Background is engineering, was an engineering manager and director for a bit. CEO boss was a narcissistic ******* who tried to torpedo me so I quit and took a sales job for one of my previous vendors.

I have a chance to go back to an engineering manager/director role, but I enjoy the flexibility of sales. Not sure if I can be content being "just another sales guy" for the rest of my career though. What should I do?

A ton more money in sales but less pressure to perform in engineering.

Rudyjax said:

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AggiEE said:

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Rudyjax said:

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A ton more money in sales but less pressure to perform in engineering.

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Pressure to sell maybe

There's many other technical pressures in
engineering

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Sales pressure is like no other.

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Maybe depends on the role, but many of the sales engineers I know seem to have pretty cushy jobs with a lot of flexibility and aren't really accountable to the implementation side, which IMHO is quite a lot of pressure to make things that actually work, at reasonable cost, while fulfilling customer requirements. Not to mention all the downstream headaches from planning, supply chain, fabrication, and install. Engineering is central to all of these but sales is quite removed

AggiEE said:

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Rudyjax said:

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AggiEE said:

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Rudyjax said:

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A ton more money in sales but less pressure to perform in engineering.

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Pressure to sell maybe

There's many other technical pressures in
engineering

---

Sales pressure is like no other.

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Maybe depends on the role, but many of the sales engineers I know seem to have pretty cushy jobs with a lot of flexibility and aren't really accountable to the implementation side, which IMHO is quite a lot of pressure to make things that actually work, at reasonable cost, while fulfilling customer requirements. Not to mention all the downstream headaches from planning, supply chain, fabrication, and install. Engineering is central to all of these but sales is quite removed

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the bolded part is pretty accurate to the role i'm in now. Regarding stress and pressure, the engineering role that i'm discussing would be a director level position where I would be heading an engineering department for an OEM of heavy equipment.

I Am A Critic said:

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Sales guys also have to deal with know it all, never wrong engineers with little to no people or communications skills.

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Take those Engineers and add a level of arrogance, misogyny and accent from the subcontinent and that's what I have to deal with on a daily basis.

Remember the attributes of your Dungeons and Dragons character?

Quote:

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Six abilities provide a quick description of every creature's physical and mental characteristics:

• Strength, measuring physical power
• Dexterity, measuring agility
• Constitution, measuring endurance
• Intelligence, measuring reasoning and memory
• Wisdom, measuring perception and insight
• Charisma, measuring force of personality

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These guys are:
Strength - 1
Dexterity - 1
Constitution - 1
Intelligence - 18
Wisdom - 1
Charisma - 0

Nightman said:

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AggiEE said:

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Rudyjax said:

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AggiEE said:

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Rudyjax said:

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A ton more money in sales but less pressure to perform in engineering.

---

Pressure to sell maybe

There's many other technical pressures in
engineering

---

Sales pressure is like no other.

---

Maybe depends on the role, but many of the sales engineers I know seem to have pretty cushy jobs with a lot of flexibility and aren't really accountable to the implementation side, which IMHO is quite a lot of pressure to make things that actually work, at reasonable cost, while fulfilling customer requirements. Not to mention all the downstream headaches from planning, supply chain, fabrication, and install. Engineering is central to all of these but sales is quite removed

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the bolded part is pretty accurate to the role i'm in now. Regarding stress and pressure, the engineering role that i'm discussing would be a director level position where I would be heading an engineering department for an OEM of heavy equipment.

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What do you enjoy more? Is the compensation much different or does that even matter much to you?

If you simply want a less stressful, cushy role, with far less accountability and complexity, maybe you should stay in your current sales role. If you want to be a little more involved in the actual operations and management, go for the director level role.

fair enough. I'm doing fine at sales. it's been fairly low-stress and easy so far. i think what i wonder is with an engineering background I like creating things and solving problems and i don't know if sales is going to fulfill that for very long.

i think what i like most about it is the flexibility. I'm given freedom to basically run my region/customers however i see fit for the most part so long as I hit my targets. granted, the market has been decent during this time so that hasn't been stressful but when i sell a commodity that is used in manufacturing other products, it's only a matter of time before the market goes down and i'm scrambling to hit my numbers. I haven't been through one of those cycles yet so i'm not sure what that will be like.

Curve ball, the engineering position pays 40k a year more than my sales role, + a car allowance, not including bonuses at either.

Max with bonus will still be ~40k more, not including the car allowance.

Nightman said:

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Curve ball, the engineering position pays 40k a year more than my sales role, + a car allowance, not including bonuses at either.

Max with bonus will still be ~40k more, not including the car allowance.

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How many YoE do you have in engineering?

Is this new role a lot more than you were making previously in engineering?

15 years. This is slightly less salary than I made when I stepped away from engineering, but the large bonuses and car allowance are new

OldArmy99 said:

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IMO you are either a salesman or you aren't. If you don't have a calling for sales, then maybe the engineering role is the better choice.

And this is coming from a long time salesman with an engineering degree.

Good luck!

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Kind of disagree with this. At least in the traditional sense of you have to be an extrovert, people person, etc. I've been in sales and supply chain, so seen both sides. Yes, if you are an introvert you do have to be able to get out of your comfort zone a little.

I don't care if you take me to dinners, games, can entertain, etc. At the end of the day, what I really want in a salesperson is someone who is available when I need them and can help me via their knowledge and/or product.

Actually, I agree with you regarding that sales people can be a lot of different personalities. I hire many that don't fit the extrovert type.

My comment was more about the motivation factor. Either you are motivated and driven by the chase/competition to win sales or you aren't. You want to be on the front line of the business with everything that entails or you don't.

It's just my opinion. I'm sure others may disagree which is totally fine.

Ok, I agree with that. But the same, or similar, can be said for really any individual contributor type roll, once you get beyond data entry, no?

Taking supply chain, for example, people just doing the bare minimum, have no motivation, and aren't actively engaging with the engineers, stakeholders, etc. aren't going to get promoted/do well in category management type rolls. They'll likely stay in a buyer level position....