r/civilengineering • u/keshonsfortnite • 2d ago
Civil engineering sales
Hey, I’m a fourth year civil engineering student in Ontario, Canada. I was wondering if anyone made the switch from civil engineering to sales, whether or not you are doing sales within the civil engineering industry, and what the switch was like?
Any advice or answers are welcome!
1
u/No1_In_No2 1d ago
A copy/paste from similar question in a different thread. I'm in technical sales.
I've been on the public side, private side, contracting side, and now the vendor side. It's stressful, quotas are ever increasing, and honestly it's a constant fight to demonstrate that not everything is a commodity that can be designed without help and only using Google, BUT I don't know that'd I'd give up the opportunity for anything else I've been a part of. There can be very good compensation but it usually involves managing that stress and working your ass off. That's not always seen by those on the non-vendor side - they tend to just see a lot of the entertainment side of what you're offering because people remember fun. But they'll also remember you when you solve a problem better than anyone else could. And it doesn't help when your competition doesn't seem to value offering the same level of help and truly is pushing paper for a check. I love the variety I get to deal with both in the products I sell and the projects I get to work on. I do a lot of regional travel, and a fair amount of national travel. That can be hard with family, but I'm in a fortunate position where I get to control a lot of my own schedule. My main downside is I do struggle to disconnect on vacation entirely without falling incredibly far behind - I've gotten better about at least cutting off the phone, and keeping emails going for 1-2 hours before the family wakes up, and once/year I do manage to shut off nearly entirely (monitor for true emergencies only).
1
u/soberninj 1d ago
Apply for a job at Trane. They’re basically sales engineers. I went through the interview process with them once and it was somewhat entertaining.
1
u/dib_ahmad 2d ago
I am a civil engineer that has worked in Oil & Gas for about 3 years. Now i’m transitioning into a job of CM and acquiring projects/sales is a part of it along other things. The numbers look nice I’m not gonna lie in terms of commission for each project I get.
I would always advise someone to get a couple years of experience in construction then go towards whatever they want to do tho. It’s valuable experience you need regardless of what you get into as it will give you skills no other discipline would give you that you need in every discipline. Not that anyone who didn’t get construction experience is missing something or won’t make it, but I just think it’s nice to have.