Within two years of graduating from engineering school with my BSME, I was able to land a job in industrial sales for a natural gas distribution utility. The utility's philosophy was that since the industrial marketing department would generally interface with plant engineers at customer sites, engineering degrees would be the proper background for these sales positions.

Since I worked for a relatively small utility in the Pacific Northwest, there was no large concentration of industry that required specialization, so all five of us were generalists who had to acquire a little bit of knowledge about each of the processes that each customer site utilized.

In order to increase my chances for advancement, I entered the evening MBA program and was awarded the degree within three years. Soon my "sales engineer" title was replaced by the "industrial marketing manager" title.

Within the utility, our group had to constantly prove that we had the ability to market our product. There was that constant perception that engineers can't sell anything. To some extent our group was different because we established long-term relationships with the industrial customers, whereas the bulk of the residential marketing force operated on a one-time sale with no continuing relationship. Even within the marketing division, we were often considered the fifth wheel.

I also taught management classes at the local community college. When I talked with my students about the styles of leadership, we often explored the concept of Theory X and Theory Y. The theory x individual prefers an authoritarian leadership style with strict rules. The theory y individual preferred to be able to set his own agenda and wanted to be measured by results.

I strongly believe that we all prefer one leadership style over others and we gradually find a job that corresponds to that style.

Therefore many engineers will be very happy to work in a controlled environment where rules are followed and the engineering is done based on past practice and adherence to standards such as boiler codes. These engineers are comfortable when they can use data out of books. The engineers who want to be measured by achieved results but do not want to follow strict rules enjoy the theory y management style. Marketing finds great success under this management and can become the haven for the successful "marketing engineer."

Contact Information: Werner Gerling