Cory Boone
A background in engineering and optics can launch your career into fascinating places that aren’t typically taught to students. If you had told me that I would end up being paid to make videos and kids’ books while studying optical engineering at the University of Arizona, I would have thought you were crazy. But I have been fortunate enough to stumble into a career in technical marketing.
I break down technical optics concepts so they’re easy to understand, whether that involves creating webinars to help mechanical engineers find the right imaging lenses for their machine vision systems, publishing articles to help laser optics system designers understand laser damage thresholds, or making fun videos for social media to introduce the amazing field of optics to new generations.
Taking the path less traveled
While studying at the University of Arizona, I landed an internship in project management at Edmund Optics, where I laid the groundwork for introducing a new line of laser-focusing lenses. I enjoyed combining the technical optics concepts I was learning with the business side of the company. After graduating in 2016, I joined Edmund Optics full-time as a member of their Engineering Leadership Program, a rotation-based program where members work in several different departments. My goal was to end up in project management.
However, after my first seven-month rotation helping customers with their technical questions as a product support engineer, our head of sales and marketing approached me about doing a rotation in marketing. They wanted an engineer in the marketing department to create technical content and act as the “translator” between the marketing department and engineers across the company. I had always enjoyed writing and creative hobbies like playing drums and making silly home movies with my friends, so I figured it would be a good pit stop before eventually moving into project management. Little did I know, I had just stumbled into my true calling.
A life in technical marketing
Many more companies are recognizing the importance of this type of function, and it’s now much more common to see roles like Technical Marketing Engineer or Technical Marketing Manager.
I absolutely fell in love with this new role. My days were spent learning about technical concepts, capabilities and products we wanted to share with others, crafting the right method for communicating these clearly, and working with engineers from all over the world. While I wrote many of our technical resources myself, a large part of the job was getting others to share their expertise by writing drafts, publishing articles and speaking at conferences and webinars. I ended up graduating from the Engineering Leadership Program early and shaping the technical marketing function at Edmund Optics into a core part of our marketing strategy.
It’s not all sunshine and roses, though. There are certainly challenges that come with this type of role. Coordinating the creation of hundreds of technical resources and the contributions of engineers from across the company requires a heavy focus on project management (ironically), learning how to best communicate and work with a wide variety of personalities, and getting people who don’t report to me to stay on top of deadlines. Learning these skills required making quite a few mistakes and adjusting based on them. One quote that helps me maintain the right mindset through this journey is from YouTube creator Collin Rosenblum: “Failure is not a roadblock. It is the road.”
When I started in technical marketing, this was a completely new role for Edmund Optics and relatively rare in our field. I literally helped write my own job description to define this role. But many more companies are recognizing the importance of this type of function, and it’s now much more common to see roles like Technical Marketing Engineer or Technical Marketing Manager.
The fun stuff: outreach, videos, and kids’ books
Sharing the world of optics with young students has been a passion of mine since I was at the University of Arizona. Luckily for me, Edmund Optics hosts a wide variety of educational outreach events for students ranging from elementary school to college. I have participated in Edmund’s school visits for years and now lead the strategy for our outreach program along with our Educational Outreach Lead. I also serve as the chair of SPIE’s Education and Outreach Committee, helping with their educational grants and providing resources for students and teachers.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, I started Edmund Optics’ TikTok channel to share short videos introducing optics concepts and technologies. It took off way faster than any of us expected, and now I create these fun videos for YouTube and TikTok on topics ranging from “why the sky is blue” to “how telecentric lenses work.” Our YouTube shorts alone brought in 28.5 million views in the last year! The wide reach of these social media platforms allows us to introduce millions of people to the critically important and criminally underrated field of photonics.
The wide reach of these social media platforms allows us to introduce millions of people to the critically important and criminally underrated field of photonics.
These adventures in outreach and social media video creation have led to other amazing opportunities, like publishing my children’s picture book, Larry Laser Finds His Spark through SPIE. The book follows a lonely laser named Larry on his journey to discover his purpose through all of the amazing things lasers are used for. I find that the families of many photonics professionals have no idea what they actually do, so this book was made to share a little bit of the world of optics with their kids or any other kids in their lives. The response has been incredible, and I’m excited to keep building on that momentum for more optics education for kids.
The many paths of optics
Understanding the technical world of optics provides excellent context for being a much better marketer, salesperson, project manager, product line manager or business strategist in this field. Engineers can tell if you don’t know what you’re talking about. A message I try to spread to high school and college students is how a technical degree in engineering or physics sets you up for a whole spectrum of career paths. Who knows, you could even end up making kids’ books and TikToks and loving it.