Recruiting The Best Candidates For Application Engineer and Sales Engineer Positions

In my previous article, I explained that through distributors and direct sales in Asia (but from afar), I built a bona fides sales pipeline. That convinced my founders that my territory was a possible gem in the rough - if only I had more resources. 

So, I started hiring, starting with the country where we had been the most successful at selling directly. And since we already closed major contracts there, my first hire would be a field application engineer (FAE). That person would not only help current clients but also participate in all presales activities.

In retrospect, I recruited some fantastic people for the job. Together we built a business success story that we can all feel proud of today.

So, what did I looked for in my FAEs? 

The job description does not need to be extremely detailed.

First, I had to write a job description. That is an HR document in which one may sometimes list tons of requirements - years of experience, a master's degree, expert knowledge of that and that tool, etc.

As one influencer in the field of HR, JT O'Donnell, once described, these can boil down to trying to find a purple unicorn.  

I did not go down that road. Experience as an FAE was a nice to have, industry subsegment experience too, but I was open to other possibilities.

Sure, because our tool was (and is still) highly technical (it deals with embedded code, so it comes with the territory), all candidates had to know C and needed to hold a technical degree with at least some coding experience. 

But what mattered more to me was persistence and attitude.

You see, one of the critical responsibilities of an FAE is to deploy a software solution at the client site during evaluations. And each environment is different. The more your solution integrates with others (and ours does with gusto), the more likely the FAE can hit snags along the way.

Add to this the fact that my team was to be active several time zones away from the home office, and you can understand how much resilience was crucial to me.

Persistence and attitude matter a lot.

So, during my interviews, I tried to look for experiences where the person was in trouble. It did not matter what the problem was, just that the person was resourceful and wouldn't quit. One of my recruits found himself isolated in a place with terrorist activities. Another learned a difficult language on her own. 

These are the recruits I picked. The warriors that wouldn't give up. As I described in this video, I went for the ones that would plan and execute - again and again, until resolution.  

In the end, the profiles of the people I hired were quite diversified, with many different types of degrees and experience. Yet, most of them became stellar FAEs. It did not matter at all that they did not fit a rigid set of degree or experience requirements.

Diversified crews rock!

With that diversity came a bonus. As the team expanded, if one FAE did not know the answer to one of the questions, he could write it to others. And since fellow team members had quite different profiles and experiences, there was a much higher chance that someone else would know the answer.   

That is a lesson that sometimes gets lost: diversity is not only the right thing to do; it is also a valuable business asset. I know. I saw it myself.

Embracing the challenge of uncertainty.

During the recruitment process, I was also very straightforward with candidates. I did not paint a rosy picture of the position. My description was simple: you will go to the client site. They will ask you difficult questions for which you will sometimes not have answers. Some of the individuals that you will deal with may also have unrealistic expectations.

I know - not much of a recruiting speech. But it was vital for me that the person I hired knew that this came with the job. 

In my experience, most engineers prefer the certainty of longer projects and known environments where they can leverage their expertise. In other words, they want predictable settings.

An FAE does not have such a luxury. He or she must show up at the account and figure it out, no matter which types of curveballs get thrown his or her way. 

Of course, one tries to prepare in advance for all contingencies. Still, it is all too easy to miss one tricky compiler quirk or fall upon a code construction the tool never saw before. 

A golden opportunity for life learners

Of course, I also presented what is interesting about the position. Having to struggle with multiple technical environments may be inherently difficult, but it also comes with a key advantage: you get to learn. And learn a lot.

For my FAEs, it means learning everything about embedded software, from operating different compilers to understanding in depth how C and C++ code works to integrating our tools with various debuggers, boards, and simulators. 

And this is just for the technical side. Taking care of clients, handling objections, and setting realistic expectations is also all in a day's work for an FAE.

All of this means that all members of my crew are proud practitioners of lifelong learning. We learn by ourselves, we learn from clients, and we learn from one another. 

There is also a necessary humility that needs to be present in an excellent candidate for an FAE position. It is not possible for one person to know everything. Our clients and their environments are just way too various and evolve way too quickly. 

But you know what? The right person for the job would believe this is an advantage: it is never boring. 

Next stop - sales!

FAEs were a crucial part of our business development strategy. And as I said, I found amazing people that bloomed into first-class FAEs. But eventually, I also needed to add another essential part - sales/business developers. This will be the topic of my next article.

In the meantime, feel free to provide me some comments and visit my previous papers and videos on different topics related to software sales, high-tech sales, and international sales.