jj
  •  jj
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2020-04-18T18:54:16Z


I am thinking of changing careers. I have been in the swimming pool business, and it is not going well right now due to the economy. I have installed many controllers on pools in the last few years, and it seems that there is a wide use of controllers in industry in general.

Recently, I saw an ad for a job. The job is a 70% fit for me, except they also want PLC troubleshooting experience. I heard that the position was put on hold (economic downturn). That works out for me, because it give me time to learn PLC and troubleshooting.

Where did most of you learn controllers? There are no courses here where I live, so I imagine the books and CDs will have to do. What about hands on? How do I actually pull these apart and learn how to trouble shoot them from a book or CD? How many hours of tutorial is recommended so that I can look an potential employer in the eye and say, "Yes, I have a good working knowledge of controllers, what manufacturer do you use?" Would it make sense to go to a manufacturer and ask for training and a job?
Guest
2020-04-18T18:55:55Z
You hit on a major reason I started this site. First people that are working at their current career cant really take the time off to retrain in the classroom offerings that are prevalent today. Second many of those classes are 'cram' classes. The complaint I hear most often is that they were lost or if they did learn they forgot it shortly after. At PLCMentor we want to be hear during and after your training. Forget something? Just review the video. In our training program and have a question about a program. We can help.

Now to answer your questions. I learned from mentors on the job. You need someone to look over your shoulder when you get started. You need someone to point you to where the answers are and to teach you to find them on your own in the future. Yes you will need hands on experience with the equipment. Ebay is a place you can get used systems for fairly cheap. Rockwell and many of the other suppliers have free software that you can get for simple training purposes.

Keep at it! I hope we can help.
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