Let's start with what your company does to set the right context

Companies - big and small, have to deal with tons and tons of data every second. Let's bear in mind that not all of the data that is generated is relevant, nor is all the relevant data easy to extract. This is where my company comes in - we provide the tools to analyse this data and allow them to visualise it in the right format (like a bar chart, candlestick chart, pie chart, etc.) - so that companies can make the right business decisions.

What is your typical day@work as a Sales Engineer?

The role of a Sales Engineer, as the name, suggests it is a sales-centric one - a customer-facing one. By customers, I mean the large companies I spoke about, who need the right tools to manage their data and do some sense-making.

I act as a bridge between my company's software development team and our customers - I get involved in implementation aspect of our data management tools which my developers build - ensuring that our tools work well with customer's data and generates the kind of results that the customer expects. I bring any feedback that the customers have on the tools back to my developers for refinement and reintegration into customer's systems. Sales don't end with just convincing the customer you are the right person to buy from; ensuring that your product works for the customer is an integral part of the sales cycle that makes a business sustainable.

When I started working, I was into "Internal Data Analytics" - tools to help companies manage their internal data. For instance, in a public transportation company, this could be about monitoring the performance of trains to help their engineers make better maintenance decisions. Of late, I have been working on "External Data Analytics" - tools to help the customers of companies which engage us. Again taking the case of public transportation companies, using CCTV data of how crowded a train is, we can show the passengers which side of the train is less crowded so they can queue accordingly. This is called embedded analytics.

What has your journey been like from high school to where you are today?

Not always do we know what exactly we want - in such situations, it is perhaps wise to keep our options open, and hence I chose Science group in school, as I believed it would give me the flexibility of staying in Science discipline or switching to a career associated with "Commerce" if ever I wanted to. I took Computer Science in school and went to National University of Singapore, where I pursued my undergraduate studies in Computer Engineering. During my time at university, I was clear that I didn't want to become a software developer and my choice of modules and internships reflected what was on my mind. However, ever since I started working, I have fallen in love with software development - courtesy the joy I get when I overcome the challenges my job throws at me.

Finally, any words of advice for aspiring sales engineers?

A word of advice to my younger self would be to develop an appreciation of the business side of things - technology is important, but it wouldn't be quite relevant until someone uses it. Understanding the business side of things helps you provide context to what you are doing, and that could elevate your career to the next level. If you wish to take up any sales-centric role, you shouldn't be afraid to talk to strangers, and you should be comfortable with being put in uncomfortable situations, you should be able to handle questions for which you don't have readymade answers. Participating in debates, oratory competitions, model UN, etc., does prepare you for these kinds of challenges