Entry level jobs...

Where is the best place to look? I am considering a career dealing with PLC's and was wondering what employers are looking for, as far as education and experience.

Since the manufacturing industry is pretty slow right now, I wonder if there is any jobs out there anyway?

Thanks in advance,
Dave

Do NOT believe the hype seen on TV and associated with stock market. The manufacturing field is still wide open (the places that are hit the most are those that were ghosts to begin with).

Overall the manufacturers are hurting for qualified help.

NOTE: There is no such thing as a PLC position. you are either an engineer with associated qualifications
OR
a maintenance/electrician/service tech with multiple qualifications/skills/abilities
OR have all the abilities above but work for yourself

GET a 4 year (minimum) BS degree in Engineering (which branch is your choice) if you desire to be in the upper middle class (possibly higher)income bracket.

NOTE: in this case BS does not stand for BullS***

I agree with my comrade to the east (rsdoran) ... get a 4-year engineering degree. Better opt for electrical though (find a program somewhere that even knows what a PLC is ... they are out there, you've just got to look. This may be you toughest assignment.) if you really want to understand what's going on. Try to get some mechanical too, to understand the big picture. And get some experience in the industry ... volunteer, intern, whatever.

If you can't find an EE program with PLC's, what I did seemed to work OK. At the U of Minn. PLC's were buried in the ME curriculum. I got my degree emphasizing microprocessors and controls and then took a couple of PLC classes at a local tech school.

Rick -

Your ME degree had courses in microprocessors? I know that a lot of mechanical programs proport to cover controls but they rarely do it justice, especially considering their shallow electrical background.

Rick Densing said:

If you can't find an EE program with PLC's, what I did seemed to work OK. At the U of Minn. PLC's were buried in the ME curriculum. I got my degree emphasizing microprocessors and controls and then took a couple of PLC classes at a local tech school.

Click to expand...

I saw the same thing at UW-Milwaukee. "Mechatronics" was an ME course, taught by an Industrial Engineer. There were various politics involved, that kept it from becoming an EE class.

The fun part about that is going to the lab and watching these guys wire stuff. There wasn't even a pair of wire strippers around! A few weeks ago, I was sitting with the instructor for this class and he asked me to explain how a very basic transistor circuit (for a photoeye) worked so he could give his class more information. I guess it's "thump on someone other than Tim" time!

AK

The school I went to had no PLC courses for EE's. My brother went to the same school and they offered a PLC course in Industrial Technology curriculum which he took. The thing was, it had no instructor, they tossed a TA in there with no experience to "teach" the class. I think I ended up teaching him most of what he learned in the class and then he passed that on to the rest of the students.

akreel said:

The fun part about that is going to the lab and watching these guys wire stuff.
AK

Click to expand...

fun now ... dangerous later. Sadly, these amatuers really believe that they know what they're doing.

This thread is becoming a sad commentary on the future of our kind. Why do EE programs (as a rule) ignore or, at best, only give PLCs, etc a cursory glance.

plc's

It's not always a bad thing. When an ee lets the smoke out of a few devices, they call you in and you repair the problem. The plant manager calls you to his office, gives you a raise, and youre making more than him now anyway! You really have to love this field to become part of it. If you are any good at what you do, you will never work an 8 hour day again, and have more than you can do.

my school has one course which deals with machine control and PLCs, etc. It is considered computer science. I plan on taking it as an elective, but I doubt I'll learn anything. By the time I take it i'll have about a years worth of on the job experience which is far more valuable than any classroom

Davey,

There are several options, depending on your circumstances.

1) You can go to a technical school (usually 2 year) and optain an associates degree. We have a tech that we hired 4 years ago that went to ITT. He was trained on AB, but had the foundation to learn and support our PLCs. His strength was in computers, which was the main reason we hired him.

2) You can go to a four year school and obtain an engineering degree.

3) If you are seeking a job right now and have experience, this site has job postings - http://www.automationtechies.com

Keep in mind that whatever school you were to attend does have a placement department that can assist you in your job hunt. Also, school only provides you a taste of what you are learning...it isn't the full meal. You will learn the majority of what you will have to know through experience and on the job.

Hope this helps,

God Bless,

Stephen

Re: plc's

Mike Williams said:

The plant manager calls you to his office, gives you a raise, and youre making more than him now anyway!

Click to expand...

Where do you work? Wish I got a raise everytime I fixed something.

mmw said:

Rick -

Your ME degree had courses in microprocessors? I know that a lot of mechanical programs proport to cover controls but they rarely do it justice, especially considering their shallow electrical background.

Click to expand...

No. The ME program had a PLC course that had a few prerequisites before it, so I never took it at the U. I was in the EE program.
The microprocessor and control stuff has been really valuable as background for the PLC (and servo) stuff that I do now.

Here's the deal....

I am currently working for a printed circuit board manufacturer, as a maintenance technician. I guess you could say I am already working in the field. But the company I work for doesn't have any "experts" and doesn't really want to train me. So, since I want to learn more and more each day if I can, and lately the PCB manufacturing industry has took a big hit, I was curious about a PLC only type position.

This doesn't seem possible though. I guess today you have to be a do it all type person. I do have a BS in Physical Education with a minor in Mathematics. I took a intro to PLC course at a local tech school last year, and have got most of my on the job learning done by asking and working with a guy (outsource) that comes in to do all of our PLC troubleshooting and adjusting. None of our "engineers" can program our PLC's. I don't think any of them have degrees either (university). Even our in house computer geek doesn't have a degree.

I haven't done any programming at work yet, since the software is so expensive, and the company won't buy it. Maybe in the future this may change if my skills improve. We have been on 32 hour weeks for a while, even though I have worked 40 until this week, so maybe another job could be an option.

Find yourself a mentor. I was in the same position as you last year. I had just graduated with my bachelor’s degree in electronics engineering and could not find a decent job. I wanted to learn PLCs and process control engineering. I could not find any schools or any good books to teach myself. I started digging, asking questions, ordered subscriptions to Control Engineering magazine, Control magazine and Control Solutions magazine. Good articles in those publications and quite often people who write the articles leave their office phone numbers and email addresses. Call them, write them, they will respond. After about a month of doing this I made a local contact with an electric distributor who deals in Allen-Bradley. I started asking questions and eventually I was put in contact with a PLC guru who takes time twice a week in the evening to sit down with me and teach. I have been under instruction for seven months now and I am writing my own programs. Still have allot to learn but one has to start somewhere right.

Good luck