Web Developer

Web Developer (WD)

We need the most brilliant IT people in Indonesia to create solutions for our outstanding customers. Will you dare to accept our challenge? Show us how talented you are!
Requirements

* Experienced in hand-coding HTML+CSS+JavaScript.
* Fresh grads are OK.
* Knowledgeable in IIS/SQL Server/ASP and Apache/MySQL/PHP.
* Knowledge on other scripting languages is a plus.
* Experience in Joomla!/Mambo/PHP-Nuke/SharePoint is a plus.
* List your portfolio of websites in your résumé.
* Very high attention to detail.
* Able to work in team, under pressure and tight deadline.
* Good communications and writing skill in Indonesian and English.

How to Apply

Send your résumé/CV and recent photograph to career@plasmedia.com. Write the position code: WD in the Subject line.

How to Become a Sales Engineer

By Darrin Mourer, thesalesengineer.com

In this article I’m going to explore in great detail my general theories behind job hunting applied
to everything I know about hiring (and being hired) for Sales Engineering positions. I’m going to
make a general assumption that you aren’t already an SE, though it applies almost equally as
well to those switching companies. And, in case you’re wondering, this should work well even in
challenging economic times when sales organizations are being reduced.
Let’s get to it.
1. Know the job
Back when I got my first SE gig, there weren’t a lot of resources for finding out about the role of
an SE. Much of it had to be learned on the job. Today, there are many resources. Start here.
Read the books I have listed. Subscribe and plow through the archives of each blog I
recommend. You should feel like an industry veteran (sans direct experience) before you make
your first job inquiry. This also ensures you know if the position is right for you, which leads me
to my next point.
2. Understand your unique strengths
As I’ve mentioned previously, I am a big fan of business author Marcus Buckingham. I
recommend you read two books of his for the purpose of this exercise, Now, Discover Your
Strengths and Go Put Your Strengths to Work. In the former, go through the Strength Finder to
help you uncover your natural areas of talent and desire. Use the exercises in the latter to help
you zero in on the types of activities you find most rewarding. This is important if your
motivation in changing jobs is more intrinsic and less about a bigger paycheck—even though
that never hurts.
3. Determine your employer profile
After you thoroughly understand the role (conceptually at least) of an SE from step 1, you
should know fairly quickly if the role is generally a match to your personality. Most of the books
mentioned in the SE Resources page even have sections that help you think through this. If you
have what it takes, keep reading. My advice: Just don’t count yourself out too early. Speaking
from personal experience, I learned I had many innate talents I could apply to the role that I
never knew existed until I was forced to leverage them.
One aspect of Making the Technical Sale I found very insightful was the practice of
understanding your personality traits to the point of using that to target companies that played
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in market spaces that map to your strengths (i.e. finding the right company match). I view this
as more applicable to seasoned SEs since it requires a deeper understanding about your skills
that you may not have uncovered yet—even after the strength finding exercises from step 2.
But I still recommend even new entrants to spend time reviewing the section to make an
educated guess.
Once you have this understanding, you can put these pieces together to forge a profile of
potential companies that 1) maximizes your chances of getting hired, 2) obtains the highest
level of job satisfaction, which 3) sets you up for the best chances of succeeding as a new SE.
Your profile may be as simple as: A fast growing 100M+ enterprise software company with an
established customer base selling desktop management solutions. It can get as specific as your
understanding of yourself and the market allows, but even a simple profile like this one can
allow you to narrow down potential employers to less than ten.
4. Research your profile companies
The goal of this step is to allow you to narrow down your potential company matches to just a
few. At this point in the job hunt I am not in favor of using a job board or industry recruiters.
You’ll set yourself apart by contacting these companies directly and will keep your options open
(some firms are not allowed to use recruiters for example). If all else fails this can still be a
fallback option.
To determine your best matches, I recommend a few approaches:
•
Think of the companies that best match your skill set and industry experience
•
Use the corporate website to find out all of the products each of them sells
•
Use publically available research to determine market leading companies in the space.
Though not always the best fit, it’s usually better to be employed by market leaders.
•
Use your personal network (including social networks like LinkedIn) to find connections
you may have that can provide more information about the company. More on this in
part 2.
Using these basic approaches you should easily be able to find the top companies in the market
that best match your profile.
5. Preparing to get the interview
The main point here is that you don’t want to be going in blind when seeking an interview. This
may be quite a lengthy process so bear with me.
There are two primary approaches to take in parallel. The first is to explore the career page of
your target companies. You’ll likely find a listing for an SE position on at least one of them, even
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if it’s not in your area. Don’t worry about finding an open position, as you’ll see this is usually
only a minor hurdle. Look at what the companies are looking for in a candidate. Again, these
are likely “pony descriptions” as in “Mommy, Daddy, I want a pony for Christmas!” Don’t worry
if you don’t have some of the direct (or length of) experience they’re looking for. You are
looking for themes.
The 2nd approach is to bolster that understanding of the role by learning more about them via
personal contacts in the industry. If you’re an industry veteran this is probably very easy as
most SEs stay inside the same industry most of their careers. For newer folks you can use
services like LinkedIn to find out connections you may have to people in those companies or at
least people who know people that can introduce you.
What you want to obtain is a pretty good idea about what skills and experience you need to
posses to land your job. What are the technical skills? What type of background will they
accept? What industry associations are desired? What about education? Though most of this is
negotiable, your job is to make an honest comparison between your current self and this
hypothetical perfect candidate. Start now and go become that individual to the best extent
possible. I’m not saying you have to reenroll in college to go get a CS degree for example, but it
might be a really good idea to take 2-3 months to hone your skill set.
During this time, take the opportunity to see about obtaining demo versions of the product. If
you can’t get direct access to it, spend a good deal of time online checking out product specs
and reviews. At this point you only need to be able to converse at a high level about the
product. Once you land the interview is when this work truly begins.
Though it may be tempting to apply for open positions, I strongly recommend waiting until you
meet some of the desired qualifications before proceeding. If you interview too quickly, you
may blow your chances permanently at your target companies.
6. The resume
This isn’t a section on how to write a resume, only to provide some pointers about how to hone
an existing resume. Now that you know about what your target companies are looking for, you
need to play up that experience as much as possible. Be sure to add anything you’ve recently
done to better align yourself.
Here is probably the most important tip: Write your resume for a specific company and
position. You need to throw the idea away that you are creating a generic resume for 100
different companies. That is the old way. You are going to be recreating your resume for each
company you target. If it sounds daunting, don’t worry, you’ll likely only have to do this 5 times
or less. To help guide your efforts, search online for other experienced SE resumes. After you’ve
seen a few dozen it will give you an idea about what type of information potential employers
find useful.
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Remember that target company profile statement you created. Specially crafted, that might
make an ideal Objective statement for your resume. Yes, you need to include one. If nothing
else it shows you at least took the time to customize for them. Best case, the SE
Manager/Recruiter might thing you are the perfect fit for the job.
My last tip is to make sure your resume stands out a bit from a formatting standpoint.
Conventional wisdom says you need to use something boilerplate so that HR departments and
job sites can consume your resume electronically. Since we won’t be relying on obtuse
algorithms for an interview, it is more important that you go for something a little non-
standard. Since you know your industry, you’ll have a sense for how far you can push it before it
becomes a detractor. Need some ideas? My favorite approach is searching through existing
resumes for those in graphic design, advertising, or marketing. These folks are paid to be able
to standout. Take a cue from their examples.
7. Getting the interview
Armed with your understanding of the company, its products/services, ideal candidates, and a
targeted resume, you’re already way ahead of the game before you ever talk to a single person
at the company about a job. This will give you added confidence when contacting them.
If it’s a company of any significant size, again start with LinkedIn. Search for SE Managers, SEs,
and others in your target location. Very quickly you should find people within their SE
Organization. The goal is to begin constructing a rudimentary org chart. This is something reps
are very good at doing with new customers.
When you think you have identified the right people or are close enough (not everyone has a
profile of course), check out the backgrounds of these folks, especially if you found the local SE
Manager. This includes general web searches too. The goal isn’t to spy, just to get a better
understanding of the people you’ll be speaking with and identifying common talking points.
Once you have this information, it’s finally time to make formal contact. I probably wouldn’t
start with the SE Manager in question; I’d start with an SE in your area. Call the company and
ask for that SE by name. SEs are usually very busy (as you know), but most are very helpful by
nature. Introduce yourself and be honest with how you got their name. Express your general
interest in working for the company in an SE role and maybe ask a few softball questions to
demonstrate you know a lot about the company already. End by asking for or confirming the
name of the regional SE Manager. Thank them for their time. If they offer to forward your
resume or make a call on your behalf, politely decline. That’s your job and next step.
The goal of your next conversation is not to interview over the phone. The goal is to get them
to agree to meet with you in person, regardless if there is an open position. When you make
the call, again introduce yourself and the purpose of the call. You can also casually mention that
you’ve spoken to someone on the team. You’ll want to express enthusiasm over wanting to
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work at that company and also demonstrate the amount of research you’ve put in to come to
that conclusion.
When it becomes clear that you’re not someone that just pulled their company and name off of
Google, they’ll be much more receptive. When you’ve reached that point, you can inquire
about specific openings or ones that may be available in future. Be very prepared to hear that
no openings exist right now (that’s ok!). Mention that you are patient and that a successful
company like theirs will likely expand, and when they do you’d like to be considered.
If they are local, ask if you can come in to speak with them for 30 minutes or join them for
lunch. After spending 10 minutes on the phone with you they are far more likely to want to get
to know you. After all, one of the jobs of the SE Manager is to maintain a reserve talent pool. If
they won’t agree, you can casually ask for other SE managers who may have positions in
surrounding territories or verticals. Larger companies often have overlapping territories that
cover specific customers that may also hire in your area.
At this point you have an excellent chance of walking away with an interview, an informal
meeting, or at the very least other SE Managers in the company you can contact. Rinse and
repeat until you have a formal interview. While still conducting your search, make a reminder
to follow up and email them every 6-8 weeks inquiring if they have heard of any potential
openings. If you’ve done your homework, this will almost always eventually get you that
interview. But not to worry, you have a list of several companies to try this with simultaneously.
View each experience as an opportunity to hone your pitch.
This process can easily take a month if not longer before you get your interview so don’t get
discouraged.
6. The interview
Depending on the position and industry, your interview could go several different ways, but
there are common themes specific to the SE role that I will talk about here. Most SE interviews
consist of the following:
•
Meeting with the SE manager
•
Meeting with 1-2 other SEs on the team
•
Meeting with the sales manager
•
Meeting with your potential sales rep(s)
•
Being asked to give a presentation or demonstration (or other thinking on your feet—type task)
The big take away from this section is that, like in many things, luck favors the prepared. A
quote I always enjoyed from Darren LaCroix (who won the Toastmasters World Champion of
Public Speaking contest) is “I knew I was not the most talented; not the best speaker in the
world. But, I thought, I can be the best prepared.” Being better prepared will give you the edge
you need simply because most people don’t do it.
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Here are things you need to have mastery over. Keep in mind that now you get to focus on a
single company.
•
The industry in which it operates (includes the competition)
•
The company history, business model, and recent performance
•
Current events that impact its business
•
The products/services it sells
•
How this position fits into their sales model
This list is short, but let me stress this point: You need to come across as an industry veteran
even if you don’t have the specific experience. This is because you will be competing with others
that already have this knowledge. This is not the ticket to getting hired; this sacrifice in study is
the entry fee.
With all of that said, here are my recommendations to distance yourself from the pack.
Prepare for a presentation/demonstration
When interviewing outside candidates, I always mention that they will be delivering a pitch to
me on a specific product of ours and leave it at that, but many SE managers won’t mention that
or would be satisfied with any topic of presentation. The real self starters I have seen pull down
our PPT template and product from the web and come prepared to do a full pitch on the spot.
Ok, so maybe no one has ever done that to any extreme that I’ve witnessed, but I keep hoping
to see it so I can hire them on the spot. If you aren’t asked to prepare a pitch, do so anyway and
make sure the interviewer knows you have it ready. I might even go so far as to mention that
you understand it is hard to know how someone will perform under pressure and offer to go
through your pitch anyway. Just don’t force it on them.
The proposal
In addition to a preso and demo, I also recommend you craft a written proposal based on the
company’s product(s) and a case study (maybe even based on your current company). It can be
as detailed as your understanding of their products, but you should minimally prepare a few-
page report detailing how you would implement its product(s) at a company and the benefits
the case study can expect to receive. It not only is a tangible demonstration of your knowledge
but more so shows your initiative and willingness to go the extra mile. I kind of liken it to extra
credit in school—the teacher will probably only glance at the contents, but you still get the full
points just for doing it.
Interviewer questions
Most know to come to an interview prepared to ask a few questions. From what I’ve seen this
does most interviewees more harm than good because many questions asked are shallow or
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answers publically available. To me that demonstrates poor research skills and even poorer
initiative. The type of questions you want to ask take two forms:
1. The tough business questions others are afraid to ask
2. Targeted questions that steer the conversation to your areas of strength
Asking the tough questions
Conventional wisdom will say to keep the questions mundane so you don’t offend anyone or
make the interviewer uncomfortable. The trouble is this sets you up as a less memorable (read:
average) candidate. In order for you to make the right career decision you need answers to
your tough questions. You also need to stand out. Get everything out on the table in a
respectful and positive manner. Example: Bad question – What do you think about Competitor
A? Good question – In my research it looks like Competitor A is gaining some market share by
pushing feature xyz despite the fact it looks like you have a superior product. What’s the
company response been to this?
Targeted questions
Skilled conversationalists use this technique often to steer conversations to their areas of
expertise. Recruiters call this the Question-Listen-Respond (QLR) technique. Based on your
unique skills and history, prepare a few questions in advance you can use to highlight your
strengths. Ask the interviewer an open ended question, listen intently to the response, and
then add to that discussion by applying it to your strength. Example: “Product A looks like it
would be a good fit for SOX compliance, but I didn’t see a strong marketing push exploiting this.
Is this a market you’ve explored in the past?” The interviewer will respond. Then you can add “I
agree it’s a bit of an untapped market. I participated on the SOX compliance project with my
current employer and we definitely could benefit from a solution like this”.
These are simplistic examples but I’m sure you get the idea. If you’re wondering whether this is
ethical or underhanded, my personal take is that you are completely justified in taking this
approach. If you think about it, the interviewer (if any good) is certainly trying to steer the
conversation and also using verbal techniques to get inside your head. I’m simply advocating
turning it into a two-person sport.
Roles
As I mentioned it is likely you will be interviewing with several people, and possibly presenting
to a larger group. Here are some tips about speaking with each persona.
Other SEs
Other SEs on the team are primarily interested in your technical abilities as it relates to your
ability to add to the local collective knowledge base. The interview team will also look to SEs to
specifically validate your technical abilities since they are really the only ones qualified to do so.
Make sure you play up your technical abilities whenever possible.
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Sales reps
Reps will primarily base their decision on your presence and communication abilities. They
would much prefer a great communicator to a great product expert. Plus, they usually assume
you’ll be able to learn the technical piece on the job. If they see you nail the presentation, you’ll
likely be accepted in.
Sales managers
Sales managers will primarily be looking at your ability to function as part of a sales team. Their
main focus is team revenue attainment and you need to convince them you can bring value to
the sales team. Your understanding of the SE’s role in the sales process is critical as is
highlighting experience (or desire of) working with customers.
Astute SE managers understand these relationships and are mindful to only bring in qualified
interview candidates since poor ones reflect on them and waste everyone’s time. Expect the
manager to prequalify you and make final judgment based on these criteria.
7. Closing and negotiating
After your interview comes the standard fare with thank you notes to everyone you spoke with.
I have no specific tips other than just make sure you follow proper etiquette. At this point the
manager’s decision is already finalized; just don’t blow it.
During one of your interviews or follow up conversations salary expectations were likely
discussed. If you get down to the final phase of salary negotiation and/or offer letter, I would
feel comfortable with minor negotiation around salary, but unless it is not a competitive offer, I
wouldn’t push it. Once you’ve got your foot in the door as an SE in your industry and have
proven your abilities; that’s when I would get aggressive.
—
There is no doubt about this being a very lengthy and involved process. And I’ll be the first to
admit you can break into this industry simply with a high tech degree or background and a good
recruiter. This process is not for those that let luck determine their outcome. While nothing can
guarantee success, you’ll find this to easily get you ahead of 90% of your peers and dramatically
increases the chance you will not only break into the industry, but will also find a fit with a
company that propels your career longer term. I wish you the best of luck with your endeavor.