Is Marketing Useful for Engineers?

At least in my job (R&D engineer at a Silicon Valley company), I interact with Marketing quite a bit. We work together to define products (a balancing act between what the market wants, and what is technically feasible and reasonably practical), and to deal with customer issues, complaints, and wish-lists.

I think a single elective class in Marketing might be pretty interesting, and potentially useful if you end up in a similar position to mine. Definitely some of the Marketing-centric ideas are counter-intuitive to a technically-minded engineer or physicist. Marketing sometimes tends to be a lot about flash, or appearance, and us techies tend to think in much more concrete terms. Still, we can do good work together, and the end product is better for our cooperation.

 

:rofl:

 

If one is a consultant or an independent (on one's own), marketing oneself or one's services is a necessity. However, one doesn't necessarily need a class or course. A lot of marketing is just common sense.

One should understand and appreciate customer relations, of which a key element is to listen to the customer rather than blathering, promoting, or preaching. Of course, once a rapport is established, then small talk is part of the interaction.

I learned marketing by doing and following the example of a company VPres/Pres, who made it a point to talk to clients and potential clients on a regular basis. With that approach, we'd keep up with the 'market' and be aware of potential projects.

Another part of marketing is being able to ask the right questions when presented with a technical problem, and that is where experience comes in.

 

While I agree with the general comment, I think engineers should be well-rounded in useful ways. Marketing is not something a typical engineer will need for a decade after they leave school, which is too long for it to be useful. If the goal of the OP is a liberal arts elective that is useful to an engineer, I can think of many others that would be more imediately useful: economics, writing, ethics, leadership/managment, etc.

I'm wondering why marketing counts as a "technical elective". For my degree, a "technical elective had to be science/engineering related.

 

Upon further review, that is an excellent comment by Russ. The timing of your need to potentially interact with or use Marketing skills is generally well after you finish school and start working. And as Astro points out, you can generally learn those skills on the job.

So I'm changing my answer. I agree that a different elective will probably serve you better coming out of school, and in the first few years of your work experience.