I was 20 years in manufacturing as a Controls Engineer and Electrical Engineer, as well as Area Maintenance manager, which included maintaining our Effluent Plant.
When I got paid off, I went to work for an Engineering Consultant who specialised in working for various UK and Irish water companies (clean and waste water).
First main job they gave me was to help complete installation and commission the new Siemens PLCs with Profibus on a Clean Water plant, integrating into other systems. I had to learn Profibus pretty quickly )(on my own) to teach the contractors how to terminate correctly, I had to help the System Integrator with Siemens S7 software and WinCC, although I had never dealt with any of these, never mind not knowing the water processes.
Thankfully the Project Engineer was a long-term friend, and he had faith in me to dig him out the deep hole the project was in, and get it commissioned for him on time.
Very interesting 6 months, and I was also asked to find 6 other commissioning engineers, as the investment cycle was coming to an end, so many projects were coming to completion....
From manufacturing to water?
1) yes, learn telemetry, the department I joined were telemetry engineers.
2) timescales for projects are rarely kept, except when they need clean water to supply the public, then you have small window before they run out.
3) budgets and scope for projects grow arms and legs, when various people get involved, and their demands are added.
4) Yes, operators drink bottled water.
5) if working on site, expect to bring your own food/tea/coffee and portaloo, only the bigger sites have welfare facilities
6) as a control engineer, invest in a laptop table and stool. Most switchrooms have no tables nor seats.
7) have 2 sets of PPE - one for clean water and one for waste, and a change of clothes and wet wipes/disinfectant for washing before you leave site.
8) Expect to travel to remote places. Get a satnav. In Scotland, I was given a database for my TomTom Satnav to find the remote pumping stations, as the Postcode covered a few miles, so that was no use.
9) Be prepared to hang around. Operators will be there to unlock doors etc when they get there, and they finish early.
I did enjoy most of the work, once you realise that the pace is slower, the equipment is aged and needs investment to modernise, then you just get on with it.
I lasted 5 years, as I finally got fed up with writing reports for project proposals, and they disappeared only to surface some time later.
I was in a consultancy, not a system integrator, and this is the UK.
I am now back in manufacturing.........the pace is faster, I am expected to multitask,, but as a control engineer, I have more say on what we can do.