Field Applications Engineer needed knowledge

Hello,

I had a question in regards to the field applications engineer career path in automotive microcontrollers industry, what is the needed HW knowledge to be able to cope with such position needs?

What are the exact topics needed to get information about to be able to work and to understand all the needed aspects in such industry?

The most successful / useful FAEs I have known
have a good background in hardware design
and bench test skills. Your role as FAE is to
understand the customer's goal and approach,
and show them how to use your company's
parts to achieve it. So you need to be more
experienced and trained, at least regarding
your own parts, than them. Preferably about
your competitors' as well, because you are
supposed to push -your- company's solution
over theirs, so you must be able to see and
show their shortcomings and express how your
solution is superior.

FAEs are the real salesmen. Salesmen take the
order, after the FAE has "sold" the solution to
the customer's design engineer.

Being a broadly interested hobbyist helps.
Because you don't get to pick what comes
your way. You need to know where to look
for info and you need to be capable of taking
your own data against some specific interest
when nobody is there to hand it to you.

But don't gloss over that "sales" bit. Because in
most companies that is what you will be judged
on, and may be a substantial element of your
compensation package - how many design-ins,
at what kind of sales dollars, were you able to
drive through your efforts at how many customers?
Technical ability is not enough in that environment.
You need personality, people skills, communication
skills. Think of it as "salesman who actually knows,
not just anything, but everything".

Simple, huh?

The metrics over the years for FAEs has changed, as any systems run by humans.

The last several jobs I held had design budgets, number of designs you win, and were
measured thru dollars generated. $$$$ of course is a lagging indicator, so plans were
"massaged".

Some FAEs are specialists, and are narrowly focused, and do deep dives on the parts
responsible for. Those FAEs usually tied to a company, like Freescale, TI.....

Distributor FAEs responsibility tied typically to the entire line card, with some specialization
in the larger distributors.

I called on some automotive 3'rd party guys, their focus on display, motors, CAN, processors,
power. You can pick up the phone and seek out an automotive FAE, introduce yourself, and
reason for call, and glean info out of them about job. I think most FAEs would have no problem
talking to you.

I was fortunate in career to work both as specialist and as generalist. I preferred, overall, to
latter. I basically loved technology in all forms, processors and analog stuff. Especially liked
continuous learning.

Most FAEs have basic skills when they start an FAE career, design experience key.


Regards, Dana.

Well, I would like to thank you both for such useful information!
you've been a great help!

but the last question here,
if I am to apply to be a FAE, what are the hardware design topics I need to understand/know about, because electronics and circuits science are quite big, what are the main topics that can be categorized as must know and what would be nice to have and so on?

1) Motor control brushless, DC, stepper, linear actuator
2) Embedded Processors, C Language, IDEs & Compiler (as user)
3) Communications, eg. CAN buss, I2C, SPI, One Wire
4) Power, DC/DC buck/boost converters, power MOSFET, Bipolar
5) LCD Displays, interface
6) Automotive power systems, load dump issues....

Regards, Dana.

sherif96 said:

but the last question here,
if I am to apply to be a FAE, what are the hardware design topics I need to understand/know about, because electronics and circuits science are quite big, what are the main topics that can be categorized as must know and what would be nice to have and so on?

Click to expand...

I imagine from your questions that you may be a
"fresher" and if so you would have to lean on your
coursework more than professional resume.

What is wanted, follows from the (prospective)
employer's business. For example International
Rectifier would really want the sorts of power
conversion, load control, motor control chops
mentioned, but Analog Devices would more want
the RF and precision analog emphasis, and a
company more in the electrical switchgear
business would be altogether different, want
familiarity with electrical codes and electromechanical
"stuff". You want to tailor how you present yourself
in each case to put your value-in-context, forward.
Because it's always about what you can do for them,
and their customers, not your need to eat or make
the rent.

To this, if you do have work experience (even if pre-
graduation) which entailed you solving some sort
of technical problems for some "customer", put that
forward. How you engage with "customers" and how
well you dig into problems and pull out solutions,
is the kernel of value that an employer wants from
a FAE hire - FAE can't hide inside the corporate shell
and let someone else deal with the customer, unlike
product design or manufacturing engineers. You
might be the only person in the whole company
that the customers really -want- to talk to. So you
must "sell" that alongside the technical. And you
should not pretend to know it all if you do not -
instead, proactively ask your interviewers about
what training you can expect, internally or from an
external source; how much time you will be given
to spend on continuing education; how much to
spend on developing applications and supporting
hardware / software of your own design. Your FAE
has to be a self-starter, self-directed learner,
inventor (even if only incremental improvements)
if they are to be useful to the employer and valued
by the customers.

Yes you are absolutely right, I am indeed a fresher
I am trying to be an FAE in the automotive business, STM/Infineon, and so forth. I definitely agree with you on the personal skills part, but as you said I am trying to be a self-learner and to know what exactly I need to know to start learning to be ready to be in such a field, I am not trying to be the regular FAE, I would like to believe I am trying to excel and to always be ready to learn new stuff even that I do not have a clue about.

after the long intro haha, would the automotive field required specific hardware topics then?

and is the FAE career path -let's say if you have the required skills - a good career path to grow in?

In the automotive field with those sorts of
employers, anything touching upon the
"electrification of every damn thing" is
valid. Even here, you have the powertrain
(HV switching devices, motor control /
regenerative braking), you have the ADAS
and automotive radars that want mm-wave
RF and signal processing and various other
sensor / data streams, you have the whole
cabin-as-living-room-and-office with its
more common components but probably
a few automotive data busses that are less
commonly used outside the industry, etc.

I suggest you pick a problem that excites
you and drill in. Because excitement will help
you sell the story and yourself, it looks like
"internally motivated".

And how do you rate the FAE as a career path for an electronics engineer with respect to other career paths that an electronics engineer can join as a fresh graduate since I still have the choice to decide which path fits me well?

I'd say it would be my second choice (I do IC
design, which was always my first). At least
you get to design some things sometimes,
and can be sure you're always doing
something that matters in multiple ways.

If you get happy solving problems it's not
a bad role. Depending of course on how
your company -actually- treats FAEs, job
content and compensation-wise. Some
are good (some even do, or used to, give
FAEs the option to "register opportunities"
like the sales folks, and participate in
commissions - others treat you like a plow
horse except farmers care more about
their horses. Check your choice of employer,
it's evidently highly variable.

There's a lot of engineering roles I had and
have no interest in, but I'm not going to bag
on them as my interests are not anything
but my own.

Most FAEs have had a significant design history before becoming an FAE.

As a career you tend to become a generalist as you typically are no longer designing. So
your specific knowledge over time has a tendency to erode. But it broadens if you you try
to win all the sockets in the design. thru study, reading, involvement.

I did both direct and distribution FAE jobs. I would say I liked the distribution the most because
of diversity of customer and designs being worked with. But FAEs in distribution are a bit of an after-
thought, and management tends to churn their goals and directives because they do not fully under-
stand designs and design decisions.

If you are working with a broad new technology you can find yourself talking directly to upper
management in corporations. I had once situation where I had a 15 - 30 min meeting with a CEO
weekly to keep him abreast, and several calls a week on VP Engineering. You can find yourself
working from designer to top in certain situations, doing new product program management
as part of the gig.

Compensation wise you will do, once in role and job hop a couple of times, ~ 1.6 - 2X the average EE
income. I am assuming average these days 70K (I may be out of date).

There are layoffs to contend with, but same is true of general engineering.

Remember,. if you commit to a lifetime of self education you can generally adapt and move around
with a fair amount of freedom. Equally key is manage the income to give you freedom of choice.

Personally, as a person with broad tech interests, I loved the role. I did sales to generate retirement, then
went back to first love, FAEing. Worked with a lot of driven smart FAEs, and an occasional dud. Enjoyed
the comradery when factory training meets were done. Great career in my humble opinion.


Regards, Dana.