Publication date: 14 September 2011
Europe’s component distributors are seeing healthy growth – with billings in the first quarter increasing by 20%. Part of the reason for this is that more and more component manufacturers are assigning customers to them that they would previously have supported direct. As a result, distributors are recruiting more and more HND and graduate level engineers to work as distribution Field Applications Engineers (FAEs).
Distribution FAEs haven’t historically been accorded the respect of the vendor’s direct Application Engineering team, but the ‘datasheet monkey’ view of the job is overdue a revision. Although there is always a certain amount of the ‘why is pin 17 high in this situation’ level queries, the real challenge is developing relationships with customers. You need to remember that the customer knows his project better than you, and to listen and engage with them.
My job is to discuss products with customers at a technical level that takes you well beyond the marketing spin. Sometimes you have to accept that you don’t have the best technical solution and admit this to the customer – but doing this strengthens the relationship, and keeps the door open for the next time.
It is the customer interaction that turns most FAE’s on. Nick Bourne, one the Anglia FAE team, says, “The most interesting part of the process is to be involved in the high level concept phase of design and getting customers going with new technologies. You don’t get involved with the approvals testing, CE marking and the like, which is like pulling teeth.”
The best distributors actively encourage innovation and forward thinking, and allow you to use your technical expertise to quickly identify new products that fill a specific niche in a project. Peter Wrigley has been an FAE for over four years, and recently encountered a customer facing a demand for a license fee as their design infringed a patent. “I saw a new chip come onto the market that provided a fundamentally different way of measuring vertical offset, and avoided the issue with the patent. I was able to combine technical know-how with understanding the customer’s problem and his product to provide a better way forward.”
Though engineers sometimes worry that their integrity will be compromised by the sales side of the role, I personally haven’t found this to be the case. Occasionally customer engineers have little respect, and you do need to prove yourself. So long as you know your subject I haven’t found this to be a long term problem.
What attracted me personally to the FAE role is the opportunity for professional development. In addition to visiting many different customers, you also get to see many different suppliers, who will train you on their latest and greatest. You get your hands on stuff that most desk engineers will only read about. Now, the best distribution FAEs understand the products in their portfolio at least as well as the vendor’s in-house team that they are increasingly replacing, and are trained to the same level on the same courses, often by the product developers. If you’re currently chained to a bench but looking to broaden your experience and the scope of your role, expose yourself to the latest technologies and travel around a bit, could this be a career move for you?
