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SGH Careers Month: Meet Dominique Spicher, Sr. Technical Support Specialist!

amanda.k
Community Manager
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2 min 35 sec read

Dominique.jpgDominique Spicher is a Sr. Technical Support Specialist and has been with Autodesk for 3.5 years. Throughout his life he has lived in 4 countries and speaks 2.5 languages (English, German, and an almost fluent understanding of Spanish), so if you speak one of those languages, you’re in luck for help from Dominique!

 

 

Question: What degree did you graduate with, and how has it affected your career? Or, what education / training do you have that has helped with your role?

Dominique: I started off as an Architect, so I have the German degree of Dipl. Ing. (Diplom Ingenieur) which nowadays would be a Master’s degree. Supporting products of the building industry at Autodesk, me having said degree is quite helpful to communicate on an equal footing with our customers. It always helps to understand what context the customers have when approaching us in Technical Support.

 

Question: How would you describe your role at Autodesk? What does a typical workday look like? Which skills and qualities are important to be successful in your role?

Dominique: The best way to describe it for me would be a “Swiss Army Knife” that is quick on its feet. You must get a quick grasp on issues presented to you, not only by customers, but also from internal sources. When it comes to product related topics, if no one knows, Technical Support is where everyone goes. So, you are all in one. To accommodate all that, curiosity, patience, empathy, and quick thinking are skills one needs.

 

Question: What do you find interesting about your role? What are the challenges? What do you find satisfying about your work? 

Dominique: It is often like solving puzzles and a solved puzzle is satisfying. Additionally, you get in touch with all sorts of people from different cultural backgrounds and languages, which keeps it exciting every day. Of course, the main part is to help our customers solve the issues at hand, but it is also interesting to be involved in projects revolving around improving the product and getting to see the development side of things. The biggest challenge, I would say, is time management and juggling multiple inquiries successfully at once so that the customer doesn’t feel it and gets the best service possible.

 

Question: What advice would you give to a student who is interested in pursuing a role like yours? Is there a piece of advice you would give yourself back on day one in your role?

Dominique: Having a sense of the industry of the supported product is a great benefit but can also be compensated for by curiosity and quick adaption and learning skills. Communication skills and a second language are of great help. I have been in this line of work for almost 10 years now after working as an architect before, and never have I regretted switching to the “dark side.” The one piece of advice that I would give my past self when starting would be reassurance: “Chin up…you got this…now move!”

 

Inspired yet by those quotes? Ask continue the conversation below!

 

 

Contributors
3 Comments
rushabhthakkar_910
Advisor

A few Questions here..

 

What is your Dream Job..? How did you land up in Autodesk..? 

 

Does Autodesk only offer Jobs for IT and Computer Background People..? Any space for Mechanical Engineering People..? Who are passionate about Designing..? 

dominique.spicher
Autodesk Support

Hi @rushabhthakkar_910 ,

 

What is my Dream Job?

....that is indeed a difficult question :beaming_face_with_smiling_eyes:

Let me try to answer it a bit differently. When I hear the word "Dreamjob" it evokes something like Singer, Soccer player, Architect....Astronout for me. Then when I made my move to the real work world, my view on "Dreamjob" changed. Now I am enjoying the work that I do, being able to speak different languages, connecting with different people from cultures and still having a life outside of the job. Am I at my journeys end when it comes to jobs, most likely not, since this is an evolving thing to me.

 

How did you land up in Autodesk?

I was doing Technical Support for a different CAD software at the time, so I already made the transition from Architect to the other side - Technical Support. A friend pointed out that Autodesk is looking for Multilingual Technical Support Specialists for CAD software and since I knew how international Autodesk is, I grasped the opportunity, and I am happy that I did.

 

Does Autodesk only offer Jobs for IT and Computer Background People? Any space for Mechanical Engineering People? Who are passionate about Designing? 

Let me try to answer this to the best of my ability and experience, but bear in mind, I am not in HR :grinning_face:.

I have an Architectural background -> got the job ! But to maybe give some further insight, this highly depends on what kind of role you are looking for in Autodesk. For Technical Support I would say user experience, IT/tech affinity and industry knowledge are what got me here. But I would say this could also work the other way around, having a more IT background but being a fast learner regarding industry knowledge can also work.

 

The only thing that I would say regarding the last part of your question, about being passionate when it comes to Designing.... well since we are providing software that are used for designing, so we are passionate about it in general... will you be designing much.... this is a bit more unlikely since you transition from the user side, who use software to design, onto the side of the software supplier/manufacturer/developer, assisting customers and users in their design process.

 

I hope this answers your questions and gives you additional glimpses into what we do.

Cheers,

 

Dominique

rushabhthakkar_910
Advisor

That's Great..!! And Thanks for Answering and giving your Valuable Inputs..!!