Amber Watkin is an Application Marketing Engineer at Schneider Electric™ and her role is to promote various products and specialised applications to different types of customer.
"I create everything from adverts and brochures explaining our solutions in simple terms for non-technical customers, to technical white papers for engineers," explains Amber. "Most of the time it involves promoting our process and power control, data acquisition, systems and service expertise to our focus industries like glass, heat treatment of metals, life sciences and more."
In her role, Amber visits global customers to find out how they're using Schneider Electric's technology and what the future challenges are in their region. She also needs to keep up with new technology through attending industry-related exhibitions and conferences, then reporting back her findings to the relevant product and business development managers for an “Ideas Funnel”. "It’s a varied and interesting role with many new opportunities and challenges around every corner," says Amber.
"There's a saying that you learn something new every day and for me that's certainly true. I love finding out how our products, systems and services are used in industry and even though I’ve been with the company for over 21 years, I'm still meeting interesting people and learning lots of useful snippets of information each day from our customers and the knowledgeable people I work with at Schneider Electric".
Meeting people and understanding how things are made is of key interest to Amber, so visiting customer sites is one of her favourite tasks. She visits well-known food and beverage companies through to pharmaceuticals and glass manufacturing plants, where she researches specific applications of the Schneider Electric products. "How many people get the opportunity to visit a chocolate factory for work purposes?" asks Amber who enjoys her role immensely.
Amber's first job at Eurotherm™ was inspecting printed circuit boards but she quickly became interested in understanding how they worked and what equipment they ended up in. Schneider Electric gave her the opportunity to study a part-time electronics course at college and she worked her way through several technical roles including research and development where she tested the company's new products for robustness, emissions and immunity to environmental and heavy industrial standards. Because Amber then wanted to find out how customers were using Schneider Electric's products, she transferred into a marketing role.
"I've always admired Trevor Bayliss the inventor of the clockwork radio," declares Amber. "I was lucky enough to meet him at a STEM event once and I was so inspired by his sheer determination to succeed in his vision, even though many turned his idea down along the way." This is just one of the many highlights in Amber's time at Schneider Electric.
Amber's role has changed from a Copywriter to an Application Marketing Engineer, so she has spent a lot of time learning about Schneider Electric's industrial solutions. "It’s great to be able to utilise my technical knowledge more to create personalised content for our customers," explains Amber.
Amber is working on two power solutions for the glass industry at present - one for electric boosting in glass furnaces and the other for glass fibre manufacturing. Both involve new and innovative approaches to system design and solve a lot of common causes of energy waste in glass plants. Energy regulations are likely to affect glass manufacturers in most regions over a number of years, so these solutions will help keep usage as low as possible, saving unnecessary costs and improving sustainability.
Amber believes that there are plenty of opportunities for women at top employer Schneider Electric and encourages others to check out the excellent career opportunities available and not to be afraid to apply.
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