Seeking job in Industrial Automation/ PLC. Questions regarding skills and requirement

[nerdbotbot]

1. Breaking into the Industry: Most of the jobs require at least 2 years of experience and familiarity with certain PLC hardware and software. However, cannot find any openings for freshers.

2. PLC Languages: I'm familiar with Ladder and Function Block Diagram. Recently, started working with Sequential Flow Chart. Will these three languages cover major applications? Should I also learn Structured Text, Instruction List, and Continuous Flow Chart?

3. PLC Applications: I have only worked with fluid power (hydraulic and pneumatic) drives. Typical I/Os were: solenoids, digital sensors (reed, inductive proximity, and pressure switch), Potentiometer (±10 V), linear analog sensors (0 - 10 V). Which are the other systems (electrical drives) and I/Os used with PLCs ?

4. Prerequisites for SCADA: After learning the basics of Ladder Logic and FBD, I evaluated PLC software from different vendors. The only difference was User Interface, programming logic remained the same. Similarly, every PLC vendor has their own SCADA software. Are their any basic prerequisites, like, C, Visual Basic, SQL, JAVA, etc. that would be helpful?

Thank you

 

[RussB]

The first thing you need to do is learn how to do internet and forum searches. This has been discussed many times here and elswhere on the internet, like Linkedin.

 

[spaderkung]

To get a job no job specific knowledge is usually required. Just make up some ****; copy the job posting.

 

[scott.lawrence]

Just make up some ****

this seems to work for most of the new hires, but they don't last long...

 

[RussB]

The Second thing you need to do learn how to take criticism without getting upset.
Why?
Because every time anything goes wrong on the machine or system you worked on the program/programmer gets the blame first.

 

[VAN]

The Second thing you need to do learn how to take criticism without getting upset.
Why?
Because every time anything goes wrong on the machine or system you worked on the program/programmer gets the blame first.

Ah yes,
- It's the program
- It's electrical
- It's not mechanical it's operator
- Fine, it might be mechanical

 

[harryting]

I blame on the solar eclipse... it's happening somewhere in the galaxy.

 

[padees]

Yep, the program couldn't tell which size fuse the maintenance guys were installing, and after blowing a box of them, we need to get the programmer in here! HaHa!!!

 

[spaderkung]

Ah yes,
- It's the program
- It's electrical
- It's not mechanical it's operator
- Fine, it might be mechanical

Classic. Sometimes I don't even open the computer on service calls.

 

[NetNathan]

Usually the problem exists between the chair and the keyboard...