A friend of mine works for a small company that has an opening he feels would be great for me. He said they work with control systems and need to train someone to program PLC's. I have a history in IT and networking and know nothing about this kind of programming. I love math, as well as computer programming, though, so he said I'd probably fit right in.

I'm getting a little burned out on IT and wondered what kind of possibilities this field could open up to me. They would supply me with all the training I need to get started. So my questions is, what kind of starting salaries could I be looking at and what are the possibilities for advancement/earning potential with no engineering degree? Any advice/opinions appreciated.

 

Traits that are important for a PLC programmer, in my humble opinion:

1. Ability to think logically, be able to anticipate problems, logic conflicts, safety issues. Think If-then and select case statements.

2. Good mechanical ability, must be able to understand machines and/or processes. This is very helpful.

3. Some electrical skills are handy, you may need to troubleshoot field hardware and wiring. Depending on the company, you may always have a tech working with you, so it may not be that important after all.

4. Ability to deal with some travel and occasional weird hours. Field testing and machine startups are not always an 9-5 job.

5. You must like getting your hands dirty. You will be in the office, in a build shop, and at customers plants.

To me, most of these are pluses. I don't like sitting at a desk too long. A reasonable amount of travel is exciting and you will find plenty of challenges out there.

The market is bad for PLC programmers right now, but that might change. I think IT has more job potential at the moment and possibly pays better. You basically need to do whichever one you think you will be best at. Not all PLC programmers have an EE degree, so that may not be a huge problem. The best paid ones probably have an EE though.

Bill Sturm

 

From what I've seen both aspects are unpredictable. I've been looking for a new roost and the wages offered range from ridiculous to $70k/yr. And it seems the PLC guy has a different place in almost every company. It ranges from being a grease monkey who does what little PLC work there is, to a lab type job where you work only on design, to a road warrior who goes on machine installs most of the time. It's usually blue collar but can be white collar. Without a degree it's probably blue collar. But often jobs are what you make them.

Regards,
cww