Advice for a newly graduated engineer!

[automation.engineer 0]

So I finally graduated and now it is time for me to find work . I was hoping for some advice from people with experience on a variety of topics to strengthen my value on the automation scene. Here are some questions for those of you who have experience: 1. Which plc's should I get familiar with? ( I am currently familiar with the Allen Bradley controllers 500 and 5000 using Rsview and Rslogix ) 2. Which communication protocols should I get familiar with? 3. Which other software are useful to aid and compliment for automation ? ( I am thinking along the line of tools like Excel, Access, Crystal Reports, Autocad etc) 4. Things I should strenghten on when dealing with A-B software like Rslogix, Rslinx and Rsview (or others!) 5. Other Topics I should study that could be complementary to automation ? 6. I took the Fundamental Engineer test this last April before graduation and passed it (it was pretty hard since I couldn't actually study for it because of my capstone project but I passed it :D), will this test along with the PE(when i take it) would compliment my value as an engineer on the automation on USA or is it just a personal thing to have as I have heard allot outside the power industry? 7. Any convenient languages that would be useful to know for places who are heavily investing on automation? 8. Finally, where do you think the automation industry is going too and which things should I as a newbie engineer should start getting familiar with? I will really appreciate any feedback you can give me from any of those questions, so far I have the whole summer to study them and go to the beach until I get a job!

[paulengr 44]

I would recommend you quit worrying about 99% of the things you posted. These are "nuts and bolts" mechanical issues. Understanding finance, business management, and the various processes in whatever industry you land in are the things that a newbie has to learn that are frequently not taught in school. One thing that hopefully you HAVE learned is how to learn (study, research) any sort of issue. If you have, then when you get hit with one of those questions that you can't answer immediately, you will know where to look. Also in terms of general technical knowledge, I'd suggest getting Donald Knuth's 3 volume set on algorithms and read them cover-to-cover. They only help indirectly with PLC's in general but the sooner that you understand fundamental algorithms for solving problems, the better off you'll be.

[Mike Dyble 0]

I agree with paulengr that you dont NEED to know a lot of the details, you can brush these up on a project by project basis as you need them, as long as you know where to find the info when you need. it Looking back at my years in automation the things that I have found useful outside immediate engineering issues are: The abilty to use the Microsoft Office/Clones to present information to others (You have to sell your ideas, and then document them after you have implimented them) I did a short course called 'Training the trainer' about 10 years ago in the UK, I found this very useful because as you progress you will need to pass your knowledge on. The ability to use Autocad can make you more employable, I dont think you need to be at expert level, just a working knowledge to allow you to edit existing drawings and produce simple ones from scratch. Language wise from a UK view point German is useful, but I am not sure if this would apply in your part of the world. Above all to develop an enquiring mind, always ask why? and to remember that can't, as in 'we cant do that' isnt a real word, it means we 'dont know how to' or 'we cannot afford it', given the knowledge, determination and resources anything physically possible can be acheived.