Perception of a man

I have been in the Telecommunications industry for about 10 years now. To be more specific, I have been a Telecomm Engineer for about 10 years now. I have moved around in the industry, holding various Engineer and Management positions at different companies. But always maintained the working title of something, something Engineer something.

I never really thought about how I was defining myself within the industry with the positions I held, and how this definition impacted how I was perceived within the corporation. "Oh, he's an Engineer", "Charlie? He's in Engineering". The stereotypes of an Engineer, became the perception of who I was due to my longtime association with the Engineering department. What stereotypes? C'mon, you know them. Geek. Loner. Doesn't interact well with others. Can't speak the same language as other humans. Technical. Engineers.

The difference? Other than a title, I am anything BUT an Engineer. I am just as comfortable in a network lab as I am in the Board Room. I can troubleshoot an equipment outage and then complete the departments yearly budget. I can teach both a CEO and a Professional Engineer how to work the same piece of equipment. I guess that's why I have always sought out the non-Engineer roles, within the Engineering Department, and relished in the fact that I can succeed as the anomaly to the standard. But, recently I have been in a position that I didn't enjoy, and have been looking for other opportunities.

So, what does an Engineer, who is not really an Engineer, do when they run out of places to not be an Engineer in the Engineering Department? They go into Marketing of course. Now, I led you through my perception discussion for a reason, and it is this, perception impact is not realized until you try and move to where your perceived traits are NOT the traits of the masses. Meaning? Engineers are not in Marketing. And to get into Marketing, I had to prove that I was not an Engineer.

To cross company lines, I had to validate to the Marketing Department that I was more than 10 years worth of various Engineering titles on my resume. That I was not the perception of an Engineer, but rather someone that could walk, talk, socialize, and speak a language that they could understand. Someone capable of doing their job. Able to live in their world. And don't think it was one sided. To the Engineers I had to defend my decision to "move to the dark side". To join the land of the non-thinkers. To voluntarily lobotomize myself and my career.

Marketing thought they knew what to expect from me because I was an Engineer. I proved them wrong. Engineering thought they knew what to expect from a Product Development Manager. I proved them wrong also. Seems a lot of our believed truths are based on perception, rather than fact. Maybe, given a little more open-minded living in the world, we can prove ourselves wrong a few more times as well.

I know I am sure having fun doing it.