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The project management certification standard and acronyms will in part depend on your location in the world. Totally agree that some places value certificates and some don't care. I have no formal certification and can run circles around most PMs I have worked with (I also know enough that being a PM is not the job for me). PMI or similar are good to get a baseline if you have no experience with project management. I still keep a copy of the project management handbook on my bookshelf and crack it open a few times a year.
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Aug 10, 2013 03:46
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Sounds like getting a PM Cert is one of those, "It can't hurt but it's not a huge door opener either" deal. Let me ask another way - What might I expect if I were to end up taking a PM position? The job I'm looking at (and ended up applying for) is tangentially related to what I do now. The position is part of our customer relocation group and the position is for the person tasked with overseeing the relocation planned and executed. I think the position sounds interesting for a lot of the reasons I love my job now but project management isn't something I've done or studied since college 13+ years ago and I can't remember a single thing from that class.
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Aug 10, 2013 13:28
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TouchyMcFeely posted:
Controlling the scope of the project (not letting it creep up without communicating the need for additional budget, resources or time), dealing with project schedules, tracking execution of planned work, tracking expenses, time and cost variance reports and endless meetings with management to assure them that the world is not burning down around you. This has, at least, been my experience in project management.
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Aug 10, 2013 16:44
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I am officialy coming to terms with the fact that I royally hosed up with my degrees the first time around in school. I did my undergrad in communication (idiot) and then a masters in a program I later found out doesn't do much to qualify for anything. I am looking at going back but this time getting something not retarded, would either a bachelors or masters in Information Systems be valuable at all? Googling around the job growth seems alright and many job listings I have found are interested in IT skills.
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Aug 11, 2013 15:52
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Brotein_Shake posted:I am officialy coming to terms with the fact that I royally hosed up with my degrees the first time around in school. I did my undergrad in communication (idiot) and then a masters in a program I later found out doesn't do much to qualify for anything. I was a theater major and have a career in IT. If you already have a masters and have practical IT experience you may not really need an IS degree. If I were looking to hire new graduates I would put a lot more value on something like EE, lesser in proper CS, and even less in Information Systems. Have you thought about getting an MBA? There are various MBA programs with some emphasis on computing that might be much more lucrative long term.
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Aug 11, 2013 21:30
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I finished school a couple years ago and have been practicing architecture ever since, and it turns out I hate it. Unfortunately for me, Architecture is fairly niche in that the skills you learn are useless in almost every other profession, so I've been having a tough time trying to decide what I actually want to do. I also have a pile of student debt and an upcoming wedding, so being unemployed isn't something I can risk at the moment, meaning I can't just haul off and quit without some kind of safety net. My favourite part of the job is doing any kind of visual work, like Photoshopping elevations and making 3d models as prototypes or for rendering purposes. The problem is, the higher up you go, the less you get to do that kind of thing, and the more managing and paperwork you end up doing. I see what my bosses do, and I talk to my friends who I went to school with and they say the same things, and I don't want any part of that so I need to switch careers as soon as possible. The problem is, what the hell do I do? Really what I need is some kind of adult guidance counselor. Not the kind that you gently caress or something, but the kind that works in a high school and tells kids what they should do based on their skills and goals. I'd like to talk to someone like that and figure out where I should be directing my efforts. I can't really go back to school because I have too much student debt already, so I'd like to find something that makes sense for me now so I can transition out. Maybe I can't, I don't know, but I need to do something now before I go nuts. Is there anywhere that would have a guidance counselor-esque service that would allow someone like me to come in and figure out what I want to be when I grow up?
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Aug 12, 2013 03:36
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Brotein_Shake posted:I am officialy coming to terms with the fact that I royally hosed up with my degrees the first time around in school. I did my undergrad in communication (idiot) and then a masters in a program I later found out doesn't do much to qualify for anything. No offense but going back to school after getting a bachelors and masters seems like a supreme waste of money. For anecdotal evidence: I have an undergrad degree in journalism and I work for one of the largest aerospace companies in the world.
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Aug 12, 2013 16:41
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Natron posted:Really what I need is some kind of adult guidance counselor. Not the kind that you gently caress or something, but the kind that works in a high school and tells kids what they should do based on their skills and goals. There probably are guidance counsellors for adults, but when I was in your situation I took a bunch of online "career" tests. It was actually helpful because I'd never thought of myself as a creative person but all my results said I needed a "creative" job. Doing a bunch of tests and being open to the results (since I had no clue what job would make me happy) helped me realise that I'd really like to teach as a job, something is never really considered!
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Aug 13, 2013 21:33
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Bucket Joneses posted:No offense but going back to school after getting a bachelors and masters seems like a supreme waste of money. What do you do, marketing or pr for them or something? Signed, Person trying to get the hell out of media. Ugh.
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Aug 14, 2013 00:10
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Brotein_Shake posted:I am officialy coming to terms with the fact that I royally hosed up with my degrees the first time around in school. I did my undergrad in communication (idiot) and then a masters in a program I later found out doesn't do much to qualify for anything. Unless you're going for some sort of engineering where you may need to be licensed, just stick to self-study. IS is literally one of the most self-study friendly fields out there and it would be a waste of your time to get another degree, even if your first one was in Gender Studies or something completely out there. Instead of getting a second degree spend the money on certifications, books, and possibly a lab. What do you want to do in IS?
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Aug 14, 2013 14:30
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THE MACHO MAN posted:What do you do, marketing or pr for them or something? No, it's nothing related to journalism or pr at all. Certainly, being able to put together coherent emails puts me head and shoulders above a lot of my coworkers. You'd be amazed at how far "not being terrible" gets you in the corporate world. I help run the electrical systems lab for a certain yet-to-be-released airplane model that I won't name.
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Aug 14, 2013 19:32
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I am currently trying to change careers as I know no longer enjoy what I do nor do I feel its the right fit for me in the long run. I currently work in Pharmaceutical Compliance and I want to get into budgeting/become a budget analyst. I have a generic 4 year business degree but I don't really have the background that most positions are looking for (Although I obviously am familiar with Accounting and Finance to a limited extent due to my business coursework). To be fair, I AM finding that a number of positions DON'T require a finance degree, just a business degree in general, but they usually want that backed up by some finance experience. Right now I am just trying to learn as many things as I can on my own (SQL, VBA Programming in Excel) to make myself a more attractive candidate, but does anyone have any advice to help me steer myself into this field?
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Aug 14, 2013 23:37
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kells posted:There probably are guidance counsellors for adults, but when I was in your situation I took a bunch of online "career" tests. It was actually helpful because I'd never thought of myself as a creative person but all my results said I needed a "creative" job. Yeah, this is kind of what I was trying to find. I've been reading through the thread and trying to take a look at myself and try to decide what I should do. I have training in such a specific thing, but someone said to look at which parts of the job you enjoy, even if they're few and far between. I know these two things: I love making 3d models (and I'm good at it!), and I like helping people with their computer problems at work. Those are the best parts of the job, so I think I'll see what's around in those areas. I've been tossing around the idea of starting my own business doing renders and models for architectural firms for a while, but I think I would have to supplement that with another, less intense job. I could be a bartender by night and a mouse-clicker by day! Not very glamorous, but I think I'd be a lot happier.
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Aug 16, 2013 05:01
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So how do I break out of my current career trajectory into another career? I work as a Quality Assurance Technologist in a food manufacturer in Massachusetts. My goal with my degree has always been "I want to go to work and make something" so now that I have ~2ish years of food manufacturing experience, I want to get out of Quality and into Product Development. Unfortunately Massachusetts has a tiny food industry, which means there aren't a lot of open jobs. I've checked a bunch of resources (CareersInFood.com, and some industry websites) but the majority of positions hiring are for Quality. There is at least 1-2 R&D positions posted but at least one of them is at a place that known for having a revolving door when it comes to job security. There are enough companies that aren't too far from my current apartment, but none seem to have positions open. I want to cold-call these places, or just drop an email in some HR departments mailbox. Is there a right/wrong way to do this? How do I send my resume/cover letters to these companies without being put as spam in the inbox? Also I have a good idea of how to phrase some of my Quality experience as being relevant to R&D (knowledge of ingredients, product troubleshooting, experience in allergens/organics/etc) but any advice on that would also be welcome. Most importantly... is this the right thread to ask this question?
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Aug 16, 2013 12:58
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Is this where we discuss how to ask for a raise or is there a better thread for that? I'm freaking out because I desperately need a raise after only working at my job for a year, but I make about average for the field I'm in.
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Aug 16, 2013 15:17
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Shnooks posted:Is this where we discuss how to ask for a raise or is there a better thread for that? I'm freaking out because I desperately need a raise after only working at my job for a year, but I make about average for the field I'm in. 1. The fact that you may need a raise matters zilch to your company, as it should be. If your finances are in disorder, maybe you should ask about them in other parts of BFC? 2. It probably won't hurt to ask, but make sure you talk about the value you deliver to your company, not why you need a raise for your personal situation. Ultimately, what gets you a raise is leverage. If they need you, and are afraid that you'll potentially leave, they'll probably be amenable to a raise. If you're easily replaceable, not so much.
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Aug 16, 2013 18:13
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Natron posted:I've been tossing around the idea of starting my own business doing renders and models for architectural firms for a while, but I think I would have to supplement that with another, less intense job. Be careful with this, a lot of places are outsourcing to dirt cheap 3rd world countries. It is prob not a good idea due to communication and quality problems but its hard for management to resist paying 75% less even when its costing 200% more in hidden costs. However, if/when they realize this you might be in a good spot as a local talent so maybe it'll work out since inshoring seems to be the rising trend. Thats not based on official numbers, just word on the street from friends in that industry complaining about their chinese renderers.
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Aug 16, 2013 21:11
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Jet Set Jettison posted:There are enough companies that aren't too far from my current apartment, but none seem to have positions open. I want to cold-call these places, or just drop an email in some HR departments mailbox. Is there a right/wrong way to do this? How do I send my resume/cover letters to these companies without being put as spam in the inbox? Yes, this is a good thread for this sort of thing. There has been some discussion on changing career paths, maybe in different industries but worth a read through this in general. Find and meet the HR people (staffing or recruiting job titles perhaps) and tell them that even if they don't have openings today you want them to know who you are and be ready when a position becomes available. No harm in networking, and if you can get to know the hiring managers for the job you want, even better. If you make it your job to be a networking machine and know all the local companies and know the specific people you would want to work for, the job you want is likely to happen (assuming you are competent and can befriend the people you want to work with and are a good fit and all that). Spinning your experience to being relevant is good, though I am not in the food industry...
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Aug 16, 2013 22:06
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Ultimate Mango posted:Yes, this is a good thread for this sort of thing. There has been some discussion on changing career paths, maybe in different industries but worth a read through this in general. I'm going to be the devil's advocate here and say that (yes, cultural differences come into play here) I really don't like it when people do this. We don't keep a database of all the cold-call CVs that come through to refer back to every time we advertise anything. If you are interested in working for us, I expect you to apply when there is a vacancy and that is when I want to see your CV. A submission indicating general interest in future vacancies is not going to achieve anything - even if you seem pretty good, I can't magic up a job for you; nor will I just give you a job without advertising externally as I want to ensure I've found the best person for the job. Be discerning about what you want to apply for and tailor your application to that specific job when it is advertised. Similarly, I am far more likely to make time to meet with someone who is interested in a current vacancy - we can have a good old yarn about the role, your experience and whether it would suit - it'll be great! But being brutally honest, I don't have time to meet with people who are interested in a potential future maybe-vacancy which doesn't exist yet. Tamarillo fucked around with this message at 12:05 on Aug 20, 2013 |
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Aug 20, 2013 12:03
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Tamarillo posted:I'm going to be the devil's advocate here and say that (yes, cultural differences come into play here) I really don't like it when people do this. ^^^^ I am super happy to see a totally different perspective. Since I pretty much do my own sourcing for people who report to me, I like to have a stable of candidates and a network that would allow me to hire quickly when I have openings. You are totally right that many places may hate that, and the HR people would not want to waste their time with future candidates. For all the rest of the Career Path Thread observers, this just goes to show that there is no one right way, and that industry and company and person all come into play.
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Aug 20, 2013 15:40
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I just had a good talk with my boss about potential avenues of advancement at the company I work at he gave me a bunch of stuff to think about while I've got all this downtime at work lately. He mentioned a couple things, like getting into knowledge management, project management, training, leadership, stuff I could probably transition into fairly easily given my skillset, but then he also mentioned he has a couple contacts in corporate sales and that might be an option as well. Most of my life I've dismissed sales jobs because I always imagined like, cold-calling jobs and lovely jobs where you sell retail goods or insurance. But I honestly don't have any experience with that kind of job and I feel like I am personable and motivated enough to do well at it maybe? Made me think that getting a MBA in the future might not be a bad idea either... I gotta think about this poo poo, this is all new to me.
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Sep 5, 2013 19:57
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100 HOGS AGREE posted:I just had a good talk with my boss about potential avenues of advancement at the company I work at he gave me a bunch of stuff to think about while I've got all this downtime at work lately. There are many people in this thread who can help you, but a little more info might help. Keep in generic or whatever to protect your anonymity, but give us something to work with. Some things that would help: What kind of industry are you in? Large company or small? How much experience do you have? What is your current job? What do you like/dislike about your job? Sales jobs, in my opinion, require a certain type of person and personality and drive to be a good fit. I do not carry quota, but am very close to sales and work directly with sales people, some of whom make insane money. Talking about knowledge or project management and sales in the same career discussion is highly unusual, but may make sense in your industry or company. If you don't want to air stuff here PM me or any of the other posters in this thread who have posted things that resonate with you.
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Sep 6, 2013 05:40
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Ultimate Mango posted:If you don't want to air stuff here PM me or any of the other posters in this thread who have posted things that resonate with you. I work for a fortune 500 tech company doing level 1 helpdesk support for corporate accounts. I started working here last August and up until about a month ago I took calls from employees of a different fortune 500 company and troubleshooted their computer issues. I was a contractor but I got hired in and have been a full employee since April. I generally enjoy my job, I took like 25-30 calls most days and did stuff like password resets, fixed Outlook issues, VPN issues, poo poo like that. It's not super hard work and it can be frustrating sometimes but it rarely stresses me out. It makes me happy to chat with people from around the country and I like solving problems so I can't think of many days at all where I went home and felt like I had wasted my day at work. And I've never had a morning where I got up and didn't want to go to work, like I did in the past at some crap-rear end jobs I had. Reading the call center thread I can see that I work at a much better place and get paid better than a lot of other people do for the same kind of work so I guess I kind of lucked out there. So I've been here a year and right now I'm between desks, my company is finalizing a contract with another fortune 500 company and I'm moving to that desk, I was pulled off my old desk but the process is taking longer than they thought (corporate america!  ) and the new desk might not start until the end of this month so I'm basically getting paid to come into work and do web training modules and piss around on the internet, so I've had a lot of free time lately. I grabbed my CompTIA A+ cert for the hell of it earlier this month since I figured it couldn't hurt while I'm doing this helpdesk stuff, and I thought it might give my wage a little kick when I go in for my review at the end of the year.And I guess when my new desk starts up my boss is probably going to have me doing executive support and he said he's going to push hard for raises for everyone to the new desk.  Anyway, I got a little depressed while I had all this free time and I was getting frustrated and bored with not doing anything so I started going back to therapy as a preventative measure and we've been focusing on being proactive with setting goals and trying to suss out what I want to do for a career, as I've never really put any real thought into it my whole life. So I've been trying to do a lot of research online and I'm gonna go in to the career counseling at my alma mater to get some advice too. When I talked to my new boss yesterday about it I basically opened up with, yeah, I like my job but I want to have higher aspirations than being on the phone all day doing helpdesk so can you maybe recommend some ideas that are available at the company? I made it kinda clear I really know what I want to do so I wanted some options I could research. He was like, yeah, I can see how you don't really know what you want to do so he gave me a big list of various roles that I could go into. Our company is pretty big on hiring from within so he said when I decide on something more concrete he can see about getting me a couple weeks after to shadow some people in some other roles and get a feel for the kind of work they do. He mostly brought up stuff in our building but he said he does have contacts in other parts of the company outside our location so that's why he gave me corporate sales as an option too. Then he said do some thinking on it and we'll have another chat about it in a couple weeks. So I decided that jobs that I felt were distasteful when I was younger (like working in a call center, holy poo poo) can actually be jobs that I enjoy and am good at so I'm not going to immediately shelve any options that have been presented to me and am going to reasonably consider my options in this company. I like doing techy stuff but my background isn't it in (B.A. in English) and I just kinda fell into this job. But it's super entry level, doesn't require a degree or even much specialized knowledge. I'm pretty confident I can leverage my current job into what could be an entirely different role at the company. My boss said everything's pretty much results based, and if you do good work there's a lot of opportunity for advancement. He started out in kind of the same situation I'm in and he's been here for a couple years and he worked his way up into a leadership role that he really likes. tl;dr: 27, work in helpdesk at huge company with lots of options for advancement outside of IT, B.A. in English, open to considering just about anything as I've never really thought about it before now. Got a lot of free time at work. 100 HOGS AGREE fucked around with this message at 14:29 on Sep 6, 2013 |
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Sep 6, 2013 14:22
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Your experience is somewhat like mine (although I never had any downtime at my crazy fast-paced job and my manager specifically tagged me for people management) but you're totally right about unexpected opportunities sometimes ending up being rewarding. I never in a million years imagined I'd be doing what I am where I am but I really like it and apparently I'm pretty good at it. I think the career counseling will be good so you can really dig into what you like and try to narrow down your options. Maybe some shorter shadows to just get a glimpse of different jobs would be good for you.
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Sep 7, 2013 14:24
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Can't think of a better place to post this: can anyone recommend books for a young professional to read as they start their first corporate job? I begin training as a lawyer on Monday and I'm trying to get out of the student mindset.
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Sep 7, 2013 15:23
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I'm considering applying for a job but I'm not sure its a step in the right direction. The job is for a Packaging Supervisor at the Boston Beer Company. I would be a real hands on manufacturing packaging dude who would order all the bottles, make sure people are filling them correctly, labelling them clearly and doing this all in a sanitary fashion. Basically I'd be a production supervisor for the filling side of the operation. Nothing particularly glorious. Heres where it gets interesting: My long term career goal is to be a product development manager of some food product for really any company at all, so this may seem unrelated. The packaging Supervisor reports to the Product Development Manager! So now I'm wondering if applying to this job would be a good foot in the door to being a professional beer developer (a literal dream job) or if this is a step that would lead me to be more of a production supervisor. Should I apply?
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Sep 19, 2013 15:56
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Jet Set Jettison posted:I'm considering applying for a job but I'm not sure its a step in the right direction. Always apply. If anything it opens the door for you to learn more about the job and the manager. I am sure there are people here with the opposite opinion, but I always encourage people to talk to me about jobs.
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Sep 19, 2013 19:16
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I totally agree. I mean, is your current job closer to your dream job than this one? Get in there, learn the biz, work really well with the product manager and see what happens!
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Sep 19, 2013 23:20
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100 HOGS AGREE posted:I just had a good talk with my boss about potential avenues of advancement at the company I work at he gave me a bunch of stuff to think about while I've got all this downtime at work lately. And it makes sense -- companies wouldn't be in business if they didn't get sales. So I made it my mission to go into sales, and I did, and I love it. It does take an outgoing personality type, but you don't need to be a bullshitter/schmoozer to do it. As long as you're genuinely likeable, can succinctly state your value prop, and *help clients with their needs* you can do it.
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Sep 19, 2013 23:22
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Jet Set Jettison posted:I'm considering applying for a job but I'm not sure its a step in the right direction. If you don't apply you'll never get anywhere. If you apply, and later on decide to not take the job, you'll be out an interview or two, nothing more.
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Sep 19, 2013 23:45
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ProFootballGuy posted:Sales is where the money is, without a doubt. 5 years ago I was busting my balls doing professional services, hating life, when my boss told me that I was still way down the totem pole and needed to be pre-sales to get the money.
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Sep 20, 2013 13:41
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corkskroo posted:I totally agree. I mean, is your current job closer to your dream job than this one? Get in there, learn the biz, work really well with the product manager and see what happens! My current job is closer to my realistic dream job (Work in any food R&D department) than this job. I work as a Food Technologist in a quality department which basically boils down to "Im the product guy who has to fix poo poo sometimes." Taking this other job means I lose the product guy-ness of my jobs for a risky opportunity to jump into R&D. My current job is, however, not in a beer factory.
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Sep 20, 2013 14:00
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100 HOGS AGREE posted:You don't have Plat so I can't PM you but could you tell me a bit about what you did to transition? I'm interested in this as well.
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Sep 20, 2013 14:43
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I was at a smaller company (technical VAR) at the time, so I asked if I could sit in on sales meetings and do more pre-sales SE type work. Once I got familiar with the process I started taking more meetings solo, getting POs faxed from customers attn: me, and doing a bit of prospecting myself. I did have to change companies to get into a dedicated sales role - dedicated sales engineer, then sales rep. You'll find that companies will pigeonhole you, but that doesn't mean you can't find opportunities to "stretch" your role a bit. No one's gonna be pissed if you help bring in more business.
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Sep 20, 2013 15:49
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ProFootballGuy really did something amazing in transitioning from pre-sales to sales person. In Enterprise software sales I have seen maybe one or two pre-sales engineers transition to long term, successful, quota carrying sales persons. For me its not about pigeon-holing, its about skills and personalities. In general, the kind of person who can make seven figures every year selling complex solutions to big companies is very different from the kind of person who can convince everyone from developers and admins to the executive leaderships that the software we sell really works and can solve their problems. Sales can also be the kind of grind that engineer-minded people cannot handle for more than a short time. The number of calls and meetings every day, the sheer amount of rejection you encounter as you build a pipeline. The incredible challenge of getting a deal through a customer's procurement chain. Sure, the pre-sales engineers I have known all would love to make a million bucks a year, and great sales people make it look easy. Those who try to move over to sales then, and only then, realize that as a pre-sales person they only saw 10% of the sales person's job, and the other 90% is really, really hard for them.
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Sep 20, 2013 16:32
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Ultimate Mango posted:For me its not about pigeon-holing, its about skills and personalities. In general, the kind of person who can make seven figures every year selling complex solutions to big companies is very different from the kind of person who can convince everyone from developers and admins to the executive leaderships that the software we sell really works and can solve their problems. Could you elaborate on this? They seem like they'd be similar so interesting that they're not. For my part: I'm a Systems analyst but I still scratch my head on how the hell I ended up here. I have an MIS degree so I'm sort of technical but I've always leaned hard soft skills and struggled with math, although I do well with logic so I usually get along with technical types and can at least sit at the technical table. Ironically, I think selling myself got me a job I shouldn't have qualified for and then I've just rolled along from there. I'm mid-late twenties now though and kinda realizing I'm misaligned and want to fix it before I hate my life because I'm not exploiting my strengths. The fat paycheck is cool but I'm most interested in enjoying my job and feeling like I'm maximizing myself. My bosses have recognized my communication ability and have let me expand into a Project Manager type role, but Its not a full time change and I don't know if they'll ever let me transition fully out of analyst work. I keep kicking sales around in my head since I love presentations and I'd rather go to meetings all day than sit at my desk with excel and visual studios open, grinding away at a data problem. The hard part comes when I try to figure out how in the hell I can make that jump. Plus, this is all conjecture so I have no clue if I'd really enjoy it.
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Sep 20, 2013 17:09
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Xguard86 posted:Could you elaborate on this? They seem like they'd be similar so interesting that they're not. For the overlap between sales and presales, they are pretty similar. That is the 10% part. Sales Engineers have to maintain a blend of technical and soft skills. They have to stay current in the technology area and industry in which they sell, and have to have considerable expertise in the solutions they sell and the good ones tend to be leaders in their domains. There are dozens of skills that are important and pretty unique for presales. Salespeople/Account Managers/Client Executives have to have much more of the soft skill and sales/selling expertise, and really have to understand an end to end sales process. Who are your customers/accounts? How do you generate leads and interest in those accounts for the products you need to sell? How do you get the customer to a point where they want you, the sales person, to bring in a sales engineer for a demonstration? What the process to get technical buy in on the solution you are selling AND show value and ROI at the price point where you and your company make some money? What does the procurement person(s) need to sign off on the deal? What about all the paperwork and forecasting and deal reviews? What about the ten other deals you need to close this quarter in order to make your number? How about the twenty to fifty other calls you need to make today to generate pipeline for next quarter and the quarter after that? Some people excel in that environment and step up to the challenges of carrying a quota. Those people tend to not want to do all the things the presales engineer does. The presales engineer (sometimes) sees the money the sales people make and think 'I want to make that money and I can do everything the sales person does,' and fails to see all the work the sales person put in BEFORE the engineer got involved, and doesn't see all the work that happens after the engineer is done. The presales engineer tends to miss the total grind that comes with establishing your territory as a sales person, and that grind tends to burn out the true engineer types who want to move into sales. So you are a Systems Analyst. What kind of systems? What kind of company and industry? Systems Analyst to Pre-sales isn't uncommon. Maybe you have some skill with a certain kind of system or domain that would be interesting to a software vendor or partner or implementer? Maybe instead you want to reboot and go into sales. Where I work, the way to get in without any sales experience is 'inside sales.' You will be given a desk and a phone and a computer and a list of customers and you will be calling and emailing trying to find people who are interested and qualify the leads and hand them off to sales people. You will mostly be dialing for dollars (well asking for the next meeting that if you are lucky will become and opportunity and eventually lead to dollars). Get good at it and then maybe they make you a junior salesperson and give you a few accounts. Then the real work begins. Typically takes a few years, if you make it that long. Which would you rather do? Spend a year making phone calls trying to find someone interested in your solution, or learning how to present and demonstrate said solution and doing so for potential customers who are somewhat qualified?
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Sep 20, 2013 18:45
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I agree with what you said. Myself, I didn't enjoy the in-the-weeds technical part of engineering, and I was never going to be a superstar guru who had his own blog and spent all day testing out scenarios in his home lab. Some SEs are more suited to parachute in to do design/config-work with the customer's engineers, but I excelled on the soft skills/sales/presenting/meeting side. Depending on the company it isn't uncommon for SEs to move over into sales. Some companies like their SEs super-nerdy and some like them to be more salesy. I was in the latter category. I moved into an overlay sales position, specializing on a single product set and covering multiple "core" reps. That seemed to be typical for SEs transitioning. Yes, there is a lot of bullshit involved (the company is constantly tracking all forecasts and asking you about where deals sit). And in many cases the answer is "It's in some loving labyrinth of red tape waiting to get signed in blood by a witch." There are headaches in all jobs, though, and I prefer the sales headache to the engineering headache of banging my head against the wall trying to work around an unsolvable code issue (and poring through hundreds of pages of docs trying to figure it out) or getting a call at 3 AM that something's broken.
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Sep 20, 2013 19:20
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Some typical sales headaches: -If you work with a sales channel, expect lots of drama. There will always be someone butthurt at you for some reason. Whether it's going in with another partner, giving better pricing via deal registration, working without the partner (some like to keep total account control and want to be involved in EVERYTHING you do), etc etc etc. Probably my #1 headache. -Customers haggling about pricing. This happens every time, and their "budget" always just happens to be in the range where you'd need to ask for non-standard pricing approvals from management. -Customers hiding the real decision-maker. You think you have a deal done, then there's a last-minute cockblock from a Wizard of Oz who has the real power. I fell into this problem a lot early on, now I do more digging to see what the real buying process is. -End of quarters. Like right now. Is that PO going to actually get here or is it going to be stuck in limbo hell? Stressful. -Some customers will only buy from their golfing/boating/etc buddies, and won't ever talk to you. The answer to this, of course, is to make golfing buddies. -Sometimes your product doesn't do what the customer needs, and even your best leaps of logic won't save it. -Generating pipeline is a constant process, and things drop out at a truly alarming rate. You need to have like 3-5x your number in pipeline, and it's hard. -Customers will call and ask for a quote for something they need ASAP! Yeah! Alright! They wind up buying half of what you quoted, two years later. Among many other things.
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Sep 20, 2013 19:42
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Ultimate Mango posted:Which would you rather do? Spend a year making phone calls trying to find someone interested in your solution, or learning how to present and demonstrate said solution and doing so for potential customers who are somewhat qualified? Interesting stuff. Obviously I'd rather not take a probable pay/lifestyle cut to start at the bottom of a sales position so parlaying sounds like the way to go. I'm just trying to figure out a way to take my kind of technical base to move into a more communication soft skill oriented field. To be honest, those problems yall name sound like something I can handle more easily than: "we have 27 unique fields for 12,000 entries and need to gather and sort all of them here is your excel sheet and headphones". It certainly does sound intimidating though trying to keep a constant sales pipeline running. I've floated this question previously and heard Product Owner/Product Manager would be a good fit but after looking for those positions, they seem to require a good deal more experience than I have, or a right time/place situation. I guess its normal to be frustrated in your twenties.
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Sep 20, 2013 21:38
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