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The differences between outside sales engineers and professional services engineers can be seen in a few details. Each job has different responsibilities and duties. It typically takes 4-6 years to become both an outside sales engineer and a professional services engineer. Additionally, a professional services engineer has an average salary of $98,091, which is higher than the $79,145 average annual salary of an outside sales engineer.
The top three skills for an outside sales engineer include customer relationships, HVAC and product line. The most important skills for a professional services engineer are customer service, professional services, and java.
| Outside Sales Engineer | Professional Services Engineer | |
| Yearly salary | $79,145 | $98,091 |
| Hourly rate | $38.05 | $47.16 |
| Growth rate | 6% | 6% |
| Number of jobs | 113,925 | 114,048 |
| Job satisfaction | - | - |
| Most common degree | Bachelor's Degree, 74% | Bachelor's Degree, 59% |
| Average age | 44 | 44 |
| Years of experience | 6 | 6 |
An outside sales engineer is both a specialist and a salesperson of scientific and technological products or services to businesses. You have an in-depth knowledge of the products and the engineering processes that make these products work so that you can demonstrate their benefits to customers. Outside sales engineers are technical customer service representatives working for businesses that sell engineering products or the makers - they are out in the field interacting, educating, and selling to potential customers.
Professional Services Engineers are employees who represent their company in their client's work environment. They are usually software engineers or any other information technology-related engineers. They are expected to be familiar with company's products. Professional Services Engineers act as the bridge between the company and the client. They are usually assigned to be on-site at the client's office to act as the technical representative of the company. As such, they do the installing, setting up, managing, troubleshooting, maintaining, and repairing the company's software for the client. They may also help out in product training and maximizing the user experience.
Outside sales engineers and professional services engineers have different pay scales, as shown below.
| Outside Sales Engineer | Professional Services Engineer | |
| Average salary | $79,145 | $98,091 |
| Salary range | Between $55,000 And $113,000 | Between $64,000 And $149,000 |
| Highest paying City | - | San Francisco, CA |
| Highest paying state | - | Virginia |
| Best paying company | - | Gracenote |
| Best paying industry | - | Technology |
There are a few differences between an outside sales engineer and a professional services engineer in terms of educational background:
| Outside Sales Engineer | Professional Services Engineer | |
| Most common degree | Bachelor's Degree, 74% | Bachelor's Degree, 59% |
| Most common major | Business | Business |
| Most common college | Northwestern University | Stanford University |
Here are the differences between outside sales engineers' and professional services engineers' demographics:
| Outside Sales Engineer | Professional Services Engineer | |
| Average age | 44 | 44 |
| Gender ratio | Male, 91.2% Female, 8.8% | Male, 57.9% Female, 42.1% |
| Race ratio | Black or African American, 1.6% Unknown, 6.2% Hispanic or Latino, 7.9% Asian, 5.8% White, 78.2% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.3% | Black or African American, 1.7% Unknown, 6.2% Hispanic or Latino, 8.0% Asian, 5.8% White, 78.1% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.3% |
| LGBT Percentage | 7% | 7% |