I'm in the process of getting back to school to finish up a degree in Computer Science or Information Science & Technology.
I work as somewhat of a "jack of all trades" for an engineering company that retrofits and installs control/automation. Our jobs can range from completely ripping out the "brains" of a hydroplant and reinstalling our newly configured "brains" to more HMI upgrades (Best example I can think of is we automated snow blowers.......guy can sit in his nice warm shack and turn on/off and the amount of snow just right there from the computer)
The coolest/funnest job is there is this big model of the city in olden times at a local science center and its supposed to be a "living city" so to speak, so we have every individual piece set up to their office so they can run it as they see fit. They want the water mill going all day, it can go all day. They want the amusement park lights on, cars moving left or right, etc. Give the user full control from another source (A computer). Enjoyed setting it up and watching all the kids get a kick out of it.
Like I said though, I don't have a degree, so a lot of the core engineering is kind of lost on me. I'm not the guy writing logic. Things I do, do, however:
- Design graphics to use with our HMI's
- Simple logic. Logic that is kind of redundant but takes time to write. (Making databases of Input/Output Tags and where they correspond.......
- Assemble "brains" on racks for later installation in office. ()
- Field Service (deconstruction & retrofitting of control systems on site)
- Sales. Both cold calls and low hanging fruit calls.
It's certainly different and keeps me on my toes. Some days are more stressful than others.
Today, is not one of those days. Made some follow up calls to people who emailed me this morning. Didnt' take too long at all. Spending the afternoon doing research on people I'll be calling next week. I know they were interested in X product and that they bought it for roughly Z cost. I'm trying to find out how much lower we could price the product so we make money but that it is less than the Z cost they spent prior.
I don't do this all the time. Our business cycle kind of though promotes it to be done at this time of year. I'm doing sales, other engineers are doing smaller engineer work. I'm trying to find the "big fish" so to speak.....for instance last year we retrofitted a hydroelectric dam. Once that is hooked, my job duties will be more inline with assembling together things for that big job, and then going on site and installing it. Then rinse and repeat.
Just for example, we won a bid on the job I mentioned above in March or April of last year. From January til then, I was mostly doing sales calls. From then, until September, I was assembling together the individual pieces and parts and doing graphics/simple logic. From September til end of October I was out of town deconstructing and reinstalling. Minor sales calls and other small jobs to finish up the year. We really do strive though to hit that big fish every year and devote lots of resources usually to one giant job.
It's a decent job, especially since I don't have a proper secondary education. Lots of opportunities and good experience. My end goal is to parlay the Computer Science or IST degree (I have 60 credits of gen ed, just unsure of where I which path to pursue) in conjunction with the work I'm doing now to apply to a tech/control industry out west.
I also wouldn't be against parlaying it into a full time field service position at some other company that would enable me to travel more often. I'm only 24, so I do have (hopefully) lots of life to live. But I have been relatively "culture sheltered" so I wouldn't mind traveling the world and seeing some stuff while working. When I was on site, lots of the older guys were telling me that I should pursue something more field service, that when you're young like me, that it's the best time, because no one wants to do that shit when they get older
I had a kick spending 2 months in West Virginia of all places just because it was something new and fresh and got to see some different stuff and experience some different people.
.
![:\](/i/s/hmm.gif "Hmm :\")
