Career Change
Career Change
(OP)
Greetings ...
Forgive me if I'm asking a question that should be addressed in another forum or group. This question is directed to all the SolidWorks Engineering Technician's (SolidWorks VAR's).
I'm thinking of changing my career path. I've been in the mechanical engineering field for the last 20+ years, for the last 2 years I've been focused on Engineering Services (Document Control). I've worked at Medical Device companies, underwater research companies, and commercial goods companies. I've been using SolidWorks since 1997 (approximately 9+ years). I've also been heavily using PDMWorks for the last 4 years.
What I'd like to ask is what kind of compensation can I expect from a SolidWorks VAR or from SolidWorks ? I live in the New England area.
I'd really like to hear from you and your suggestions or opinions.
Thanks in advance.
Jake Grafton
Manager, Engineering Services
Forgive me if I'm asking a question that should be addressed in another forum or group. This question is directed to all the SolidWorks Engineering Technician's (SolidWorks VAR's).
I'm thinking of changing my career path. I've been in the mechanical engineering field for the last 20+ years, for the last 2 years I've been focused on Engineering Services (Document Control). I've worked at Medical Device companies, underwater research companies, and commercial goods companies. I've been using SolidWorks since 1997 (approximately 9+ years). I've also been heavily using PDMWorks for the last 4 years.
What I'd like to ask is what kind of compensation can I expect from a SolidWorks VAR or from SolidWorks ? I live in the New England area.
I'd really like to hear from you and your suggestions or opinions.
Thanks in advance.
Jake Grafton
Manager, Engineering Services






RE: Career Change
"What I'd like to ask is what kind of compensation can I expect from a SolidWorks VAR or from SolidWorks ? "
It depends on what you will be doing for them. Let me give you two examples:
1) Your main job is customer service and handling installation question on the phone
2) Your main job is technical sales with a high end PLM package
Since example 2 could generate quite a bit a revenue for a reseller it would probably pay quite well specially if there were sales bonuses. Example 1 would most likely not pay above average.
I find this to be the case with most industries, if your job clearly helps a company bring in revenue, then your compensation has the potential to be good.
My advice, if you are interested you should talk to SolidWorks and a few VARs and try to set up "information" interviews to see where you could help them best.
Best regards,
Joe
RE: Career Change
Regards,
Scott Baugh, CSWP
www.scottjbaugh.com
FAQ731-376
RE: Career Change
--------------------
How much do YOU owe?
http://www.brillig.com/debt_clock/
--------------------
RE: Career Change
Most of them are experienced users too.
Regards
Scott Baugh, CSWP
www.scottjbaugh.com
FAQ731-376
RE: Career Change
You make a very good point.
Customer Service/Support people certainly generate revenue. But I don't think they get much recognition. Here are some examples why:
1) A customer threatens to cancel maintenance after repeated crashing with their CAD package. The VAR sends in a support engineer whom saves the day by installing a "patch" that fixes the problem. The customer renews their maintenance.
2) A VAR sells 20 seats of a high end PLM package, thanks in large part to a sales engineer who wrote an excellent sales proposal.
In case 1 the management team of the VAR may have thought that the customer was going to renew anyways and does not recognize the support engineer who saved the day.
In case 2 the management team at the VAR just received a very big purchase order, and gives the sales engineer a hefty bonus.
Note, I am not saying that this is a good thing, but I have seen it happen.
Please let me know your thoughts, this is an interesting issue.
Also, "Beggar" makes a very good point, could it be that the perception is that some customers choose to renew for other reasons than customer service / support?
Kind regards,
Joseph
RE: Career Change
One of the major factors in my decision was the lame support offered by the ADSK VAR as compared to the outstanding support which I knew was offered by the SWX VAR (with whom I already have experience).
Except for the (major) issue of Inventor's lack of configurations, I considered the software pretty much a push. However, since I'm much more experienced with SWX, the VAR support for Inventor would have been important to me.
In the end, in large part because of the big difference in support (and a lame demo by a guy from Autodesk who should have been fired), I chose SWX.
I agree with your primary statement that you folks are part of the revenue generation, I just disagree (strongly) with your statement that I quoted above.
--------------------
How much do YOU owe?
http://www.brillig.com/debt_clock/
--------------------
RE: Career Change
I won't RF myself in this case but somebody else can feel free.
--------------------
How much do YOU owe?
http://www.brillig.com/debt_clock/
--------------------
RE: Career Change
I'm just exploring my options and testing the waters.
RE: Career Change
Rob Rodriguez CSWP
President: Northern
Vermont SolidWorks User Group
www.robrodriguez.com (updated 8/12/06)
SW 2006 SP 4.0 / SW 2007 SP 0.0
RE: Career Change
-b
RE: Career Change
I would guess that the pay from a VAR for doing tech support and product demos is going to be at the lower end of the engineering pay scale. It's not really an engineering job per se, and it doesn't require an engineer to do it. It requires somebody who knows the software very, very well.
My guess would be that the person with the responsbility to close the sale would be paid substantially more, presuming they're good at closing.
From what I've seen across products is that those folks are occasionally engineers but frequently not.
This is purely a guess but I'd think that the VAR support guys are earning somewhere in the $18/hr - $30/hr range, depending on where they're located. Again, this is just a total WAG.
--------------------
How much do YOU owe?
http://www.brillig.com/debt_clock/
--------------------
RE: Career Change
And most people don't share their salaries with their friends, nor would they post it for an entire web-community to see.
RE: Career Change
Salary's being secret only hurts the employees. It creates an information advantage for the employer, as the employee can only guess at what a fair range is, whereas the employer knows what everyone else is getting paid.
Begger, despite gently biting my head off for the prodding, gave the kind of information that I think Jake was looking for.
-b
RE: Career Change
For what it's worth, you're right that it benefits employers to keep salary information private. However, I would still not share mine to the world. Under the anonymity of my handle, in the right thread, I probably would.
--------------------
How much do YOU owe?
http://www.brillig.com/debt_clock/
--------------------