Why Don’t You Work As An Industrial Engineer?

Dominik Rampp Local Group Dresden

A couple of weeks ago, I got asked exactly this question by a customer after we had more or less randomly talked about my educational background.

I have never questioned why an Industrial Engineer would NOT work in Sales. How did I come to that assumption though? Why can I definitely recommend starting to work in Sales after you have graduated from university?

Talking about my journey to sales, I have to extend that question to my studies. The reason why I decided to enroll in Industrial Engineering and Management (IEM) studies was that IEM in general offers a very broad range of knowledge uniting two different fields of studies (engineering and management). It is a field where two different the same time, the educational journey can go into many different directions - from “traditional” IEM topics as supply chain management over

mechanical engineering, marketing to more recent developments as data science. Topics I could identify with. However, while attending marketing classes and getting a brief overview of sales management, I got more interested in the topic and was wondering why there were almost no classes on sales management. Why?

So, after having graduated from university, I knew I wanted to work in a field where I cannot only use what I have learned but also develop my models (technical vs. economical) clash and, at

knowledge further. Having that and my strong interest in sales in mind, I got an offer from my current employer to live “no day like any other day”: being literally on the road, visiting customers on job sites, finding technical solutions, increasing their productivity and safety - all those tasks were soon part of my daily life.

Although, for someone having graduated from IEM, the construction industry might not come into mind in the first place. However, what fascinated me the most was how constructions are hardly similar. Each one has a different building concept, it is harder to standardize processes like in a production plant, work plans change fast, as well as owner’s plans - a place where fast reaction, improvisation, out-of-the-box thinking, and creativity are needed.

How does an average day of my work as an account manager in the construction industry look like? In general, it is about taking care of my customers and their needs. This does not only mean that customers call you and ask for specific products: it is rather about visiting them on construction sites, presenting solutions for their specific needs, and making them realize how their efficiency and productivity can be improved - not only using various tools but also using software.

Although you can get in touch with your customers via phone or online communication tools, sales is about people. It is about making your customers

feel good when you offer them solutions or help them work on their projects. Even if you meet with a customer “just for a coffee” and talk about everyday life, once you listen actively and carefully, there are so many business-related topics that tend to come up in a conversation, much more than you would expect.

I often wondered how my time and the experiences gained in ESTIEM still influence my everyday life. Probably, the most important value I learned is to be an open and curious person who is interested in meeting all kinds of different people. Also, I still realize every day that although I take care of an area in Southern Germany, the construction industry in Germany is quite international, a lot of customers and especially workers come from many different countries. A field where I realize how much my ESTIEM travels helped me develop intercultural awareness, knowing the traditions of the countries I visited. Sometimes, workers ask me whether I have roots in the countries they come from because in their eyes, I know way too much for a German - well, that is when I start talking about ESTIEM and my time in this wonderful organization again.