March 24, 2022 - Inspiring and recruiting fresh talent is an ongoing concern for many in the AV world. Here, in the latest in our ‘Meet the Team' series, we talk to pre-sales engineer Peter Pritz about his Datapath career after entering the AV industry fresh from university.

Peter, thank you for the chat. You've been with us for seven years now – how time flies! Can you talk us through your path to your current position?

My career at Datapath started in 2015 as an intern through university. I was taken on as a part time employee while working on my schooling. My primary responsibilities were managing returns for repair, as well as testing and sending out evaluation product to our customers. After spending two and a half years with Datapath, in 2018, I was hired on full-time as a Technical Support Engineer. While in this position, my familiarity with our product families grew from both a technical and a customer relations perspective. Finally, I took these skills and moved to a Pre-sales Engineering position, as of the start of this year (2022). I'm thrilled to continue exploring my career as member of the Datapath team!

What was the driving factor in you choosing Datapath following your internship, and AV technology as a whole, as a career path?

I have always harboured a fascination for the AV world and the technology space in general. During schooling, I focused on software development; however, being hands on with hardware was always where I felt most comfortable. Datapath was a great fit for me, as it allowed me to join my love for hardware with intuitive and interactive video wall control software.

There are ongoing initiatives to drive more young people into successful futures in AV. What advice would you give to employees to raise awareness of AV as a career choice?

AV as a career choice seems to be one of the lesser-known technology avenues. The advice I would give is to offer more internship opportunities at universities that will allow students a look into what is possible within the AV world. Showing young minds the fascinating complexity of the ever more abundant AV systems they see in their daily lives will certainly spark interests and drive them to gain a better understanding. Let's give them an opportunity to join AV teams and take that interest back to their fellow students.

Your pre-sales role is an essential component in ensuring customer satisfaction. Can you talk us through what a typical working week looks like?

Working in pre-sales allows me the opportunity to work closely with the sales team. While I gather practical sales skills from them, I can draw from my technical background to ensure that all customer requirements are met. Most weeks, I talk with customers and gather a list of their needs. This often requires spending significant time looking over system drawings and researching other manufacturing equipment to ensure compatibility. While this may be tedious at times, knowing that I am doing all I can to make sure that Datapath is the perfect fit for the customer is a great reward.  Other weeks involve travel with the sales team to establish good relationships with our customer.

Away from the workplace, how do you like to spend your time?

I am an avid concert go-er, with my tastes ranging from blues to electronic! When I am not at shows, I can be found camping in the wilderness or bike riding offroad trails. I spend lots of time with friends and family to make the best of my weekends. During the weeknights, I'm often playing guitar or relaxing with a good movie! 

Tell us something about you that people may not know.

I am a huge sci-fi nerd! Growing up, my parents always had Star Trek on the television. Ever since, I have followed in their footsteps and continued their obsession with all things science fiction. I think this upbringing planted the seeds for my technological future!