Short and simple for now.

I started my professional career as a tehnical support analyst for a large biomedical manufacturing firm in Indianapolis. The company made large clinical laboratory systems that are used to test and analyze all types of human fluids. After a couple of years in technical support, I moved into product management.

Product management is an interesting and fun job, however, it's not for everybody. It's one of those functions in a product oriented company that has all the responsibility and none of the power. In others words, when things go wrong it was usually your fault; and, unfortunately, you also have no authority over any of the other departments that are ultimately responsible for delivering a good (or bad) product. When things go well, sales and marketing usually get the credit...so on to bigger and better things after a few years of that.

Working as a product manager I had a lot of face time with the sales teams. They are quick to tell you what they can sell and what they can't and why they can or can't, regardless of whether it is realistic or not. In any case, sales teams are a lot of fun and they make or break a company. Many good products have died slow ugly deaths because of poor sales execution; consequently, many poor to average products have created many millionaires. The bottom line on sales teams is that a.) you are largely; but not always entirely, responsible for your own success (or failure), and b.) that's where the money is.

Being a more technical oriented type of person, but loving the fast pace and rewards of sales, I moved into sales engineering. This field is also commonly called pre-sales, or product specialists. Personally I prefer, and strongly believe in, the sales aspect of the job. I feel you get the best of both worlds in this type of position. You get to learn the details and particulars of sometimes highly complex or difficult products\services, but, you also get to share in the rewards with the sales team.

As sales engineers, it is your responsibility to know the product inside and out, and more importantly, how it can apply to a business and how it can help that business grow, or improve in some way (by using that product). So that is what I have been doing for the last few years. I now a director of a team of sales engineers, although, I am very much a hands on kind of guy and am still in the field as much (if not more) than anyone.

I am also a partner in a small and rapidly growing startup company. We have developed a pretty unique product that greatly improves, or takes advantage of the products\services I am involved with in my day job. You can learn about that at http://www.reperiogroup.com