Systems Engineer For A Manufacturer Of Computer Storage Equipment

How I Got The Job

My Education: BA, Economics, University of North Carolina-Greensboro

My Prior Experience: I started as a staff accountant at a CPA firm, but soon became a software tester for software publisher. Next, I went to work as a jack-of-all-trades at a software start-up company. Then, I became a software instructor for computer sales company. Then, I spent 10 years as a technology consultant for the same company. After that, I moved in to pre-sales engineering which is where I have been ever since.

My Job Profile

My Company: I work for a large computer manufacturer selling data storage equipment such as disk drives, tape drives and tape libraries.

Job/Career Overview: The Systems Engineer's job is to advise people who don't understand technology. One of my customers described it this way while pointing at the sales representative sitting next me, "I like you." Then, he pointed at me and said, "But, I trust you." So, I took that as my goal: to be trustworthy and always tell the truth about the technology.

So, I use a software drawing program called Visio to create pictures of what we want to sell to our customers. I teach customers about the benefits of the products. I warn them about the limitations of the product. I spend a lot of time on the phone with my customers because they're scattered around the world. Also, I use a program called WebEx to teach things to my customers. I only travel about a quarter of the time.

I keep an eye on how well our products do. But I only get called infrequently about problems with our support and I usually put my customers in touch with smarter people than I am who can help get things fixed.