crickman@umn-cs.UUCP (Robin Crickman) (10/09/85)
Do you have people in your company who work in the capacity described
in this COMPUTERWORLD article? Edmond Weiss writes in the Sept. 9, 1985
issue about professionals he calls SUPPORT ENGINEERS. It sounds like work I
would enjoy doing and am well qualified to perform, only I've never seen any
job postings for support engineers nor met anyone who does that work. If you
work in this capacity or know someone who does, would you tell me what the
title for this job is at your company and what special training is expected of
people who want to apply for jobs in this area. Mr. Weiss states, "This
person [a support engineer] is not only a skilled writer but also a skillful
teacher and consultant. More importantly, the support engineer is someone
who believes that the burden of effective communication and implementation
is on the developer, not the user.
"Support engineers can come from any background. Like the programmers of the
early 1960s, support engineers didn't learn their trade in school. They are
drawn by aptitude, opportunity, even passion. And their challenge is the
most interesting assignment in all of data processing: to bridge the gap
between developers and users, between engineering and sales.
"Support engineers must possess superior writing and communication skills,
no matter what they studied in school. Beyond that, they must be able to
understand what users and systems do and to referee heated arguments between
business professionals and software wunderkind.
"The best ones also have the knack of suddenly becoming blissfully naive
about computers when it comes time to explain a procedure to a neophyte user."
Mr. Weiss goes on, but this reasonably describes the profession and its tasks.
I'm particularly interested in hearing from people who came into this profession
from a field other than programming and do not have CS or EE degrees. Any ideas
on how I might find a company that would hire me for work of this sort are also
welcome and gratefully accepted.
Robin Crickman
...ihnp4!stolaf!umn-cs!crickman