Anons who are in trades/industrial, I'm wondering what some of your thoughts are. I've been doing IT work for a while now, but its been hell trying to find a new gig.
I'm in a heavy manufacturing state and was approached by a few companies offering me controls and automation work. I've worked in a factory before, but its been over a decade since. This seems like steady work and has lots of job security.
I'm sure I could pick this up, but it would take some extra learning and effort, which is fine. But, what is this work like and which one to shoot for - or should I just bite the bullet and keep trying to stack remote jobs?
Job 1: Controls Engineer/Technician for the automotive industry working with robots and vision systems for a system integrator/supplier. From what I've seen, these jobs make you travel a shit ton, but the company I spoke with is all local on-prem shit at some local plants. Starting wage seems pretty nice, even though I'd have to go back to not working remote.
Job 2: Building automation controls tech. I have no idea what this entails, but they mentioned wanting SQL experience, which I have - and its at a local plant/building - seems like only travel would be to here.
Job 3: Have a friend who owns a precision tool shop, he told me I could come in and look around and see what I might like doing and would hire me. This is a sort of trump card I always kept in my pocket if I fell on some hard times, but it would probably be CNC or CAD type work, which I'm very rusty at. I haven't done this shit since right out of high school - and I don't think it would pay nearly as much as the other two. Both of the other 2 are about 70k+ or so.
Which is the better path anons and which one requires the least amount of work in my day to day so I can still pursue some of my other endeavors (certs, etc.). My plan is to build on my land I have rurally in the near future and leave the city bullshit.
tl;dr
Better to sell my body than my mind. My mind is priceless.
bot
I don’t think you’ll find a lot of remote industrial controls stuff, unless it’s like control system design or architecture stuff. But even then at some point you need to see and hear the machine operate to get it right.
Automotive plants usually have good specifications and design documentation, there’s lots to do, but they’re noisy and not always very pleasant to work in.
No idea what the building automation one would entail, but it sounds like it could pay well: SQL skills are highly sought after in industrial work because most of the database savvy people left for IT/web stuff
CNC and CAD work is a different type of job imo and if you’re used to doing more high level programming could get boring fast.
> My plan is to build on my land I have rurally in the near future and leave the city bullshit.
Then the travelling jobs may be a good temporary choice, usually low requirements because nobody wants to travel, and you can get about 40% more pay after taxes when (extra salary, better overtime and compensations). But on the other hand there are probably IT jobs that the same and are fully remote (cloud infrastructure, cyber security, certifications etc), so all in all depends greatly on your skill set and work history.
t. plc controls architect
Thanks, the automotive one is in an ev plant. Tons of traveling I cant do atm unfortunately, maybe in the near future. Local stuff is just fine though. I've done IT work for years, but its getting hard/annoying finding new contracts. I have enough to coast for 6 months to a year, but I'm nearing the 5 month mark and haven't found a new contract. I'm also not really looking to renew any certs unless they were paid for by my employer/agency.
Not too concerned with "boring" work as long as I'm not on call all hours of the day and can go home at the end of it. Some on call is fine, but not always (sysadmin work in that realm I was generally ok with because I could get quite a bit accomplished remotely).
A lot of the PLC and automation type jobs pay just as much as quite a bit of the IT work in my area until you get to very niche stuff, which I don't have the skills in [yet]. I'm comfortable with programming and scripting (I'm major SWE tier, but I did have a couple roles in the past doing desktop/web development).
I'm not too concerned with anything being remote either, but it would obviously take priority if possible. At some point, I'd like to go back to being full remote, but I'm happy grinding shit out for a few years if needed.
1. Because you can bootleg hijack the travelling to look at properties. Nothing you're interested that's also affordable, will be listed. It will be private sale to keep it off the speculation market, in communities where the guy doesn't want to sell his hunting property to just any butthole from NYC.
1. Because you need hands-on experiences, too. You can't sit in an office coding all day. That's terrible for your health.
1. Because movement is involved.
Leave being miserable indoors all day with limited movement, to the s 0 y retrds who need infantile supervision and a bassinet.
lol what is this? speak english
> I is a gra-duate from publik skool.
No one cares that you read with poor comprehension, only you can fix that now, since your moronic parents failed. If possible, crack a book, like Homer's Iliad.
I read the Iliad, great epic poetry there. I'd also recommend the poetic edda.
I was doing #2 for 15 years, then switched to pure IT.
Data is king, so as someone already said, sql skills are in demand. It knows shit about process engineering and process engineers knows shit about databases and reports. I was building scada's, including data manipulations in DBs. As reports are needed at top floor and small companies have shitty admins, you will have to know for to configure networks, routers and firewalls. Very versatile and interesting job, could recommend. Go for it.
Thanks, how does it compare to industrial/robotics controls engineering/technician? This sounds pretty good, I was leaning toward robots, but it seems the life is much more stressful in that area? How is the pay scale and trajectory? What do you do in IT now?
avoid robot specific jobs, it's piss easy to program robots and absolutely zero challenge out of it and you'll be obsolete in a few years anyways
Thanks, but with the push for industry 4.0, I've been seeing a bit of the opposite. A lot of these firms seem to be contacting me and are interested in onboarding me. Seems like interesting work and good money. Modern BAS seems to have quite a bit of networking going on as well. I understand its not full on IT, but it seems to be becoming more IoT based.
Its not much robot programming from what I've witnessed talking with some places so far (that has its own area), its designing assembly lines and PLC work, with some machine vision. These jobs are not going anywhere anon.
My mistake, first previous statement was meant for
>more IoT based
how the frick can something be more IoT based when IoT is just a bullshit buzzword and isn't actually anything new...it's like an app isn't just a program
Smart buildings and OT/IT
Also note, its a pretty big company not a smaller one. The industrial automation job I would be more personal with the owner and the team seems cool (system integrator with no travel, but the idea of supporting 24/7 operations in manufacturing all over again seems like it could be rough and I'm not getting any younger. That said, I'm willing to grind it out if it is the better option or more aligned.
Building automation guy here. The "Data" side of the job is tremendously overblown. In real life, even the most complicated "data" task in BAS will be a pretty vanilla SQL query. There will be a lot more working with arcane protocols (BacNet, Modbus, Lon) over different physical layers (RS-485, Ethernet), and troubleshooting mechanical sequences provided by inept mechanical engineers. It's not uncommon to languish at a low paygrade, but it's also pretty easy excel and get paid for it. That being said, a high-end BAS guy doesn't get paid what a high-end industrial controls guy does.
How is the work life balance? Should I go for controls in industrial then or maybe just try to stick it out with IT? I don't mind grinding and learning some new shit, but I'm also not trying to pump out 80 hours on a weekly basis. I've had jobs that had me traveling quite a bit so I'm trying to tone it down if possible (even though I've been working remote before this, but corporate life is mad draining too). I figured with the advent of 4.0 (buzzword I know), there would be a lot more IT type protocol and stuff going on. What do your days typically look like?
your skills in IT are not going to transfer much to controls automation anon
I've worked with these people before and they're absolutely cluess outside of programming which is maybe 25% of the job