[ale] Systems Engineer 2 Sales Engineer

[Robert Heaven]

Being a Tech Engineer with current "hands-on" experience, makes you very valuable in the Sales Engineering area. (and sales engineering pays good too) Unfortunately, while you're in a Sales Engineering role, you stop getting any further "hands-on" experience because all of your time is used up supporting sales. Then, because of natural product evolution, your skills slowly become obsolete and you eventually lose your value. And, more importantly, sales management does NOT invest in future skills training. They simply discard you and go buy a new Tech Engineer with the new skills they want.

I was once a software engineer with current skills that got laid off in a recession. By the time the recession ended, my skills were obsolete and no company was willing to pay for my skills training. I also had kids to feed and couldn't afford to go back to school to refresh my skills. It eventually took me 12 years, of working in sales engineering, just to find a job in Systems Engineering. 

On Aug 20, 2012, at 11:15 AM, Brandon Colbert <colbert.brandon at gmail.com> wrote:

> What are thoughts?
> 
> Do you think it would be hard to get back in Tech Engineering if Sales Engineering does not work?
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