Field Application Engineer (FAE)?

Question

Hi,
For the last 3 years I've been working as an electrical engineer on a blue chip company (R&D). lately I'm thinking about shifting to a field application engineer (FAE) position, since I'm interested on learning the business and customer side, but I have few worries:
Am I overqualified? - is this job more appointed for people with less technical knowledge (technicians etc.)?
Does this position has a bad "reputation" and is it less overrated?
Could it hurt my career, for the long term, if I decide to go back to R&D?
Thanks.

Answer 1

If you are interested in that, then go for it! Give it a try. Don't worry about being overqualified. Being a FAE takes brains and talent, too. I think it's a good place to be for someone who is interested in both engineering and business.
As far as "hurting your career for the long term", well, it's hard to predict the future. Personally, I would not worry about that too much. The engineering business is very fluid, and people change jobs all the time. If you want to go back to R&D someday, you can probably do that.
I know a lot of FAE's, although I have never been one myself.
Here's one more thing to think about: Most FAE's have to travel a lot. Do you like business trips? Think about how the travel will affect you.
I don't think the job has a bad reputation. There are certainly some bad FAE's in the world, but there are good ones, too. If you can be one of the good ones, then you will be ok.