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For a Software Support and Development Engineer the Importance of Being Able to Sell

2016-02-01

For a Software Support and Development Engineer it’s important to be able to sell. In other words one might say it’s important to be able to bullshit (bullshit in a good way). In *other* other words, to be able to convince others to do stuff- to argue well enough to win an argument in one’s favor. (or in one’s department’s favor, or in one’s colleague’s favor, or in one’s company’s favor, or in one’s client’s favor, or in one’s shareholder’s favor, etc. etc.)

This could be considered a soft skill or a people skill. Therefore why is it important for a Software Support and Development Engineer to have this skill? A Software Support Agent or a Software Dev. must be able to sell in order to do some critical things: 1. win the argument to get resources for one’s department (get hardware, software purchases, get funding to attend relevant professional conferences, etc.) 2. to convince one’s boss, peers, or client that the next-step course of action that I’m proposing on a project is the best next-step *even if it is a non-trivial task*, 3.) to sell themselves to get a promotion, or even to get the job in the first place.

It’s important for a Software Support and Development Engineer to have the soft skill of selling. It’s important for us Support Agents and us Devs to be able to bullshit (in a good way) in order to win our arguments in our favor. It enables us to do the best job that we can!


[2019 edit: Moved to: https://i̶n̶v̶e̶s̶t̶o̶r̶w̶o̶r̶k̶e̶r̶.̶c̶o̶m̶/2016/... .html.]