Porsgrunn, a charming Norwegian port and industrial city, is located about 160 kilometers southwest of Oslo, the country’s capital. Robert has held the position of system & solution engineer there at Pepperl+Fuchs AS for more than seven years. He actively supports the sales team in many different areas – and feels right at home in this role.
Hi there, Robert. You’re a system & solution engineer. Can you tell me a little bit about what your job involves?
Hi, or as we say in Norwegian, hei! I’m responsible for providing sales support, not just here in Norway but also in the other Scandinavian countries. I provide technical training and support the sales team with customer care. I frequently help out with technical customer discussions or meetings, especially where our more technologically complex sensors and solutions are concerned. My tasks range from writing up quotes for individual sensors to advising customers across the board, for example in selecting the right components for the next RFID system. Or I explain to them how technologies like IO-Link can be put to targeted and efficient use. No two days are alike. That’s what makes my job exciting.
What do you like most about your work?
That’s easy: the variety. There’s something new every week, and I never stop learning. I especially like my direct contact with our customers. I enjoy learning more about their issues and concerns and giving them the best possible support with our products and solutions. Being able to help them with their problems is a nice feeling.
What is important for your work?
It’s important to be open to new things and have a desire for lifelong learning. We’ve launched a lot of different sensors on the market in the past ten years. There are some similarities between them, but in some cases their functions or applications are unique. Take the WILSEN.sonic sensor when it was first launched, for example. It was a known technology for measuring distance which was combined with a way of transferring sensor data that was completely new, at least to me.
Curiosity and technical know-how
What characteristics does a person need to do your job?
It’s important to have a basic level of interest and knowledge about technology, combined with a lot of curiosity. That lays a solid foundation for the job. When a new sensor is launched, I want to test it right away and see how and for what exactly it can be used.
What has been your biggest challenge to date at Pepperl+Fuchs?
Sometimes it’s challenging that we can’t always test our products directly at the customer’s facilities under real-world conditions. It often seems like everything works perfectly at our end, but things can look very different in practice. Some customers also have highly specific questions that I can’t answer directly at times.
What do you do when you aren’t working?
I like to try out new things. This summer will be my first time taking a sailing vacation – I’m really looking forward to it! But motorcycling is something I’ve been excited about for years now. From race tracks to the spectacular mountain roads here in Norway, there’s hardly anything I enjoy more.
Profile
Robert
Role: System & Solution Engineer
Joined Pepperl+Fuchs: September 2014
Motto: It can’t be that difficult?
Especially good at: Cooking
Wanted to be when he grew up: Police officer or firefighter
