# PLC/Motor Controls/Instrumental/etc.. Where to find this work?



## SeaDoo (Aug 23, 2020)

Hello, I've been an electrician for 7 years now working for a service shop. I've learned a lot throughout my journey, graduated IEC. Really applied myself and feel like I have come along way from not knowing how to use a drill on day one, to where I am at now running jobs. I'm currently studying for my Masters and am torn between a cross road. My current situation isn't horrible, but it doesn't feel like a long term job for me. Mostly because there are zero benefits, no 401k help, really nothing but high health care and average pay with tons of grunt work. Not complaining pay or grunt work, but I fully trust myself in knowing I have the determination and drive to branch off into more specific parts of the trade that are harder to learn but pay more. I really would like to challenge myself. I've always loved troubleshooting and doing motor control work, even though my company hardly does it.

Last week I was talking to a POCO journeyman helper making $12.50 more than me, with great benefits and job security. It really got me thinking... I'm 31, and even though still young, I feel like I'm at the age where I really need to buckle down and figure out my end goal. It's either take my Masters license and go off on my own, or get into a company with good pay and work I enjoy. I'm not a fan of traveling all the time for work, so not sure how much that narrows my choices down.

I had a ex-coworker call me up last week to just catch up on life. He was talking about how he's working for a plant now, (he's a journeyman electrician) but just started going to a 2 year school for PLC/Motor Controls/Instrumental work. They started him off about $5 more than what I make and he's an apprentice in this new line of work. He says he does small bits of travel but mostly in town working in plants. I hear plant work can be dangerous, and is why you get paid the extra $? Not sure how I feel about it but just wanted to get your opinions on that. Also, how and where do I find PLC/Motor Controls/etc work? If anything I'd like to go in for some interviews and get a feel for if It's worth pursuing over POCO work or going off on my own. Any help and advice is much appreciated, thank you!


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## Almost Retired (Sep 14, 2021)

If you want to know about POCO , talk to the local poco guys , nobody else can answer those questions

Your own contracting company will give you the most joy and pride, and the most regret, and shame. Sometimes in the same day.
there is a ton of hard work to make it happen
but you will be the boss and nobody can tell you what to do
nobody can share the blame with you either

Industrial :: Whether its a company doing contract work in a mill, or whether its an actual mill. The culture is production oriented. Sometimes safety is not exactly first, no matter what they say at the meetings. yes it is more dangerous, you are in an area where machines are moving. you have to look around and understand where it is safe to stand and where it is not. Yes physical field wired controls are very interesting to you right now, but that will get old in time as well.
If you want the bigger bucks, learn to program PLCs and learn to trouble shoot VFDs. Now you have skills that will really pay off if you go on your own. Think 100.00 per hour +

It really is up to you !!! only you know what is interesting to you. only you know what part of a particular job will outweigh the benefits at a different job


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## mburtis (Sep 1, 2018)

I personally think controls and automation is a great avenue to persue. However I'm pretty biased because that's basically my entire limited experience. However i believe control work will just keep expanding in the future and there is always a new challenge. Plus there is a lot of paths within that field. You can pick up the programming side and move towards scada type work, or stay in the field wiring up complex equipment, or somewhere in between. Depending on your area there may be contractors who specialize in this field doing large upgrade projects etc, may be good if you don't like going to work in the same building everyday. The other common option is in house maintenance, which is where I fall. Some places may have dedicated electricians, others might just call you a maintenence tech and expect you to pull and rebuild the gearbox as well as wire up the motor. A lot of plants your going to be looking at 12 hour shifts, possibly night shift, possibly massive amounts of overtime. Other places will be gravy. One thing about in house maintenance, if something is down your high stress scrambling till its fixed, or at least fabricobbled together enough to run. If everything is running you keep yourself busy with PMs but can breathe a little easier. 

As far as the safety aspect as long as your working for a decent company and following procedures it's not much worse than any other job. A lot of plants will have deadly chemicals (we have up to 3 tons of chlorine gas), large machinery, etc that can be very dangerous. But with proper training and procedures you can still go home everyday.


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## John Valdes (May 17, 2007)

I worked construction before I got into manufacturing. I did serve an apprenticeship at the RR. But it was in the manufacturing environment I learned about controls, PLC's, motors, drives ect....
Without moving into a manufacturing plant I would have never been exposed to this side of the work. I hated plants in general but it was how I put food on the table and gas in my car. The pay was okay. Not great. But places here like BMW pay great. Easily $150,000 a year for full time electrical/electronic/technical positions. That is big money here in Upstate SC. And they have much better benefits than any utility has. Much Much better.
So if you want in this business get a job in a manufacturing plant and study and take the masters test as well. I studied and took my test this way. It will help you when looking for work. 
To learn these things you must work with them. Use them everyday. Become "that guy".


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## Almost Retired (Sep 14, 2021)

John Valdes said:


> I worked construction before I got into manufacturing. I did serve an apprenticeship at the RR. But it was in the manufacturing environment I learned about controls, PLC's, motors, drives ect....
> Without moving into a manufacturing plant I would have never been exposed to this side of the work. I hated plants in general but it was how I put food on the table and gas in my car. The pay was okay. Not great. But places here like BMW pay great. Easily $150,000 a year for full time electrical/electronic/technical positions. That is big money here in Upstate SC. And they have much better benefits than any utility has. Much Much better.
> So if you want in this business get a job in a manufacturing plant and study and take the masters test as well. I studied and took my test this way. It will help you when looking for work.
> To learn these things you must work with them. Use them everyday. Become "that guy".



as in ..... where is "that guy" ? we gotta have him if we are going to get this fixed


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## splatz (May 23, 2015)

They are both good options. Line work you do very hard work in very hard conditions that few will be willing to do, and get paid accordingly. PLCs, drives, and motors, you have to learn a lot to become valuable but the expertise is hard to find and in demand, you can get to be about indispensible. 

I am not sure but I'd guess that line work is more dangerous than just about any industrial work, even mines. Most industrial work is reasonably safe if the company is reasonably safety concious and you are properly trained, equipped, compliant and careful.


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## mburtis (Sep 1, 2018)

Just be warned... learn to turn your phone off when you need to if you become "the guy". Otherwise you'll get called in right in the middle of important life stuff. Also don't overlook municipal water utilities etc. as opportunities. Probably wont pay what private sector does but the benefits, time off, stress level etc is typically very good. This is huge for me, because I have no interest in making 100k a year if I have to work 100 hours a week to get it. I would rather be poor and spend time with the family.


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## SWDweller (Dec 9, 2020)

Where I live, Arizona, controls work is slim. It is out there but slim. There are 3 controls contractors in the area, who try to make a steady diet of it. They have to fall back to electrical 80% of the time. Now if you lived and worked to willing to move to an area with a lot of manufacturing you will find more prospects. 
Controls has change a lot since I started. In the beginning no one used ether net. (NO ONE) 
Communication was ALL proprietary protocols which could be a night mare to marry new machines into. Now days you need to be a ether net network specialist. I was lucky my old company spent $5 grand on classes for me to take the MS networking classes. I would have ended up with an MS A+ cert if they would have let me take the tests.

It is quite normal for someone to rise into the cream and then move on. I have done it 3 times, once my salary doubled as an opening offer. 7 years is really not that long of a time. 
What have you been doing? To me it sounds like your doing typical electrical work, small commercial, occasionally light industrial. Ya it might be time to to look else where.
I was a road warrior for Eaton for 5 years. 100 flights a year, minimum. Not a job for a family man. The job destroyed a relationship. Hard to be around for her if you fly out on Sunday night and home on Friday night. Rarely did I have to spend the weekend on the job.

I tried line work with a contractor. Ran a digger setting poles and such. Hated working in the winter when most were in the house warm. The rest of the year was OK, got to see some great things installing a line over Feather Mesa, using a helo to set the poles, to rough for a truck.

I suggest you do some sole searching and decide what you want then go for it. Remember todays world you need a certificiation for everything. Including going to the bath room.


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## SeaDoo (Aug 23, 2020)

SWDweller said:


> It is quite normal for someone to rise into the cream and then move on. I have done it 3 times, once my salary doubled as an opening offer. 7 years is really not that long of a time.
> What have you been doing? To me it sounds like your doing typical electrical work, small commercial, occasionally light industrial. Ya it might be time to to look else where.
> I was a road warrior for Eaton for 5 years. 100 flights a year, minimum. Not a job for a family man. The job destroyed a relationship. Hard to be around for her if you fly out on Sunday night and home on Friday night. Rarely did I have to spend the weekend on the job.
> 
> ...


Thanks for all the responses. To answer your question. What I do is a lot of typical commercial work. Running conduit, installing panels, switchgears, transformers, lighting, services, troubleshooting, etc.. I'll say that I think it's a great company to start and learn from, because it's not like I do the same old thing and turn out with a J-card only knowing how to run conduit coming from a ground up company. I feel confident in knowing how to do good typical electrical work. I've learned basic motor controls here. I understand relays, contactors, basic VFD work, just basic stuff, but I know the basic stuff well haha. A lot of this was me just applying myself and not settling on not understanding certain things, instead I had to sacrifice time at home to learn a lot of the more refined part of the job. There isn't many guys in my company that know how to even troubleshoot well. I feel like it's just time.. Maybe work on the things I wish I had done differently and start fresh with a new crew, new start, learning new things.

I don't hear anyone mentioning anything about going off on my own as being the best option. I guess that's understandable. I'm still without a doubt getting my Masters license, but I think going into the motor control/PLC part of the industry might be the most fun for me. It sounds like I need to just bite the bullet and work for an industrial plant to get the experience?


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## Almost Retired (Sep 14, 2021)

SeaDoo said:


> Thanks for all the responses. To answer your question. What I do is a lot of typical commercial work. Running conduit, installing panels, switchgears, transformers, lighting, services, troubleshooting, etc.. I'll say that I think it's a great company to start and learn from, because it's not like I do the same old thing and turn out with a J-card only knowing how to run conduit coming from a ground up company. I feel confident in knowing how to do good typical electrical work. I've learned basic motor controls here. I understand relays, contactors, basic VFD work, just basic stuff, but I know the basic stuff well haha. A lot of this was me just applying myself and not settling on not understanding certain things, instead I had to sacrifice time at home to learn a lot of the more refined part of the job. There isn't many guys in my company that know how to even troubleshoot well. I feel like it's just time.. Maybe work on the things I wish I had done differently and start fresh with a new crew, new start, learning new things.
> 
> I don't hear anyone mentioning anything about going off on my own as being the best option. I guess that's understandable. I'm still without a doubt getting my Masters license, but I think going into the motor control/PLC part of the industry might be the most fun for me. It sounds like I need to just bight the bullet and work for an industrial plant to get the experience?


the reason no one is encouraging your own company right now is because that is unusually hard to do with a family most of the time ... not always
however if you learn in an industrial setting (good pay, bene's, insurance) you can later do contract work by yourself on your own and most of your family will be grown


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## MHElectric (Oct 14, 2011)

A HVAC controls company might be a good place to start. They’re sort of the starting line of where electrical work and control work meet. And any decent sized city will have at least 1 or 2 of the companies. 

I did HVAC control work for 6 months. It was very interesting. In another life I could’ve done that for a living and been pretty happy. But it’s a completely different trade and I had already found electrical work to be what I liked doing. Even though you do a lot of stuff that’s similar (bend pipe, pull cables, land wires), make no mistake, it’s not even close to wiring up lights and plugs.

Sounded like several of the control guys at that company had also spent time working at industrial control companies too. So maybe this is where you can get a foot in the door.


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## Almost Retired (Sep 14, 2021)

MHElectric said:


> A HVAC controls company might be a good place to start. They’re sort of the starting line of where electrical work and control work meet. And any decent sized city will have at least 1 or 2 of the companies.
> 
> I did HVAC control work for 6 months. It was very interesting. In another life I could’ve done that for a living and been pretty happy. But it’s a completely different trade and I had already found electrical work to be what I liked doing. Even though you do a lot of stuff that’s similar (bend pipe, pull cables, land wires), make no mistake, it’s not even close to wiring up lights and plugs.
> 
> Sounded like several of the control guys at that company had also spent time working at industrial control companies too. So maybe this is where you can get a foot in the door.


dont forget we just had a thread where they wanted to add a VFD to an existing freezer unit
that means they are making units with VFDs now

and i agree, HVAC is getting more and more into controls. its not like it was 20 yrs ago when any electrician could troubleshoot and fix it


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## MHElectric (Oct 14, 2011)

Almost Retired said:


> dont forget we just had a thread where they wanted to add a VFD to an existing freezer unit
> that means they are making units with VFDs now
> 
> and i agree, HVAC is getting more and more into controls. its not like it was 20 yrs ago when any electrician could troubleshoot and fix it


Wow, I couldn’t imagine trying to troubleshoot HVAC controls and only having electrical experience. They do all kinds of things differently. For example, the black wire is the neutral in controls.


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## Almost Retired (Sep 14, 2021)

MHElectric said:


> Wow, I couldn’t imagine trying to troubleshoot HVAC controls and only having electrical experience. They do all kinds of things differently. For example, the black wire is the neutral in controls.


is it a neutral or a common ?
older thermostats had a common wire that was actually a common hot
common does not have to mean neutral every time


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## MHElectric (Oct 14, 2011)

Almost Retired said:


> is it a neutral or a common ?
> older thermostats had a common wire that was actually a common hot
> common does not have to mean neutral every time


Yeah, i think your right. It’s a common.

I remember having a hard time wrapping my head around another one of their devices. I think it was the door louver actuators or something. The owner of the company tried explaining it to me and another guy but we couldn’t figure it out until he told us “its just like a 3-way switch”. Then all the sudden we got it. lol


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## zoltan (Mar 15, 2010)

MHElectric said:


> For example, the black wire is the neutral in controls.


12-24vdc?


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## MHElectric (Oct 14, 2011)

zoltan said:


> 12-24vdc?


Yep. Pretty sure that 90% of what we did was 12-24vdc. Occasionally we would tie into 120v power for some door/fan/actuator controls.


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## leslieman (Feb 24, 2021)

SeaDoo said:


> Hello, I've been an electrician for 7 years now working for a service shop. I've learned a lot throughout my journey, graduated IEC. Really applied myself and feel like I have come along way from not knowing how to use a drill on day one, to where I am at now running jobs. I'm currently studying for my Masters and am torn between a cross road. My current situation isn't horrible, but it doesn't feel like a long term job for me. Mostly because there are zero benefits, no 401k help, really nothing but high health care and average pay with tons of grunt work. Not complaining pay or grunt work, but I fully trust myself in knowing I have the determination and drive to branch off into more specific parts of the trade that are harder to learn but pay more. I really would like to challenge myself. I've always loved troubleshooting and doing motor control work, even though my company hardly does it.
> 
> Last week I was talking to a POCO journeyman helper making $12.50 more than me, with great benefits and job security. It really got me thinking... I'm 31, and even though still young, I feel like I'm at the age where I really need to buckle down and figure out my end goal. It's either take my Masters license and go off on my own, or get into a company with good pay and work I enjoy. I'm not a fan of traveling all the time for work, so not sure how much that narrows my choices down.
> 
> I had a ex-coworker call me up last week to just catch up on life. He was talking about how he's working for a plant now, (he's a journeyman electrician) but just started going to a 2 year school for PLC/Motor Controls/Instrumental work. They started him off about $5 more than what I make and he's an apprentice in this new line of work. He says he does small bits of travel but mostly in town working in plants. I hear plant work can be dangerous, and is why you get paid the extra $? Not sure how I feel about it but just wanted to get your opinions on that. Also, how and where do I find PLC/Motor Controls/etc work? If anything I'd like to go in for some interviews and get a feel for if It's worth pursuing over POCO work or going off on my own. Any help and advice is much appreciated, thank you!


Come to Florida, the City of Orlando has openings, also look at the job postings.


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## leslieman (Feb 24, 2021)

Come to Florida, the City of Orlando has openings, also look at the job postings.


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## GladMech (Sep 18, 2020)

Note too, that in industrial you have two three distinct choices. You can work in a manufacturing plant or a mill where the emphasis is keeping the production running. You can work for an equipment manufacturer where you are building the equipment controls. You can work for (or be) an electrical contractor who is installing the new equipment in the mill. All 3 are a similar wide mix of required skills and a similar mix of entertainment value but widely different practice.


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## ESElect (Mar 6, 2021)

Come on out to the desert in California I am the Instrumentation, Electrical, and Controls Superintendent for a processing/chemical manufacturer. We employ our electrical, instrumentation and controls technicians in house and have a three year apprenticeship. Work here ranges from installation of equipment (motors, drives, conduit, lighting, etc) to troubleshooting motor controls, PLC's, and instrumentation. We also self generate 54MW as a co-gen so there is work for that was well. 

Trueliy if you want the PLC's, motor controls, and instrumentation experience I feel the only way to truely get that experience is in a n industrial environment.


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## paulengr (Oct 8, 2017)

SeaDoo said:


> Hello, I've been an electrician for 7 years now working for a service shop. I've learned a lot throughout my journey, graduated IEC. Really applied myself and feel like I have come along way from not knowing how to use a drill on day one, to where I am at now running jobs. I'm currently studying for my Masters and am torn between a cross road. My current situation isn't horrible, but it doesn't feel like a long term job for me. Mostly because there are zero benefits, no 401k help, really nothing but high health care and average pay with tons of grunt work. Not complaining pay or grunt work, but I fully trust myself in knowing I have the determination and drive to branch off into more specific parts of the trade that are harder to learn but pay more. I really would like to challenge myself. I've always loved troubleshooting and doing motor control work, even though my company hardly does it.
> 
> Last week I was talking to a POCO journeyman helper making $12.50 more than me, with great benefits and job security. It really got me thinking... I'm 31, and even though still young, I feel like I'm at the age where I really need to buckle down and figure out my end goal. It's either take my Masters license and go off on my own, or get into a company with good pay and work I enjoy. I'm not a fan of traveling all the time for work, so not sure how much that narrows my choices down.
> 
> I had a ex-coworker call me up last week to just catch up on life. He was talking about how he's working for a plant now, (he's a journeyman electrician) but just started going to a 2 year school for PLC/Motor Controls/Instrumental work. They started him off about $5 more than what I make and he's an apprentice in this new line of work. He says he does small bits of travel but mostly in town working in plants. I hear plant work can be dangerous, and is why you get paid the extra $? Not sure how I feel about it but just wanted to get your opinions on that. Also, how and where do I find PLC/Motor Controls/etc work? If anything I'd like to go in for some interviews and get a feel for if It's worth pursuing over POCO work or going off on my own. Any help and advice is much appreciated, thank you!


Ok so first things first. Yes you need to move around. As far as 401k it’s not what it’s cracked up to be. If they have a 401k your options are limited to whatever their plan is and you may get a “match” which is somewhat free money but don’t expect a lot. If you don’t get a 401k it’s not a problem. A Roth actually works better and you can do your own in a brokerage or mutual fund company outside of the employer. The difference is the 401k is tax free putting money in but it AND the gains are taxed coming out. Hopefully taxes won’t go up and you will need less money in retirement. With a Roth you put money in after it is taxed now. The money you put in now can come out any time. The gains that come out in retirement are tax free so regardless of tax rates or your needs you get the money tax free. If i was your age I wouldn’t even consider anything but a Roth. So that eliminates the 401k issue. I used this exact strategy when I had no 401k.

I can tell you from over 30 years of this that yes, plants CAN be dangerous places. There is wide variation in this but on average the more “dangerous” the work, the lower the injury rate. For instance injury rates in mining as an industry are about 4 times lower than industry averages. Food plants and forestry as an industry averages are higher than average but within those plants things can be wildly different too. You will also run into plants that are completely insane in terms of safety but completely missing basic principles. And even very safe plants can have some astonishingly unsafe electrical gear.

On a personal level regardless of the plant one important skill that you MUST have is situational awareness. That one trait will save your behind more than anything else. That and trust no one.

The problem is this. There is no “industrial electrician” license (Canada Red Seal exception). In fact most have no license, not even a basic electrical license. Plants are essentially continuously under some kind of construction almost since they open until they close. The ones that pull permits quickly learn never to do that again if possible. Some states and government agencies want licenses but many don’t. There is mostly no college degree or certification. In fact I have a whole file of certifications. I think only once or twice every few years does anyone look. Some plants require OSHA 10 or 30 but that’s more of a construction thing. Some require MSHA (and there are 3 different ones). Some government facilities want some kind of state department or military issued ID. But outside of that there’s nothing. And except for some large National automation companies for the most part it’s all local and word of mouth.

The way they find people is they use the usual hiring methods. Highly skilled people in this business are rare and the “6 degrees of separation” is about the only way to find them. If you find one out of work it’s usually because something is wrong (damaged goods) because the work (not job) is utterly recession proof. I’ve never been out of work more than 3 weeks in 30 years. And most of the gaps were from moving from one state to another. The service and construction companies have decent size sales staffs because somebody has to knock on a lot of doors to keep work coming in. It is quite common that if we stop hearing from a customer it’s because they had a personnel change.

I don’t know about elsewhere but the word you hear a lot with almost all industrial customers us “outsourcing”. The small guys never had on site staff but the big guys have their own electricians, programmers, and engineers and you don’t get much work from them, and you are overworked if you work for them. The tendency though has been towards contracting it all out. So over time the trend is the plant jobs have become contractor jobs. And once they lose their in house people even though it’s more expensive they never get them back.

So if you don’t want to run a company if you are already working for a company the obvious choices are competitors or vendors/customers, or competitors of vendors/customers. Divorces are rarely pretty so often a customer or vendor is reluctant to “poach” an employee so the direct route isn’t often a safe one. Motor shops, automation companies, panel shops, SOME electrical contractors, and even some equipment manufacturers all use the skills you are looking for. Some may not even be obvious to you.

Personally it would be no problem for me to set up and run a company doing this kind of work. I don’t for several reasons. I’m not fond of doing sales and unwilling to contract it out, and most sales people don’t impress me. To me it’s one step away from prostitution. I also don’t like dealing with people issues. So I’d rather work with somebody else that already does the stuff for me.


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## bill39 (Sep 4, 2009)

Try using the term “system integrator“ when doing a job search.


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## GladMech (Sep 18, 2020)

bill39 said:


> Try using the term “system integrator“ when doing a job search.


For the employer - not for you.


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## glen1971 (Oct 10, 2012)

paulengr said:


> The problem is this. There is no “industrial electrician” license (Canada Red Seal exception).


The Red Seal is not an Industrial Certification. It is a designation allows the holder to work in other provinces, except Quebec, without having to write that province's Journeyman exam. To achieve it, it depends on what part of the country you are training in. For example in Alberta, it is a separate test, while in Ontario it was, at least when I worked there, incorporated into their Journeyman test. 
There is a separate Industrial program in Ontario, 442A, and a Construction and Maintenance is a 309A.


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## wiz1997 (Mar 30, 2021)

Texas issues a Industrial Electrician License.


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## bill39 (Sep 4, 2009)

GladMech said:


> For the employer - not for you.


Maybe I’m mistaken but I thought the OP was looking for a job in the field of instrumentation & controls. System integrators hire those people.


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## gpop (May 14, 2018)

SeaDoo said:


> Thanks for all the responses. To answer your question. What I do is a lot of typical commercial work. Running conduit, installing panels, switchgears, transformers, lighting, services, troubleshooting, etc.. I'll say that I think it's a great company to start and learn from, because it's not like I do the same old thing and turn out with a J-card only knowing how to run conduit coming from a ground up company. I feel confident in knowing how to do good typical electrical work. I've learned basic motor controls here. I understand relays, contactors, basic VFD work, just basic stuff, but I know the basic stuff well haha. A lot of this was me just applying myself and not settling on not understanding certain things, instead I had to sacrifice time at home to learn a lot of the more refined part of the job. There isn't many guys in my company that know how to even troubleshoot well. I feel like it's just time.. Maybe work on the things I wish I had done differently and start fresh with a new crew, new start, learning new things.
> 
> I don't hear anyone mentioning anything about going off on my own as being the best option. I guess that's understandable. I'm still without a doubt getting my Masters license, but I think going into the motor control/PLC part of the industry might be the most fun for me. It sounds like I need to just bite the bullet and work for an industrial plant to get the experience?



I have only ever been dumped into a industrial job once with no training and when they discovered three months later that i had been the only guy on night shift they freaked out and apologized as they would never do that sort of thing....lol

Seriously you have enough bullshit written in your post to apply for any industrial job. Management knows that anyone they employee will require anything from 2 weeks to a year to bring up to speed.


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## Creatine (Nov 1, 2021)

I fell into a position where I did maintenance on and troubleshot diesel engine driven MW generators. From there I dicked around, wasted time, then fell into a position doing instrumentation and control valve work (troubleshooting, rebuilding valves, etc). They found out I had one PLC class at a community college under my belt and said "Hey, go to ___ and troubleshoot their DL06 PLC." I said "Dude I really don't know how to program PLCs, I just understand how ladder logic works etc etc". They made me go anyway and in a trial by fire I got the machine running properly and fixed another machine of theirs. These days I do quality assurance, electrical wiring, and PLC programming at a company that manufactures industrial equipment. I'm basically the point person between receiving, engineering, and the shop floor and handle that **** on top of troubleshooting malfunctioning equipment and making things work. 

I just fell into it but highlighting my ability to troubleshoot stuff always landed me a job. You're far more qualified than I was when I fell into instrumentation so drop some applications and study I&C / PLC programming in your spare time. Automation Direct's DoMore program is free and includes a simulator.


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## Lone Crapshooter (Nov 8, 2008)

I see you live in the Texas City area there are several junior colleges around that area that have those classes. I lived in Brazoria County Lake Jackson to be specific in the 80's and I went to Brazosport College. I was a part time instructor and I did teach motor control for both electrical and HVAC.
LC


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## ScooterMcGavin (Jan 24, 2011)

If you want to move to northern California:


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## just the cowboy (Sep 4, 2013)

SeaDoo said:


> I don't hear anyone mentioning anything about going off on my own as being the best option. I guess that's understandable.


Two things.
1. You need the experience first, to do the install and service work. Customer does not want to pay the learning curve.
2. I had my own system integrator business, and when you get into control work it also means " life safety now" and my insurance killed me on that work.

If you find the right job you will not need your own business, I know from experience. I now use my skills to make 6 figures and great benefits at 40 hours a week. AND I get paid all the time never have to worry about where is next job coming from. My guys also make 6 figures not just me as supervisor.

Area makes a difference, I worked my whole life on east coast and was only up to $32/hr and that was good for Maintenance. I just hired a trainee at more than that with the way pay is going up.


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## paulengr (Oct 8, 2017)

Keep in mind controls work load leveling is about impossible…it’s always feast or famine. Second, it is the absolute worst for estimating. So it’s high risk, high reward.


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