Anyone have any experiences in the differences between working in Marketing depts. vs. Engineering depts.?
Not within departments, but working with them as a consultant…
I can’t say this categorically, but in general I think people on the marketing side of the fence are a little better at seeing the big picture through the minutiae, as well as having a little better grasp of what makes the product desireable. That said, some marketers don’t have a clue, and some engineers are really dialed in to how the product will impact the people buying it. There are both horrible and great marketing AND engineering folks. It just depends.
+1 bcpid
Pretty much sums up my experience, too.
I would also add, generally, that it seems like in many organizations the marketers have a little more access to the ear of the higher ups - so they tend to be a better inroad than the engineering groups. But again, depends on the organization.
what about from a culture standpoint, one more orgainzed, more straightforward, less about personalities, etc?
That totally depends on the organization.
Marketing - Idiots who control the money.
Engineering - idiots who control the process.
Okay the above is an oversimplified joke but i thought it might shake things up 
needed some humor, designing a product ain’t like designing a webpage, no instant feedback, I think engineering gets this.
would you characterize the personalities of the dept’s being different?
I actually have experience working under both within the same company. I work in the CPG industry and as many would tell you Marketing rules the roost when it comes to product development in this industry. I have work in under both in my career and believe both to have their own distinctive challenges.
I will start with engineering. i like to pride myself that I was one of the first ID guys that they hired and I had the pleasure of working in the engineering group. I loved working with these guys!!! They were very challenging as they questioned everything I did. They did not get the creative process, they questioned everything and some of them were even threatened when I came in. But what I thrived on was educating them on what I could bring to them. Took it away from “this is what I do” and “this is what you do”, but rather “this is what I can do or you”!!! I built relationships started to talk to these guys on what their issues were. I then started sketching and ideating on how to solve these issues and they totally embraced it.
Now Marketing is a bit different. We just recently had a re-alignment, and I was moved under or Strategic Branding director (who is a GD by trade). This position was under Marketing and when I learned my fate I was VERY upset. I thought that ID belonged under R&D and there was no reason for us to be in a marketing function!! BUT…just like I mentioned being engineering, being in marketing has it up sides. Setting within a marketing organization allows you to see EVERYTHING that is going on in the organization. You get involved in the strategies, the planning, and get a more holistic view to the product all the way through the market.
I have found that know what is going in marketing, is much more important than know what is going on in in R&D. Normally you R&D teams are going to follow what you marketing teams objectives are. The more you can be a liaison between the two the better business designer you are going to be.
PackageID, this is a late kudo: that was a really great summary, and it generally lines up with my experience, too.