u/Optimal_Duty7521

I’m a technician with about seven years of experience in controls and instrumentation. I’ve built a few PLC projects from scratch in that time - just small pump controllers with AD parts.

I just got hired on with a company that has the most generous tuition reimbursement package I’ve ever encountered, and I wI’ll be working second shift for a long time, which frees up my daytime hours. I want to take advantage of this opportunity.

I have a bunch of the math and supporting science that an EE degree requires (need to get through diff eq and take some physics). The way I see it, I would probably take about four years to finish an EE degree from this starting point at a manageable rate.

Is this a worthwhile endeavor at age 36? I’m not really interested in design work and I hear that ageism is rampant among engineering circles. At this rate I will be 40 or 41 at the end.

On the other hand, I figure that completing a difficult degree could help me get into bigger money in the long run, since I still have 30 plus years of working to do.

If I just stay at this job, I cap out at 105k or so straight time, plus none of the BS that comes with managing people (did that for five years and about lost my mind).

Thoughts?

I am in a training program for new hires at a large manufacturing facility. I brought about five years of experience before hiring in here.

Day one, they drill into you about wearing your gear when testing 480 volt circuits. Since I have been shadowing people, not a single person has geared up when sticking leads into 480 volt terminals. I stand back and off to the side quite a bit during these moments.

You can bet when they turn me loose, I will be wearing the gear. I’m just curious how common this is in large facilities. Prior to this, I was on a two man crew for a small water treatment facility.

They preach this incessantly, and have cameras and safety people all over, yet I see this lazy move consistently.