At Pragmatic Marketing we focus primarily on product management and marketing. In addition, we are strong advocates of the role of sales engineer, a role that is critical for most technology product companies.  See The Role of Sales Engineer in Technical Sales for more on the role of sales engineer. 

In my experience, your college credentials have little to do with your hiring potential. I majored in marketing and minored in computer science. My first job out of college was as a programmer.  My first job as a vendor was in sales engineering for a product that I had used as a programmer. It wasn’t until a decade later that I actually got a job in marketing and then, I learned that virtually nothing in my marketing classes could be applied to technology marketing. Colleges teach you how to work at a consumer goods company. I remember taking a college class on packaging but I’ve never had a product that had a package. 

How does one get into sales engineering? I suspect the typical route is to be a customer of a product first. From customer to sales engineer (or field consultant) to product manager. Some 20% of product managers have been in sales or sales engineering. Another 20% come from development. The rest come from myriad backgrounds. 

In the end, the best product managers are those who understand technology, understand business, and most of all, can empathize with the customer.

Answered by Steve Johnson