“Are you able to accept business trips?” — This is surprisingly the most valued “skill” during recruitment in automation companies! Even if your coding skills are at a primary school level, as long as you are willing to travel nationwide, you can easily earn over 10,000 yuan a month. But experienced engineers know: business trips are the “invisible killer” in the PLC industry! Today, we will unveil the “high salary trap” in the automation industry and see how many people are pushed to consider changing careers due to “business trips”!
1. There are two types of business trips, which one is more “torturous”?
1. Project-based business trips: Enduring time, testing patience
Scenario: Equipment sold to another location, you go along to install and debug, staying for several months.
Real case:
An engineer spent 3 months at a factory in Guangdong modifying programs due to incompatible communication protocols, only to find out that the client’s system version was too old…
Pain points:
Long time away from home, disrupted routine (factories often require emergency repairs at night).
Repeated technical issues can lead to a breakdown in mindset.
Unexpected gains: Deep involvement in projects leads to rapid technical improvement; a chance to travel (if the factory isn’t in a remote area).
2. After-sales business trips: Playing “whack-a-mole”, exhausting to the point of questioning life
Scenario: After repairing equipment in Guangzhou, flying to Harbin for an emergency on the same day, then heading straight to Urumqi the next day.
Real case:
An engineer had just finished a project in the south and was preparing to go home when he was notified to “immediately fly to Xinjiang” — the reason being that the client treated the emergency stop button as a decoration and burned out the motor…
Pain points:
Cross-time zone flights disrupt the biological clock.
Strange problems (like client misoperations) lead to being blamed.
Advantages: High pay (travel allowances are generous), rich experiences (social media locations span the country).
Summary: Project-based business trips are like “long-term military training”, while after-sales trips are like “extreme training” — both are exhausting, but the latter tests endurance more.
2. The Automation Industry: The “Hidden Rules” Behind High Salaries
1. Salary temptation: Fresh graduates earning 7k a month, annual salary over 200,000 after 3 years
The truth:
High salaries = high frequency of business trips, especially in second and third-tier cities (local opportunities are scarce, requiring nationwide travel).
Data from Liepin.com: Engineers with 5 years of experience generally earn over 300,000 a year, but spend half their time on business trips.
2. Job opportunities are abundant, but “stability” is a luxury
Yangtze River Delta/Pearl River Delta: Manufacturing is dense, but competition is fierce (peers competing for orders = crazy business trips).
Central and western regions: Few projects, but once an order is received = long-term stationed (like coal mines in Xinjiang, oil fields in Qinghai).
Key contradiction:
Companies need “cheap labor” to travel nationwide, but engineers want “high pay, less work, and proximity to home” — a natural conflict!
3. The “Pitfalls” of Remote Maintenance: Idealistic but Harsh Reality
1. Equipment is widely distributed, and failures occur randomly
Identical equipment in different factories may experience program compatibility issues due to differences in voltage, network, and environment.
Case: An engineer discovered during remote debugging that the client’s factory had unstable voltage, which burned out the PLC module… and he was still blamed.
2. Data security: Modifying a program may be illegal
Equipment from multinational companies involves data compliance, and engineers must research local laws before modifying programs (for example, German equipment has extremely strict privacy protections).
Risk of cyber attacks: If targeted by hackers, equipment paralysis = engineer takes the blame.
3. Technical support: Clients are always “self-sabotaging”
Classic blunders:
Unauthorized disassembly of equipment leading to short circuits;
Using pirated software to overwrite programs, then blaming the engineer when it crashes.
Result: Engineers stay up late to fix emergencies, and the client says, “If I had known it would be like this, I shouldn’t have bought your equipment in the first place.”
4. Survival Rules for Automation Engineers
1. Accepting business trips = accepting high salaries:
Don’t be afraid to travel right after graduation; accumulate experience + obtain certifications (like registered electrical engineer), and you can later transition to management positions (no business trips required).
2. Choosing the right company is crucial:
Foreign companies (Siemens, Schneider) have fewer business trips but higher entry barriers;
Small and medium-sized companies offer high pay but expect “007” work; be mentally prepared.
3. Side jobs as a safety net:
Take on freelance programming work, or create media content sharing PLC knowledge to reduce dependence on income from business trips.
Final Advice:
The automation industry is like a “besieged city” — those outside envy the high salaries, while those inside are tortured by business trips to the point of balding. If you can accept that “money = travel expenses + accommodation fees + hardship pay”, then come in and fight for a few years; if you don’t want to be homeless, consider switching to artificial intelligence/IoT (though it’s also competitive, at least you won’t have to travel nationwide)!
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