Career Focus: Non-Engineering Careers for Engineers

BY JOHN R. PLATT

Not everyone who gets an engineering degree or who starts their career as an engineer spends their whole life working as an engineer. But while those who move on may leave behind their hands-on daily exposure to semiconductors or energy systems or software, the education and experience these people received often remains valuable to them through the rest of their careers. Let's meet five of these brave souls who started their professional lives in engineering fields but decided to blaze their own trails. The Salesman When Jim Stormont entered Purdue University in 1959, he already knew what he wanted to do. His goal was to study industrial engineering but then go into technical sales. "At the time, it was unheard of," he laughs. "People told me, 'What a waste of an engineering degree!' But I made a hell of a lot more money in sales than I would have as an engineer." Stormont joined Square D Company in 1964, a time when very few of his competitor salespeople were also engineers. "Anybody can be trained to demonstrate a product," Stormont says. "The real thing in sales is in understanding the customers' problems." As an example, Stormont talks about a fairly common technology, the limit switch. "I can hold one in my hand and tell you everything I know about it in about 30 seconds. But the application of limit switches is fairly complex." Instead of starting with a sales pitch, he would go down to the factory floor and ask the person in charge of maintenance what problems people where having with their electrical systems. "I was there to solve problems. My competitors knew how to put the sales pitch out, but when an engineer told them 'here's what's going on,' they got lost." Solving a problem, he says, gave him instant credibility. "If I can eliminate a problem, I'm a hero." Today, more salespeople in the technology arena have high-tech degrees, making Square D's longstanding policy of only hiring salespeople with four-year engineering degrees rather prescient. "By the 1980s," Stormont says, "engineering schools were offering sales engineering as an option." He says the advent of computers, solid-state processors and other advances made factories more complicated, so the salespeople who did not have engineering backgrounds eventually got lost. Stormont climbed the sales ladder until he became a vice president of sales and marketing. Today he's retired and serving as the president of the Boothbay Harbor Rotary Club (the same club that I belong to), but he says he remains "a philosopher of sales."

"The key to sales," he says, "is being able to relate to a person in a non-threatening way when they come to you with a problem. Most salespeople run away from problems. You need to run straight in and help the customer solve the problem, even if your company caused it in the first place." If you're interested in going into technical sales, make sure your people skills are up to the challenge, says Stormont. "You could be the smartest engineer in the world, but if you can't interact with people in a pleasant way, you won't make it. Be trustworthy. If people listen to you, like you and even want to steer sales your way, that's what sales is all about." The Marketer Inspired by a childhood viewing of "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer," Phil Bishop originally wanted to be a dentist, much like the character Hermey the elf. But a career counselor at the University of Michigan told Bishop that if he studied anything in computers or engineering, it could more likely lead to a good job. He ended up getting his BS in electrical engineering and computer engineering. "I really liked it," he says. "I met my wife in my engineering classes. She stayed an engineer, and I moved away from it." Bishop's early career saw him working in ASIC design at Boeing Electronics and Motorola Semiconductor. He then moved to Mentor Graphics, where he migrated not only into sales but started his climb into senior management. He got his MBA from the Fuqua School of Business at Duke University, and then was the CEO of two startup companies. Today he is the corporate vice president of worldwide marketing at Magma Design Automation in San Jose, Calif., where he and his team are responsible for product, solutions and corporate marketing, as well as corporate strategy and planning. "The ability to be successful through these non-engineering careers has been the engineering," he says. "Having that initial engineering experience has been fundamental." He says his engineering background grounds him and allows him to add value to everything he does. "I'm not just managerial. I understand the technology. I feel comfortable building and giving a presentation. Some customers look at a marketing person with a jaundiced eye, but they look at me and I understand what their challenges are and how our services can help. I'm much more interested in solving their problems." Are you interested in moving into marketing? "The quality of your ability to market or sell is directly proportional to your ability to listen," says Bishop. "Great communicators aren't great talkers, they're great, great listeners." He suggests finding someone who is already one of your company's top marketers and enlisting them as a mentor. "Emulate him and get his guidance." In addition, concentrate on your writing and presentation skills. "In marketing, you want someone who's good at both writing and speaking," Bishop says. "It's really hard to find an engineer who can write well." Beyond that, Bishop says, look inside yourself. "If you really have a desire to get out there, to go global, to be on the front line with customers, then marketing could be a good fit." The Patent Agent

It's not every engineer who gets to work from home in the Bahamas. But that's how John W. Maly spends his days. With a BS in Computer Engineering from Syracuse University and his MS in Computer Science from Stanford under his belt, Maly started his career as a computer engineer at HP. Unfortunately, a good education didn't make his career recession-proof. With his career prospects dwindling, Maly instead decided to study for the patent bar. It took time and money, but within a week of passing the exam, he had his first job offer. He then got his law degree and moved into intellectual property consulting. He founded John Maly & Associates in 2005. "You need an engineering degree from an accredited school to even take the patent exam," Maly says. Certain specialties such as biochemistry require a Ph.D., but success in the patent field also requires some career experience. "You generally have to go over your engineering credentials with your clients," he says. "You need to not only be versed in your field, but have a few years in it to understand how things work and the practicalities of the design cycle." Maly says he does a lot of patent evaluation work, which comes into play when companies are buying or selling patents, or litigation support, when companies are suing each other over their patents. Things move more quickly in patent law than in engineering. "I'm constantly learning something new," he says. "Every year, people are suing over different things." If he had stayed in engineering, he would have expected major changes every three to five years. Now things change every year or two. This year, for example, most of his litigation support is focused around gaming technologies. Next year, he predicts, it may be something completely different. Making the switch to working as a patent agent is not something you can do quickly. "The patent bar is a really tough test, and it's expensive to take," he says. He borrowed the money and materials he needed to take the exam, studied for four or five months, and luckily passed on the first try. "The pass rate that year was around 60 percent," he says. "In 2003, it was 37 percent." Being a quick learner and a self-starter are essential in the profession, says Maly. "You need to be good at teaching yourself new areas of technology without anyone helping you." He also points out that it's a very small field, and reputation plays an important role. "Professional responsibility is more important than anything else. Reputation matters. My entire client base is word-of-mouth." The Education Entrepreneur Ted Jordan got his start as a virtual reality engineer for General Motors, working on driving simulators, but "I always wanted to have my own company," he says. Using experience he gained working for Silicon Graphics and Sun Microsystems, he did just that, founding Funutation Tekademy LLC in 2003. The company runs summer camps and other events that teach kids how to write computer games, program robots, build web sites, and other STEM-related skills. How did he get started in education? "When I was at Silicon Graphics, and then at Sun, I did a lot of tutoring and training," he says. "It has always been something I enjoyed doing. It seemed like a good fit."

When he first left Sun, Jordan started a company to provide Linux training and support. At a seminar, he met a woman who asked if he'd be interested in creating a class to teach kids to write computer games. The idea for Funutation was born. "It comes a little naturally to me," he says. "My mom was a teacher. I learned a lot from her." His goal is to make the teaching at Funutation invisible. "The kids see the device. The parents see the education side." Jordan is more than a teacher; he also runs his company. It's a challenge to do both, he says. "It's the battle every entrepreneur goes through." One of Jordan's goals is to influence the next generation of engineers by showing kids how much fun the work can be. "I remember when I was in college I looked at calculus classes and didn't think I could do it. The earlier you can take that intimidation away, the better." A lot of engineers do find their way into education, but usually on the college or graduate level. Working with kids age 8 to 15 has a different level of reward, and Jordan says that if you enjoy it, you should embrace it. Still not sure if you're the right person for the job? Jordan suggests downloading an open-source program like MIT's Scratch or Carnegie Mellon's Alice. "Put together a workshop and see if kids like it," he says. "It is difficult work, but it shows the kids if they have the mind for it in a very non-intimidating way." The PR Coordinator Sukanya Vijayakumar always wanted to be a writer, even when she was studying for her bachelor's degree in engineering. "At college, I did a lot of writing and editing for campus publications," she says. She started her career as a programmer at Cognizant Technology Solutions in India, "but I wanted to continue my writing and creative work." She decided she wanted to combine engineering with the written word and, after getting her master's degree in mass communications at the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communications, started searching for a job where she could fulfill both of her passions. It wasn't an easy quest, mostly because of the bad economy. She also limited her job search to technology companies. Eventually she landed a position and is now the public relations coordinator for Junction Networks in New York City. Her background in engineering enhances her ability to do PR by shortening her learning curve, she says. "I interface with engineers on a daily basis." She helps translate technical information into everyday language for her company's business users, while also writing blog posts, press releases and other communication outreaches. Soon, she expects to be leading webinars and writing white papers. "This is what I wanted to do," she says. "If you know what you're passionate about, go for it. The amount of satisfaction you'll get out of it is worth it."