Need advice at possible job opportunity

[aleMza]

Hi all,

I'm from Argentina, and I'm currently needing some kind of advice over a possible job opportunity that I would have soon.

I am an Electronic Engineer, I graduated on 2008 and have been working for 3 years at the global leader telecomunications vendor, as a Support Engineer for the 3G WRAN Access Network. The main concern is that the telecomunications market really doesn´t motivates me technically, and because of this I am looking forward to make a change in my career.

The fact is that last week I applied for a Junior Sales Engineer Position at Rockwell Automation. They called me, and programed an interview with the human resources department. They described me the position, told me that there will be a strong 6 months training at Rockwell's headquarters in Milwaukee. They told me too that the work would be to stay all the day visiting clients and with an asignation to relocate on 6 possible main cities of Argentina. The position itself really interested me, but I have a lot of doubts if this is the job I really want. I mean, I'm sure that technically speaking, I like much more the automation market rather than the telecomunications one. But this position would mix a comercial aspect with technical part, and I have been never exposed to a comercial enviroment, so I don't know what to do if I advance on this position.
Anyway, ther is still pending an interview with the sales manager, so I can clean more questions there, but I would really appreciate any advice or experience which you would give me, in order to have a better approach to a sales engineer position on the automation market.
The other aspect that makes me doubt is that if a sales engineer is a lonley job, since I imagine it as a person who goes alone to clients.


Thanks in advance.
Best regards.
Alejandro.-

 

[verty]

I think this is a sales position with 6 months provisional employment. So you will have up to 6 months to prove you will make a good http://nextstep.direct.gov.uk/PlanningYourCareer/JobProfiles/JobProfile0133/Pages/default.aspx .

Why would you be lonely if you are meeting your clients every day?

 

[JakeBrodskyPE]

Look at it this way: You'll meet lots of people in lots of places. If the work doesn't suit you, you'll have plenty of opportunity to find people and places you do like.

 

[DaveC426913]

Why would you be lonely if you are meeting your clients every day?

Clients do not a social life make.

Salespeople who are on the road tend to live out of suitcases and can have less opportunity to bond with coworkers or other regulars that the rest of us take for granted.

The OP should ask if this is an on-the-road type position. If it is stationed in a single city, he may not have anything to worry about.

 

[aleMza]

Thank you all for the comments and opinions.

DaveC426913, what you are saying is one of the main point where I have doubts. From what HR dept told me, the job would consist of staying fixed on a local city, and from there make the regular visits to clients. But as you say, it still would be far from an office environment with every day co-workers I imagine.

verty, from what I've been told, the job consist on a first 6 months training, and then come back to the field to start the sales process. So the job is a permanent job I think and not a provisional one.

The other aspect that intrigues me is the comercial part of being a sales engineer. But in the other hand, I think that the company would give the engineer the neccesary training in order to develop that area.

Anyway, thanks again for all the comments and opinions. In the case I advance with this position, and have the interview with the sales manager I will clarify all of these doubts, and will be posting again to ask for more opinions.


Best regards.
Alejandro.-

 

[aleMza]

Hi all,

Well, finally I received a job offer. My main concern is that the compensation has a variable component depending on the sales that you make. This is 0,8% of the sales. I would like to have an idea of the average amount that a sales Engineer of Rockwell can earn per year, regarding only this variable compesation.

 

[JakeBrodskyPE]

I don't know where that commission fits into the package. HOWEVER, this sales position could be the sort of place where you build multi-million dollar accounts. A 0.8% commission from $10M is hardly small change.

 

[aleMza]

Hi Jake, thanks for you soon answer. The job offer includes a 6 months type of "warranty" for this variable compensation not be generated yet, since I will be on training. This is a 1000 dollars variable compensation. So, from this value I tryed to predict how much I should sell. This corresponds to a 1.5 MD I should sell per year, in order to achieve the 1000 D per month regarding the variable compensation.
Now, here is where I have no idea of how much a sales engineer is used to sell on the automation market at Rockwell , in average. Is a 1.5MD per year a reasonable value?

 

[JakeBrodskyPE]

I don't know. I only know what my utility spends on automation equipment. We are not the only customers our salespeople have. However, I don't know what a typical utility in South America spends on automation equipment.

So I'm afraid to tell you that this is a good deal, but rather that it is what you make of it.