My Story

Hello all, hope all is well on this Saturday morning. I just want to take this brief time to tell you a bit about myself. I had been employed for a systems Integrator as a controls system engineer up until recently. My job required me to travel to different customer sites to program their various systems which included programming PLC’s (Allen Bradley, GE, Yaskawa, Automation Direct) & HMI’s (Panel view Series, Wonderware & GE Cimplicity). I also did design work of the DCS (Distributed Controls Systems).

Recently I had an accident that has left me unable to travel and because of my situation, I’am no longer employed as my job had required me to travel. Despite all that has happened, I’am fortunate enough to have survived and consider myself truly lucky and grateful. Programming PLC’s and HMI’s has been my passion thus far, and granted the opportunity I would like to continue in the world of automation.

Having said that, if there is anyone looking to hire myself to program their PLC’s and HMI’s remotely on a contract basis because I cannot travel or know individuals that I can contact to get this opportunity please let me know. If anyone requires it I have a resume that entails my experience in detail and I can send it in a private message.

Thank you for taking your time to read this.

You may have to become self-employed for a while. I would suggest you contact some of the clients that you have provided service for in the past. For actual site work maybe you could hire a plc tech school student to do the legwork or traveling for you.

Thanks for the suggestion

How about becoming an instructor? It sounds like you have a pretty wide range of skills, so teaching the subject you love may be nearly as rewarding as doing it yourself...

Hello,
I dont have any employment leads for you, but just wanted to take a moment to say I hope you have a speedy recovery, it sounds as though you are very upbeat and enthusiastic, so I am sure things will work out for you.

I wish you the best and hope you have a Very Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.

God Bless!

BCS

@OkiePC, i will definitely consider it, @ Bering C Sparky thanks for the kind words i truly appreciate it, and have a Merry Christmas & happy new year to you to.

Are you interested in doing technical support for a vendor ?

It's amazing how well phone and Internet systems can distribute work for technical support departments. Four years ago when I was doing field work for Rockwell Automation, I could fill in as a member of the PLC, HMI, and Network support phone staff with nothing but a PC and a broadband connection. After hours, phone calls that went to Cleveland got answered in Australia then dispatched to me in Seattle.

How are your writing, illustration, and presentation skills ?

I can think of a handful of automation vendors who have a lot of needs for obsolete technotes and white papers to be re-written for their current software. But their own support staff don't have time, and the current documentation is "okay", and a typical freelance writer isn't going to have the technical skill to do this sort of writing.

The modern incarnation of the "technote" is a YouTube video with a narrated screencast. Some companies do this well, and some not at all. You might be able to build a business doing that for automation companies. For examples of how it's done extremely well, look up Kurt Braun from Wago on YouTube.

If you get into freelancing for automation vendors, choose a moderately complex specialty that you can build up the skill and tools to do very efficiently.

For example, converting PanelBuilder32 projects to Red Lion Crimson 3 is do-able, but requires a great deal of manual work to fix all the exceptions and translate object from one type to another. If you got really good at it, you could bang out conversions faster than anyone else. If you could get the vendor to start sending customers your way, it would be win-win-win for you, the vendor, and the end user.

@ Ken that is a very good point, i have always appreciated when i had to contact tech support and they answered my questions in full detail, providing amazing documentation in the process, putting in the effort in that field is a good idea. Thanks for that information.

Wishing you a complete and speedy recovery.

Yosi

Hey Stickster! How ya goin mate? As mentioned by others on this thread I would also suggest being an instructor.I teach this stuff, and let me tell ya there's alot of sparkies who want to know but a) ca'nt afford the training(think tutorship/hour) b) are old master sparkies who do'nt do PLC's because it mystifies them!(they got the money ) I suggest offering tutorship or attaching yourself to a local technical college.Pretty sure there's work out there! All the best and hope you recover

I like Ken's idea of technical support.
I have another idea that is similar to what has been mentioned above. Over the internet training. Internet training has become more popular because there is no travel time and you can do it in your underwear.

Those are some great ideas. That being said, I'm a pretty bright tech student, graduating this year with my Associates of Applied Science in Mechatronics with a heavy focus on fluid power and electricity. I would love to travel .

Also MelRabo is right. I just spent my Saturday laying ground work for electronics/digital logic so I can begin teaching a master electrician I work with PLCs. We both agreed that it is amazing how much he doesn't know for having been an electrician for 24 years, and he can definitely afford to pay, but he has taught me a lot, so I'm just glad I can return the favor.

Ken Roach said:

How are your writing, illustration, and presentation skills ?

Click to expand...

If you are interested in writing then I have some work for ya... not until late January but call me if you are interested

It will be RSlogix 5000, I was going to ask Ron Beaufort for a day or two training but not sure if I can ever find the time to go down and see him... if you know RSLogix 5000 and can write a couple programs with documentation then maybe we can work something out.

And if you are interested in other programming Click, Siemens, etc...

Thanks for the great feedback guys i truly appreciate it. @geniusintraining sure i would be interested, i use logix 5000 often, Ron Beauforts work is great, when i first started programming i did look at his videos on the web which were great, it was great because it taught the key concepts clearly and correctly, i wish i could attend his training maybe one day.

Gosh, read your story. Makes me wonder what I would do if I found myself in the same predicament. I need to travel to customer sites for my job, but I get to write SCADA computer programs at home a lot too. The instructor gig and online tech support sounds like the way to go to get up and at work quickly. Wish you all the best and return to good health. -Chris