Engineering Sales

Career Opportunities & Internships
1

<p>Hello,</p>

<p>I am currently a Chemical Engineering undergrad student. I am very interested in going into engineering sales after I graduate and get some work experience.</p>

<p>My concern is that chemical engineering is not the right engineering major for engineering sales, and that it might be more applicable to go electrical or mechanical. </p>

<p>Can you offer any insight as to whether or not I could go into engineering sales as a Chem E? If so, what type of sales exactly?</p>

<p>Thank you!</p>

2

<p>What exactly do you mean by “engineering sales” ??</p>

<p>If you want to go into sales, there are certain industries in which an engineering degree would benefit you. For example, if you are going into solar energy sales, an engineering degree (mechanical and chemical come to mind) may help you to understand how solar panels work. If you are going into equipment sales, a mechanical engineering degree would definitely help you to understand machine specifications. </p>

<p>That said, companies are often reluctant to hire fresh grads as salespeople. The kinds of jobs for which engineering degrees are helpful are often going to be extremely important, involve millions of dollars of revenue, and therefore require top notch professionals (who earn top notch salaries). It’s tough to convince someone you are a top notch professional if you don’t have any professional experience. For example, it’s a lot easier for you to sell pharmaceuticals if you have experience as a nurse or a doctor (if you’re selling to hospitals and doctors’ offices) or as a designer or engineer (if you’re working on licensing deals with distributors).</p>

<p>If I have some idea what you mean by “engineering sales,” I may be of more use to you.</p>

3

<p>Yes - for example Dow or DuPont have sales professionals calling on customers who buy their products. You might consider working for a company first in engineering and then transferring to sales. Often times there are roles as sales support or sales engineering where you would work with a sale rep on a deal where there’s some technical aspects involved. That way you can start to learn the sales aspect which you won’t learn in an engineering program.</p>

<p>Here’s an example for Dow Chemical</p>

<p><a href=“http://www.bright.com/jobs/job/1123_dowchem-1211018/?bfid=43&job_title=Technical+Sales+Representative+-+PU+Systems&ref=simplyhired&utm_source=simplyhired&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=brightjobs[/url]”>http://www.bright.com/jobs/job/1123_dowchem-1211018/?bfid=43&job_title=Technical+Sales+Representative+-+PU+Systems&ref=simplyhired&utm_source=simplyhired&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=brightjobs&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;