Turn around and run as fast as you can. Everyone looks at PLC logic and thinks they can do it and they can and too many do and when your project is over with. What do you think they will do with you?

A liberal (left wing) minister asked me once how I felt about putting all those people outa work with my new fangled automation. I told him the only person I put outa work was me.

Most companies that install automation do it because they have projected growth and they keep their own people, but you are an outsider and they have no problem getting rid of you when the project is over. Most upper management think that PLC programmers are nothing because PLC programming is easy. They don't realize that PLC's have evolved just like the PC.

Then there is the reliability issue. Most PLC's run problem free for decades so why have a person sitting around doing nothing to maintain a well running system? It is called the Maytag repairman syndrome. There is also the gypsy syndrome. When the current project is finished where will your next one be? If you do not live in Atlanta or NY or LA then plan on moving. Back in the 80's many control engineers lived in Winnebagoes. I'm not joking. If you are married plan on being divorced.

Then there is the quick sand syndrome. New models and paradignm shifts are continually coming down the pike and you find yourself obsolete again.

This life is not cut out for everyone. I have 27 years experience dotted with years of unemployment and I have lived all over the planet. When people ask me for pictures of my children I show them pictures of my PLCs and robots and auto welders and conveyor belts and pipes and tanks and valves and pumps and I explain that they don't have my genetic code they have my hand written code. Some are well behaved children and some are problem children, but none will bear me grandchildren.

Go to dental school!

 

Dave: I did the maintenance mechanic thing and got tons of experience in PLC-5, Axima, RSLogic, A6200, Emerson Motion Controls, SLC-500 and on and on. I quit a very high paying maintenance job in the pharmaceuticals industry and got my BSEE degree. No one would even look at me.... the only offers I got were maintenance jobs that actually paid less 4 years later than what I was making. I was pulling down 50k a year easy with overtime. My advice is run the hell away as fast as you can!!! I'm a manager now at one of the Sherwood Williams stores in Florida and am quite happy!

Mike