a company like Baker Hughs or Halliburton.

What's the best way of going about this?

Post: #20

I just accepted an offer to become a sales engineer (presales) for COTS software.