August - 1999 - issue > Career Advice

Technology is flourishing in corporate America. Opportunity is abundant — but competition is intense. Companies face eroding market share, diminishing product life cycles, and consumer demands for added value, while seeking to differentiate themselves from competitors. If these issues are not addressed sufficiently, companies risk significant loss of opportunity, money, time and efficiency, and jeopardize their very survival. To combat these trends, technology marketing has become a central function in many competitive high-tech organizations.

Technology Marketing Functions
There is a range of responsibilities associated with technology marketing, broken down into different job descriptions under the marketing umbrella. Technical marketing means "presenting technology in such a way that the customer can absorb and understand the benefits of the product," explains Surinder Brar, vice president of marketing at Infoworks. "It is more of a sales support function." The various functions within technical marketing include:
1 Marketing Communication (Marcom): This function uses advertising and other promotional tools to help the firm differentiate its product or service within fragmented market segments. It entails planning, integration, implementation and evaluation of persuasive marketing communication strategies. Marcom professionals understand the capabilities and limitations of various promotional vehicles as well as advertising, sales promotions, and public relations.
1 Product Planning and Market Research: Employees in this role have a solid technical foundation and a finger on the pulse of market trends, consumer needs and consumer behavior. They use market research to identify and refine marketing opportunities and problems, develop new products and services, design marketing programs, and evaluate marketing activities and performance. They provide senior management market information that supports the managerial decision-making process. They must be able to communicate a vision both internally and externally, keeping the "big picture" in mind.
1 Product Marketing: This function has to do with successfully launching new products. Communication and branding skills are key. Employees work closely with marcom to create and distribute product collateral and implement sales and promotional programs.
1 Tactical Marketing: This involves day-to-day interaction with the sales force, channels and customers. Technical skills are not necessary, but multitasking, decision-making and financial knowledge are important, as are supervisory skills.
1 Business Development: This position entails seeking out the best markets and biggest players and getting them on board. This means forging strategic business alliances with partners and competitors, developing and implementing business plans. This requires a thorough understanding of the markets, competitors, media relations and government relations, and, of course, strong interpersonal skills.

In general, technology marketers act as liaisons between customers and engineers to ensure that technology is designed in a way that customers will be able to use and understand it. "Business-to-business marketing can be very technical," says Brar, "but business-to-consumer marketing need not be as technical." "Either way," says Piyush Sevalia, marketing manager for new business development at Cypress Semiconductor, "you are basically trying to communicate your product’s values to a customer set."

What It Takes
What does it take to become a technical marketing professional? "An ideal candidate will have a BS or an MS in electrical engineering, computer science or related field and an MBA," says Ravi Raj, product marketing manager for new media at Alta Vista. "Prior experience in an engineering or R&D facility of a high-tech company is highly desirable too." "I’m a strong believer in a technical background for the technology market," says Rajiv Samant, a general manager at IBM, responsible for the development and marketing of the AIX server. "The job market is solid for people who have a technical background that is complemented by organizational marketing and financial skills," agrees Sevalia.

For non-technical people considering high-tech marketing careers, the marketing communications role is a good fit for those with public relations, brand marketing, and communications skills, according to Brar. "A Marcom position typically does not require a technical background," says Brar. Product marketing, on the other hand, does require some technological know-how. "This requires playing the role of the user and communicating the user’s needs to the engineering team," says Raj. "A technical background is helpful."

T. (Soma) Somasundaram, a professor of marketing at the University of San Diego, disagrees. "I think that a non-technical background is fine, so long as the candidate has strong analytical skills," says Soma, whose graduate classes have a mix of engineering and non-engineering students. "Marketing is very empirical. If you want to be in a decision-making position, then the ability to assess opportunities, weigh risks and options, and strategize requires you to be analytical," he says. "On the other hand, if you are an engineer, you need to be able to take your quantitative skills and translate them into actionable and meaningful terms for an audience," he explains.

Whether you come from a technical or non-technical background, to succeed in technical marketing, the experts agree that you must:
1 Be a good communicator, listener, team player and have excellent interpersonal skills.
1 Be able to forecast technology trends.
1 Be able to multitask.
1 Have an innate curiosity, the need to ask "why?"

Transitioning from Engineering to Marketing
Technical marketing is not for everyone. One must be inclined to sell a product rather than create it. "You must get a thrill out of giving presentations, talking to customers, and gathering customer suggestions," says Brar. One good way to get into a career in technical marketing is through a big company where you can gradually learn the ropes and climb higher and higher within the management infrastructure. In smaller companies, you may be expected to hit the ground running. Some may prefer to enter that way though one may expect less training in such an environment. Many engineers transition to the marketing track by pursuing MBAs, though an MBA is not always necessary.

Venkata Venkataraman, an e-business manager at IBM, transitioned into a marketing career after being an engineer for 13 years. "I shifted because I wanted more customer contact and wanted to try different job functions," he says. "I was able to do it at IBM because it is a big company and I had an opportunity to try it out without jeopardizing my career. The transition was interesting. Engineering is very heads down and requires you to drill down to the depth of a product; marketing is very consumer focused and a very broad outlook was required. I had to go beyond the project milestones and features-and-function approach I had taken in engineering," he says.

S. Samant transitioned from being an engineer to developing business strategies and product marketing after earning an MBA from MIT’s Sloan School of Business Management. "The transition was very challenging, but rewarding," says Samant, who already had a graduate degree in computer science under his belt. When he started out as a management consultant with McKinsey and Co., he says, "I had to get up in front of CEOs and presidents of companies and give management advice. That was tough. As a consultant, typically you are put on projects in industries you are not in touch with. I have had to gain skills in finance, marketing, personnel issues and leadership which have put me in good stead today."

Career Options
There are several career tracks in marketing. You might start in marketing management as an associate, then become product manager, and then advance into managing multiple products, ultimately landing in a director or VP-level position. You may also get into business unit management with profit and loss responsibilities, sales, product planning or corporate strategy. At senior levels, many of these responsibilities are rolled into a single position, thus a manager may be responsible for all levels of marketing activities, including business development, product marketing and marketing communication. The job market is very lucrative for high-tech marketers – currently there are more opportunities than people available to fill technical marketing positions. Engineers with a couple of years of technical experience and a fresh MBA degree can expect to make anywhere from $60 to $90K per year, depending on their degrees and the cities they wish to work in. Salaries top out at around $120K per annum at leadership positions. There is no real discrepancy in compensation between a professional with a technical vs. non-technical background, as long as one has the skill set required.

Golden Advice
For people considering a career shift from engineering into marketing, our experts share this wisdom borne out by their experience:

"Try to take courses in business administration during the course of your engineering studies or plan on an MBA at a reputable college down the road," says Raj. "Work in a high-tech company for two to four years to get an appreciation for the product you are working on from a user’s vantage point."

"Brush up those written and oral communication skills," says Sevalia. "It will be more important than you think. Start thinking like a customer. Take basic courses in communication, entrepreneurship or high-tech marketing. Be a part of a team or group project. Try to sell a product – see what your customers tell you and learn from it. Join alumni associations and professional organizations that will help you build a network."

"Expand beyond codes, transistors, circuitry and such," says Venkataraman. "Learn how to negotiate, communicate, and manage projects. Learn how to delegate, lead, and motivate a team." "There are some elements of engineering that prepare you well for this job," says Samant. "Marketing uses a very strong analytical approach to coming up with solutions. If you get the opportunity to get that experience, even if it forces you out of your office, take it.""Learn to work in multi-disciplinary teams and effectively draw upon the talents of people," says Somasundaram.

"Learn to communicate in a very simple, precise way, whether in writing, oral or graphical presentations. International travel and international experience will become increasingly important in the high tech marketing profession." "For engineering students, I would recommend that you spend a few years in engineering before shifting to marketing," says Brar. "Both technical and non-technical people should learn to strategize and communicate. Find a mentor, or, work for someone who has the time and interest in mentoring you."The bottom line is, technical marketing career seekers have a bright outlook. The US Bureau of Labor Statistics estimates that employment in marketing fields will grow 30 percent by the year 2000.

The high demand for marketing personnel is based on the fact that business, non-profit institutions and political candidates alike are applying marketing principles to get ahead. Deregulation of several major industries like banking, telecommunications and transportation has encouraged these industries to increase their marketing efforts too. The rise in foreign competition and the attractiveness of many international markets are resulting in the expansion of many US firms, and new technologies have created more marketing opportunities as well. "Marketing is a much more transferable skill than engineering," says Brar, "so if you are good in marketing, you will always have broad opportunities to choose from in the future."