How is a career in engineering sales?

[nwwong]

I'm just thinking ahead. Is it good to start off in a sales career? I know the earnings potential can be really high compared to other engineers (if you're good at sales). But I get the impression that once you get into sales, it will be hard to go back into a technical field (even though engineering sales is still somewhat technical). If you start off in sales, what sort of positions could you apply to/be promoted to say 10-15 years in the future? Would you end up being stuck in sales forever?

I ask because I am somewhat interested in this field, and it could definitely improve my interpersonal skills. But I don't see myself as working my whole life in the same company.

[BadDrafter]

I'm just thinking ahead. Is it good to start off in a sales career? I know the earnings potential can be really high compared to other engineers (if you're good at sales). But I get the impression that once you get into sales, it will be hard to go back into a technical field (even though engineering sales is still somewhat technical). If you start off in sales, what sort of positions could you apply to/be promoted to say 10-15 years in the future? Would you end up being stuck in sales forever?

I ask because I am somewhat interested in this field, and it could definitely improve my interpersonal skills. But I don't see myself as working my whole life in the same company.

The ex president/ex owner of the EPC company I work for started off in sales and then went back to the technical end. I'd say his net worth after he sold out to a multinational is in the 40-50 million dollar range.

[nwwong]

Anyone else doing this type of job?

[Sylvestre]

[...]
I ask because I am somewhat interested in this field, and it could definitely improve my interpersonal skills. But I don't see myself as working my whole life in the same company.

I'm not in sales (never had the desire) but many friends are. First off, there's a huge range in the term "sales". You can be an applications engineer i.e. an engineer working for the manufacturer who works with the customer to implement the object/device. Or you can be a sales guy.

Clearly, the first is the "preferred" option however less and less companies are maintaining a staff of application engineers these days so it's much tougher to get into. Even jobs that are advertise as "application engineers" really aren't. You are really just selling the product and then baby-sitting during the implementation.

This is all hearsay but from chatting with friends, yeah, they make more money, but their job is definitely not technical. In almost every case, if something technical does pop up, one of the production engineers is brought in to debug. Most of my friends say they know they can't go back to highly technical jobs, but it's not what they want, so it doesn't bother them.

Personally, it's the technical aspects of my job that keep me interested, not the money and definitely not the schmoozing. If it weren't challenging my brain, I'd be elsewhere. You have to figure out if that's what you want, or if you desire other things.

[Starkicker]

Most of the sales guys I knew used to be technical, but then went to the other side. They have the best of both worlds, they have the technical insight to answer customers questions, and they have the personality to schmooze. They get paid big bucks where I work, but then again, they bring in money as well. Sometimes they get sent into the field to troubleshoot when installations don't go well.

Good Luck.

[bacid1]

If you are excellent technically AND sales, then you are very rare and will be paid well.

I only know a few people who meet the above criteria and they all bank 100k+