Duncan Bannon always had a business-oriented mindset and sought a career with a mix of business and STEM. A tour of the Missouri S&T campus sealed the deal as he saw the Engineering Management Building. Then it clicked: that was the next step in his path to success.
He graduated last year with a degree in engineering management and now works as a sales engineer at Timken. Bannon was selected for the Kummer Vanguard Scholars program, which he credits for helping lead him to this role.
“One aspect of the Kummer Vanguard Scholars that helped lead me to this career was having conversations around big problems and coming up with a solution, then implementing it,” he says. “Another was the benefit of me being on the program’s first Student Steering Committee, helping with organization and our perception on campus. That’s a really valuable skill set to understand.”
Bannon describes the role of sales engineer as managing the relationship between Timken and their customers, which include Honeywell Aerospace Technologies and a Boeing distribution center.
“My particular focus is in the aerospace field, so I sell advanced engineered bearings that go into everything that moves,” Bannon says.
The job is a mix of customer interaction, solving problems and providing engineering expertise.
“It’s more than just saying, ‘You want it, and we make it.’ It’s asking how we can fit our problem-solving capabilities to your challenging application,” he says. “Some of the projects that I’m working on are multi-year. I get to see something go from an idea that we helped them design into something that we’re bidding for the next five years, and that might be on the F-35 Lightning Fighter Jet for the next 45 years.”
In the aerospace industry, precision is key. He explained that airplanes often have large turbine engines, gearboxes, actuators and auxiliary power units. Those all have subassemblies for which Timken sells parts.
“Essentially, if you have flown in an aircraft, it has our bearings. There’s also more precision work that we do,” he says. “We have bearings that are on the Mars Rover, for example. We have them on the Europa Clipper, a spacecraft that orbits Jupiter and captures images of Jupiter’s moon, Europa.”
While at S&T, Bannon completed two internships, one at Tesla and one at Consolidated Electrical Distributors (CED). At Tesla, he was a technical program manager.
“Working at Tesla was an incredible experience,” he says. “It’s a very demanding environment, but one where everyone’s striving for excellence. No one cares who gets the credit, as long as the problem gets solved.”
While at Tesla, Bannon worked on the cell recycling team which takes old batteries, grinds them up and recycles them back into battery manufacturing.
“It’s incredibly important, and it’s the sort of thing that’s never really been done before,” Bannon says. “I was also working somewhat on the compliance-related side of things. We were working with the compliance agencies to help decide the best process of doing this in a sustainable and effective way.”
At CED, Bannon interned as a technical consultant. CED is an electrical distributor that sells anything from wire and circuit breakers to advanced automation equipment.
“I was essentially in a similar role to what I am now,” he says. “I’m selling a product, but I’m also selling the expertise behind that, and the engineering support behind that.”
Bannon says the Kummer Vanguard Scholars program helped make his dreams become a reality.
“The Kummer Vanguard Scholars was of great value for me,” he says. “It helped my leadership capabilities, gave me an opportunity to practice and gave me people I could always bounce ideas off of, and I didn’t feel alone in that journey.”
Bannon has five key points of advice for incoming students:
One: Surround yourself with supportive people who challenge the way you see the world.
Two: Change your perspective. View college as an opportunity, not an obligation. Embrace your freedom to explore new things.
Three: “Bite off more than you can chew, then chew it,” he says. Use your time in college as a safe place to push your boundaries and decide what matters.
Four: Take measures to care for your mental and physical health. Don’t forget to prioritize your own well-being.
Five: Focus on your personal growth, relationships and taking on challenges. College is less about academics and more about life lessons.
“Flip your mindset,” he says. “Be appreciative of things. Be willing to fail fast and fail forward.”