seeking career advice

I am a rookie automation technician of about 9 months now. I took advanced PLC classes before my current and first automation job. Before that, I was a construction electrician for 7 years.

Our plant has a many extruders, coiling machines, and one IRB6400 robot, all of which use Allen Bradley PLC (either 1751 or 1651), Kinetix and Powerflex drives.

Although my title is Automation Technician, my capacity is limited to maintenance jobs. About 30% of my work is mechanical, 30% electrical, and 20% PLC-related. The other 20% is for me to study on my own on the clock.

I get to work with lots of automation devices, but my only complaint is that I do not get to manipulate PLC programs. As a part of troubleshooting, I can toggle or force bits (after extensive cross referencing to make sure it's ok), but I cannot even add a simple rung because the only RSLogix I can use are the Service Edition which has no write capability. Most of our HMIs are programmed in Visual Basic, so I cannot cross reference the HMI objects, either.

* What kind of jobs are out there that enable me to program PLC and HMIs as the main duty? Integrators? Upgraders?

* Should I be looking for another job that gives me more PLC experiences, or should I stay at my current job few more years to gain general industrial job experiences?

* Is it relatively realistic for a non-engineer to find a job that programs PLC and HMI as a main duty? Or should I try to get a control engineering degree?

Thanks.

unsaint32 said:

* What kind of jobs are out there that enable me to program PLC and HMIs as the main duty? Integrators? Upgraders?

Click to expand...

Not a lot... most jobs unless you are working for a large OEM you will be doing anything that is needed, to me that is also the way to go... back in the day, I did enjoy programming but my troubleshooting skills were the reason I made 'the big bucks' ((Dont limit yourself))

unsaint32 said:

* Should I be looking for another job that gives me more PLC experiences, or should I stay at my current job few more years to gain general industrial job experiences?

Click to expand...

Yes... you should always look for another job, not that you should take them all but always keep your resume up to date and go on interviews when you find one that looks good, its a great way to meet contacts and you never know if you will find a better one... stay at your job until you get the most out of it, you will NEVER 'be all you can be' if you stay at on e job and get promoted within the company

unsaint32 said:

* Is it relatively realistic for a non-engineer to find a job that programs PLC and HMI as a main duty? Or should I try to get a control engineering degree?

Click to expand...

Yes... I did and no degree, but now I have a lot of experience that I can show what I can do

Thanks geniusintraining for great advice.