is anyone here in that field of work. Can you tell me the difference between electromechanical, instrumentation, electronics. My local college is about to start in January and im looking to maybe get into those fields as I heard they a pretty much in demand, pay good, and steady. Any thoughts? thanks

 

I went to school first to be an HVAC guy, then to be an Electrician then to be an Electrical Engineer. I got my degrees in all 3.

Anyway after I graduated the college I got the first 2 in combined parts of each to make an electromechanical degree.

This field is more of a general mechanic/millwright along with HVAC and electrical troubleshooting. This also includes training to become an electrician as far as installing conduit, wiring panels and motors, becoming intimately familiar with the NEC. Some of the classes were Millwrights and Mechanics, 2 HVAC classes, Hydraulics and Pneumatics, Motors Alternators and Generators, PLC's, Magnetic Motor Controls, an NEC class, and a class devoted to wiring methods.

Controls is simply that, controls. In this field you will be working with PLC's, relays, contactors, different types of switches for input to PLCs, start stop pushbuttons. Its very good to know how to read electrical schematics in this field. I don't know what classes you really would take in this but I assume they would consist of a couple PLC classes, Magnetic Motor Controls classes and probably most of the other electrical classes I mentioned in the first paragraph.

Im not very familiar with instrumentation but in the field it would consist of knowledge of how to read, install, troubleshoot and calibrate instruments. I'm sure they have classes that can cover this well.

If you know of some local industries that you would like to work at then do a search and find out what exactly they are looking for. Also ask the college who hires their graduates in each of those fields.

If you can I recommend industry. I've worked as a Commercial Electrician and it involved wiring up one place and moving to the next. We did small businesses and schools. Once it was over you never knew where you were going to go and if there was somewhere to go!

The next place I worked was a large chemical plant as an Industrial Electrician. The work here was best and safest I ever saw. You knew you were going to be working at the same plant every day. The company I worked for had been in this plant for years and the folks there had been there for years and are still there.

So somewhere through all that I was in school and got my EE degree. Now I work at the same chemical plant as an Electrical Engineer. I do a lot more desk work now primarily writing specs, performing circuit coordinations, power flow studies and working on engineering projects. I also get a fair amount of work where somebody just needs some part that broke or occasionally I get involved in troubleshooting some big problem. (Thats kindof a down side, if I get called in for troubleshooting, its big and some other guy has already troubleshot it to death and they're scratching their head and all eyes are on me or one of my awesome coworkers). Its still a whole lot of fun and the best part is I work closely with the very same guys I worked with as an Industrial Electrician.

The place where I'm at is like a big family of about 8000 to 10000 and everyone respects everyone else. I feel very blessed to be where I'm at and can only hope others can have an experience like this. I've been laid up with a broke femur from a car crash for over a month and not a day goes by that I don't wish I was back at work. I feel like I'm letting everyone down by not being there, I just want to get back and do my part!

Hope this helps. If you have any questions about the electrical field please ask as I've been through a lot of it and can hopefully help you out.


On edit I see you changed controls to electronics.

I don't know very much about this field. One of my friends is an EE specializing in electronics. He spends his days creating or trying out new circuits. From what I know electronics is one of the fields thats hardest to get into.

I specialize in power and there are jobs everywhere, the electronics field has much fewer job offerings.

 

thanks I didn't expect that, thats great. My local offers instrumentation, industrial electricity, electronics, and electromechanical. From your experience which is best in terms of demand, pay. I'm in Ca right now, but want to move to Texas or else I'd go ask some local companies if I knew any. Basically I don't know much about this stuff, I've just been told its in demand in every state.

 

Around here the demand is mainly for industrial electricity, electromechanical and instrumentation. The instrumentation guy is probably going to get a bit more pay around here but not by very much.

There are a couple good electrical contractors around here that do everything from residential to commercial and industrial work, they're always busy. Theres also some large industry around here that provide good employment.

If things everywhere else are like they are here then I would say they are in demand. If you're thinking of moving to Texas and know the general location you can find some info about the area and see whats in demand there.

 

I am in Houston right now. There is a big demand for oil/gas instrumentation. Mudloggers. Some travel is involved, to different sites, and to offshore wells. Do a search on it, and fine our exactly what they are looking for it this area.