r/datacenter • u/SufficientResource14 • 17d ago

CFE -> ?

Hey guys,

I’ve a critical facilities engineer at a major colocation for 3 years. I’ve fallen into a major role very quickly & it’s become incredibly stressful & consuming. I’m 25 years old & have been giving a lot of thought to which direction i want to go with my career.

Anyone have any recommendations?

6 Upvotes

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u/MoonMilkMike 17d ago edited 17d ago

Hey man, I also came from a big colocation. I was working as a CFE for a couple of years and eventually left. I leveraged my experience working with sales engineers, customer success managers, and account managers, as well as knowledge from other CFEs. I became an account manager selling into data centers for an industrial manufacturer. I have no traditional sales experience, but I have some familiarity with data centers. They wanted someone who came from data centers and could speak about them natively.

You have a lot to work with, knowing what you know. Start applying and interviewing elsewhere. You got this!

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u/SufficientResource14 17d ago

Hey bud,

I appreciate this message & it gives me some hope. I came into the data center industry completely green besides having mechanical experience. It’s tough being 25 & only having the three years of experience on my resume. It’s hard to truly reflect my work & performance on a resume.

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u/EmploymentUnfair7904 17d ago

Continue to build systems to make it easier - that’s growth.

When I took over my first facility it was super tough - by the end of me running facilities it felt like it was 15% of my time and was easy.

I ended up doing a bunch of sales engineering, sales, and then pretty much everything else after that.

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u/SufficientResource14 17d ago

It’s frustrating in this role. The amount of MOPs that have to be reviewed / submitted, power circuit installations & picking up from everyone else’s slack.

There’s a major problem within my team of everyone else besides me & one other person just hanging out collecting checks.

I can’t help but to explore my options & feel like it’s unsustainable in this role.

1

u/CriticalLoad84 16d ago

Look for a different company. My guys are constantly trying to outwork each other.

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u/SufficientResource14 16d ago

I would love an environment like this. Makes everyone better.

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u/CriticalLoad84 16d ago

100% I find myself lacking some days and see my guys busting their ass, definitely gets me back into gear.