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Any Application Engineers Out There?

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wuchy143

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Hi,

I posted a month back about changing careers in electrical engineering. I've done a lot of research....I guess you can call it soul searching to figure out what will make me happier in a technical role. I want to stay technical! Trust me.

A field application engineer seems like it could be a good fit for me. I'm social, love learning technology and teaching it in a way people can understand mainly because I love electronics and engineering. I'd like to chat a little with someone in the field. I really want to know if this is for me before I start pumping out resumes and pounding some pavement. I want to go in with confidence that I can not only do the job but will be happy with what I'm doing. This is extremely important to me.

So if there are any FAE's out there that could chime in. Try and get down to the nitty gritty of working for say...Arrow Electronics or an equivalent company. What do you do on a daily basis. How hard is your job? What are some positives...some negatives? Pretty open to anything you can give. Thank you very much for the help.

Regards,

-wuchy
 
I'll make a couple of statements because I've dealt with some. One a very good one.

This guy did not have to travel as far as I knew and was basically phone support. When I told him his product didn't work and blew out our devices when it switched ranges, he didn't believe me at first. A scope at the inputs proved it. He developed a quick fix and sent it to us but it rendered other functions of the instrument useless. They then engineered a permanent fix and did it free of charge.

So, there is this two-way communication going on.

In other cases your selecting an instrument and you want to make sure it meets the requirements, so the application engineer comes to the rescue.

Then there is something you never did and your at the application engineer's mercy to teach you what you need to know to do it right.

Watch out for the sales guy that just dumps a bunch of catalogs on your desk. We got the free use of an orbital welder because we bought/buy so much stuff. So, that sales guy provided the service and training. We had to buy a few consumables. Yep, that was the same guy that dumped the catalogs on your desk.

The application engineer can give training seminars which may even be hands on. They may go to shows with working gizmos.

There is a forum on www.digikey.com which gives some examples what an applications engineer does. In that particular case, they make videos and answer questions. Take a look at digikey's training modules.

This is from the "other side" or the user of an application engineer's view.

Some have the view of how many are you going to buy if I help you while other's like Bob Pease (RIP) will help the competion or anybody that asks.

My take.
 
Being an applications engineer you have to know a little about everything, but be an absolute expert in the products that you support. To help your employer: You are there to get ideas from the field about where technology is going and what chips your company should be designing for the next generation of electronic products. To help your customer: You need to provide fast and good quality support to your customers.

You need to have a broad system level knowledge of a lot of different industries from cell phones to industrial process control, so you know what an engineer’s problems might be and where to promote your devices without making a fool of yourself.

You also need to have a very logical thought process, a sound foundation of good old fashioned engineering diagnostics and impeccable theoretical knowledge. When I get the phone call saying 'Your chip does not work' you have to fall back on basic engineering diagnostics: Try this - what is the result? Try that - what is the result? Theory says this; practice says this… Do the 2 agree? You might have to get in your car and go visit the customer to establish that he is not doing something completely stupid and blaming his poor circuit design on your chip. More than once I have had to probe a rat’s nest of a circuit trying to establish why a high frequency dc/dc is unstable.

You need to be able to work alongside the engineer to come to a logically thought out conclusion. This might involve taking actions away to consult with the chip designer, or suggesting tactfully that the circuit needs improving. Most of the time the customer does not expect you to come up with the solution out of a hat, but as long as you show a methodical route to solving his problem, you will gain his respect.

You will always meet customers that see you as another sales rep, but if they start arguing with you and you know you are right, argue back.

In the analogue world, I am amazed at how many circuit designers design circuits without knowing the theory of what they are designing. Hence when the circuit goes wrong, they don’t know what to do. This is where you (and the theory) come in. I am no expert on FPGAs (but most of my customers are), but when they design a switched mode power supply or an op amp circuit, you work alongside them, combine your analogue knowledge with their digital knowledge, to create a circuit that is far superior than if they had not called you in the first place.

You must also like driving.
 
I would say that I am impressed about the : You need / You need / You need /

Does any one pay 25.000 Euro per month as fee to the poor electrical engineer ?
If not, we should all start working in a bakery as bakers, stable work , small training curve , and you have a steady performance until your 65 years of age.

I think that we came to the point to overestimate the value of the technology it self , as one a source of income.
If you do work in a real organized company, you have an specific role in it, and you will get all the specialization from it, in it.

If you get involved with a tiny company with out true planing , even if you have the skills of the twelve Gods of Olympus,
you will be always feel sort in it.
 
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