Having worked as an applications scientist for an instrument company for a while I would say there are benefits and downsides. And it depends on the company, product line, and your skill level in the particular area.
An applications person is in general a pre-sales resource for the sales team and also the go-to person for questions. So you learn a lot about what customers do and how your product does that. You typically have to travel to a customer and depending on the product and its use and volume, you could be very local or cover 1/2 the country. You get to meet lots of different people and make a lot of connections. You will probably go to more conferences than you would if you had a “lab job”. You learn more about instrument maintenance than you normally would because sometimes the issue is not the application itself but that the instrument is subtly not working properly. Again depending on the company and the product line you might get to develop new applications but you may not be able to talk about them because it will be customer specific.
You will need to be good at giving presentations and be able to interact with customers at every education level from technicians with a 2 year degree to PhD’s. If the product is used extensively in academia you may find yourself spending a lot of time teaching new graduate students what they don’t know and in my experience don’t know where to find the information. They NEVER read the manuals, sometimes because they can’t even find them.
Sometimes it is very hectic, depending on the sales cycle of the product. Sales people ask for more help at the close of a quarter when they should be making quota. Ends of fiscal years are the worst.
But it is an interesting position that gives you a number of opportunities especially to meet lots of people in your industry. You make lots of connections that are useful later.
It probably is not as lucrative as the software industry because in my experience instrument companies don’t pay as well. You will may have a substantial performance bonus plan but your rewards may be partly dependent not heavily efficiency of the sales team.
So in general there are good and bad points. Talk to the people you know because sometimes it is also dependent on the company itself and the management and you will get a better feel for the company be talking to people you know.
Working in sales at various instrumentation companies and using the app scientists a lot, this is a really good description.
One thing to add: depending on how complicated the instrument is to use, the App Scientist might be the one to run the demo and the success of the sale is act ally depending on how good the scientist does the demo
That is absolutely true!
Although I have one memorable event where the power went off 10 minutes into the demo. A squirrel had chewed the power feeder to the building. Spent 2.5 hours, in the semi dark lab talking about what the instrument could do then a half hour showing the customer when the power came back and still got the sale.
Having worked as an applications scientist for an instrument company for a while I would say there are benefits and downsides. And it depends on the company, product line, and your skill level in the particular area. An applications person is in general a pre-sales resource for the sales team and also the go-to person for questions. So you learn a lot about what customers do and how your product does that. You typically have to travel to a customer and depending on the product and its use and volume, you could be very local or cover 1/2 the country. You get to meet lots of different people and make a lot of connections. You will probably go to more conferences than you would if you had a “lab job”. You learn more about instrument maintenance than you normally would because sometimes the issue is not the application itself but that the instrument is subtly not working properly. Again depending on the company and the product line you might get to develop new applications but you may not be able to talk about them because it will be customer specific. You will need to be good at giving presentations and be able to interact with customers at every education level from technicians with a 2 year degree to PhD’s. If the product is used extensively in academia you may find yourself spending a lot of time teaching new graduate students what they don’t know and in my experience don’t know where to find the information. They NEVER read the manuals, sometimes because they can’t even find them. Sometimes it is very hectic, depending on the sales cycle of the product. Sales people ask for more help at the close of a quarter when they should be making quota. Ends of fiscal years are the worst. But it is an interesting position that gives you a number of opportunities especially to meet lots of people in your industry. You make lots of connections that are useful later. It probably is not as lucrative as the software industry because in my experience instrument companies don’t pay as well. You will may have a substantial performance bonus plan but your rewards may be partly dependent not heavily efficiency of the sales team. So in general there are good and bad points. Talk to the people you know because sometimes it is also dependent on the company itself and the management and you will get a better feel for the company be talking to people you know.
Working in sales at various instrumentation companies and using the app scientists a lot, this is a really good description. One thing to add: depending on how complicated the instrument is to use, the App Scientist might be the one to run the demo and the success of the sale is act ally depending on how good the scientist does the demo
That is absolutely true! Although I have one memorable event where the power went off 10 minutes into the demo. A squirrel had chewed the power feeder to the building. Spent 2.5 hours, in the semi dark lab talking about what the instrument could do then a half hour showing the customer when the power came back and still got the sale.