What skills does a controls engineer need?

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During the interviews with young DCS engineers, the more and more I see smart and ambitious people applying for these jobs, but not ready to hold a role. The university nowadays cannot give you all the basic knowledge to accomplish tasks in your future jobs. That’s why I believe in self and long-life learning. The online education platforms can provide you tons of different courses, starting from Social Science ending with Neural Networks. This brings us to another issue, which course and a skill worth spending your time. Even our profession changes every year with new technologies, I tried to collect the basic critical skills, that will be required to do the minimal Control Systems job.

1.           Coding

Basic coding skill becomes essential for all jobs in our days. You must learn how to code to do your job better and faster. The easiest example is Excel, software which used everywhere starting from Data Science ending in retail and school education. But, for Control Systems engineers its essential, since the algorithms we apply for the real process is written in code (doesn’t matter which form). It can be written in Ladder Logic for PLC or Control Language for Honeywell HPM. For the basic level, you don’t need to go too deep, understanding what code does is enough.

2.           Electrical Engineering skills

Since the Control Systems hardware becomes more complex year by year, maintenance and troubleshooting require basic electrical skills. At least you should be able to use a multimeter and know how electrical elements work (resistors, conductor, fuse, etc.). I don’t prioritize this skill, because hardware manufactures are getting more focused to make equipment modular, which means you can easily change broken modules (and buy more from supplier).

3.           Networking Protocols

If you want to work in big companies, both computer and industrial networks (OPC, Modbus, etc.) are a must to know. Industrial networks help to “talk” with each other to different equipment and from different vendors. You, as a Control Systems engineer, can be responsible for a specific controller or a system, but at the same time you should be able to build and troubleshoot communication with third-party controllers. Also, controllers “talk” with computer networks through TCP/IP, since the configuration software runs on PCs. Also, the communication is required in cases, if you want to provide the process information from networks to a PC user (managers, Process Engineers, etc.)

4.           Control algorithms

Even this post is for Control Systems engineer (Maintenance, Application engineers) the Control Theory will be beneficial throughout your whole career. You must know when the loop is not working as it was designed because sometimes it can help you identify the issues with the field and controller. Also, to be successful in implementing control algorithms, its essential to know what you are implementing.

Bonus: For students, it is very vital to do own small projects. They can use Arduino, Raspberry Pi (or cheap Chinese analogs from AliExpress). These small controllers with digital and analog I/O can give you the opportunity to develop your own projects and learn with it. They are cheap, easy to use, has a huge community, and helpful to get hands-on practice. I am sure, you can even add these projects to your CV (I did it) and shine in the crowd. Browse YouTube to find out interesting projects and have fun!