Navigating Lateral Career Movements-  Forum Recap

On Thursday, September 19^th, the President of NAASE along with 3 of our Advisory Board members gathered and discussed a very key and timely topic-  lateral career shifts.  In a challenging economy as we have seen over the past 18 months, especially in the tech sector, is it evident that your professional journey as a sales engineer may not proceed in exactly the kind of manner as you anticipated.  But, as we learned on our ZOOM Panel Discussion, all is not lost.

First, I want to mention here and thank the four professionals who volunteered to help us out:

Adam Joyce, Managing Director, Strategic Accounts – for MX

Pat Tripathi, Principal Director – Energy & Utilities – for LTIMindtree

Meg Stewart, Field Solutions Engineer – for AppFolio, Inc.

Diana Cervantes, Service Engagement Manager – for Tacton (& the President of NAASE)

There was a wealth of knowledge and experience shown from our panel, and Members of the North American Association of Sales Engineers who might have missed the zoom session “live”, may watch and listen to the recording in full, on the NAASE Member Portal.

Some of the keywords and phrases mentioned by the panel in speaking about ways to make a lateral move more successful include:

• Participation in cross-functional projects
• Networking (within your company and outside of it)
• Awareness that vertical growth is not the only type of career growth
• Adaptability
• Willingness to learn / life-long learning
• Never stop learning & improving soft skills
• Resilience
• Openness to new and adjunct opportunities
• (For younger people/ early career) Remember that everyone has to start somewhere, and that is OK.
• It’s harder to change industries than changing roles within the same industry (as a sales engineer/ technical sales person)

Most SE’s are looked at as a SME (Subject Matter Expert), and as such- outright changing industries can be difficult and take some time to master.  If you worked 10 years in the manufacturing processes industry, and then you want to shift over to working in the bio-pharma industry, it is clear you will have a lot to learn.   You will have much to learn to arrive at a baseline, let alone be seen in a corporate room as an expert.   This doesn’t mean it cannot and is not done, but this is worth keeping in mind.

The NAASE forum had a few goals, and one was to provide some advice but also to offer some hope.  This is especially true for those that are currently unemployed or feel like they are either “stuck” or they are very unhappy in their present role or company.

NAASE hopes you will take the time to listen to the full 45-minute recording, available now on our Member Portal.  Thank you.