Automation Titles

[Aabeck]

In Michigan if you call yourself an engineer (of any field), or do any engineering type work, you have to have a degree and register being an engineer with the state LARA department's engineering office (annually, for a fee) - that's why I'm an "Industrial Controls Technician"

 

[Soggy Canuck]

Officially Automation Technician. Unofficially janitor, especially since my employer has taken to hiring semi-skilled, semi-trained kids in their 20's and turning them loose on multimillion doller pieces of production equipment. Oh my the stories I could tell.
Lately my job consists of running from one screwed up job to another, trying to clean up some mess or another, all the while attempting to calm a customer while his business is going up in flames.
Sorry for the rant but it's been a rough couple of weeks here on the left coast

 

[CraigTRD]

"Magician", because no one knows what we really do.
"Controls Coordinator"

 

[Caveman]

Automation Technician here. My degree is 30 plus years in maintenance.

 

[AGill]

Maybe I can add something.
In a previous life I was an Automation Engineer with a systems integrator for any type of manufacturing machinery from nacho cheese packaging to rocket propellant lab testing to you name it. I was responsible for estimation, hardware procurement, electrical design, logic programming, occasional panel building, occasional installation, FATs and SATs, checkout, startup, and emergency troubleshooting.

Now I'm an Automation Engineer for a petroleum service company and am restricted to programming a single system, on a single platform. I do not touch any hardware, do not troubleshoot any devices, and do not have to soothe any client headaches.

So to point, in my experience the title Automation Engineer can have a vastly different meaning to different organizations.

 

[mrtweaver]

Found this shirt and thought it was appropriate for this feed.

 

[jvdcande]

DDA in Dutch: Duivel Doet Al, translates as the Devil that Does it All.

 

[MATT116]

Hugh Jashol / controls engineer

 

[JHarbin]

Thank you again for all your replies!

 

[Handcraftedsince87]

At my last job my title was "Electrician II/Boiler Engineer".. which just meant that I was a backup boiler operator if someone had to leave. None of us were engineers. My current title is "Instrumentation/PLC Technician" which covers everything from product selection, programming, implementation, Autocad documentation, conduit installation, and anything that's slightly mechanical in nature that needs to be done

 

[JeffKiper]

I own a 2 man shop. I have a 2nd year appreciate. Janitor, payroll, teacher,etc.

I call myself a system integrator. I am non degreed. I have taken and passed my machine safety engineer test. So technically I am an engineer.

 

[ASF]

I don't have a degree. When people ask me what I do for a living, I tell them I pretend to be an engineer.

 

[adisharr]

I work as a control engineer / field installer but I tell people I'm not an engineer, I just play one on TV. I have a worthless two year degree.

 

[mk42]

I work as a control engineer / field installer but I tell people I'm not an engineer, I just play one on TV. I have a worthless two year degree.

I think its ironic that most of the field has minimal formal education and says they pretend to be an engineer. I'm the opposite. I have a 4 year degree (Mechanical engineering) of which I use almost nothing that was on the formal curriculum. I usually say that I'm an engineer pretending to be an electrician.

I always like it when Peter Nachtwey pops in with control theory. I really miss doing that math. Its a shame when 90% of the problems I face are simple on/off, and the rest can be solved with a basic autotuned PID loop.

I'm an engineer who doesn't even know where is calculator is, and I imagine it feels a bit like being a hitchhiker who's lost his towel...

 

[JHarbin]

I think its ironic that most of the field has minimal formal education and says they pretend to be an engineer. I'm the opposite. I have a 4 year degree (Mechanical engineering) of which I use almost nothing that was on the formal curriculum. I usually say that I'm an engineer pretending to be an electrician.

I always like it when Peter Nachtwey pops in with control theory. I really miss doing that math. Its a shame when 90% of the problems I face are simple on/off, and the rest can be solved with a basic autotuned PID loop.

I'm an engineer who doesn't even know where is calculator is, and I imagine it feels a bit like being a hitchhiker who's lost his towel...

Quite often, my job is to get the Engineer's chestnuts out of the fire when his theory doesn't quite match reality. I think experience is the best teacher.