Having direct experience in a given technology isn’t as important as a strong ability for adaptation and rapid learning. This is mainly because every installation is different. The same technology used in two different sites will be used differently, have different purposes, interface with different equipment or instruments and even have different programming styles. It’s also very likely that each new site will bring some additional new technology, be it an instrument or a vision system, or perhaps a new process or method. Taking all this into consideration, it becomes obvious that rapid adaptation is much more beneficial than familiarity with a particular technology.
It’s also obvious that possessing a high level of experience and competence in the use of many technologies is advantageous and serves to demonstrate the key ability to adapt readily and rapidly. This experience has time and time again proven to be very valuable and of course allows for efficient project delivery for projects using familiar technology.
A high level of competence in instrument commissioning and calibration is a major advantage for an automation engineer working on process systems. A significant number of faults in such systems will require combined analysis of the electrical, instrumentation and programming elements in order to reach a timely and effective conclusion. The ability to bring a wide spectrum of competencies to projects has proven to be a significant advantage to me and my clients over the years.