Is it easy to work as an instrument technician?

It’s difficult to work in winter; it’s fine at other times.

It’s not easy to do; there’s a lot of time spent on arguing...

It’s work; just waiting around to die is also a form of work. Haha

It’s not easy in any industry; the key is to want to do it yourself. .

Follow your own path and make a career plan

It’s not easy; there are too many times when one has to take the blame.

It depends on how you plan your career; regular jobs are easy to handle, but those that involve programming and configuration, as well as debugging, are not so easy! It depends on where you are and what your responsibilities are!

It depends on what kind of instrument technician you intend to become. If you just want to muddle along, following the experienced workers around the site and handing them tools is also a way to do it; but if you want to stand out, you need to focus and work hard to learn

Hehe. . . The senior doesn’t know. A real field watchmaker is not busy fixing watches. The gauge is broken; it doesn’t need to be fixed. This is also a reflection of the poor quality of the instruments – they don’t function properly. One of the vacuum distillation heaters in the factory has a zirconia oxygen sensor that has been broken for over a year. It stopped working last winter when I went from the new area to the old area to give some help; we had to call a manufacturer in Lanzhou to fix it, but they came and couldn’t fix it before leaving. Three days ago they came again; the colleague responsible for that area was on leave, so I took them to the site, and it turned out that it was still the same gauge that was problematic. The manufacturer came, assessed the situation, and said that the components on the transmitter’s base plate had aged over time, so it could only be replaced with a new one. After explaining the situation to the supervisor, they just left, haha. . . . It’s been postponed indefinitely again. . . The reason why field instrument technicians are busy is superficial matters: hygiene, labeling, and standards. The air in the north is dirty; the outdoor instruments get covered with dust within two or three days. This is unacceptable – they need to be cleaned. Otherwise, when officials from higher authorities come for inspections, they will see how dirty it is, and fines will be imposed if cleaning isn’t done. Most of the time is spent on cleaning, three times a week. . . The instruments on site all have expiration dates and calibration labels, but they have never been calibrated; instead, those with expired dates or unreadable labels are replaced. The labels, cellophane, and markers purchased by the factory are of poor quality – new labels placed in outdoor conditions become unreadable after just two months, requiring replacement. Otherwise, inspections at various levels will result in fines if the calibration labels on the instruments are found to be unclear, and these labels also need to be replaced every two months. A lot of time was wasted. Leaders at all levels conduct inspections and bring in various experts; a quick look on site reveals many so-called defects, which then require corrections. After endless revisions, it becomes unclear which expert is actually an expert. Take the pressure gauge at the outlet of a pump as an example: some experts say a three-pointer gauge is necessary, while others say it’s not required; some suggest that a two-pointer gauge with only an upper limit indicator is sufficient, and yet others claim that only the indicators specific to pressure vessels are needed and nothing else. . . . So adjustments were made over and over again; the pressure gauge at the pump outlet was replaced numerous times. First, the original gauge was removed, and a batch of three-pointer pressure gauges were purchased. Then those three-pointer gauges were taken off again and replaced with the original ones. Afterwards, a gauge without upper or lower limits was modified by sticking red paper on it to serve as an upper limit indicator, but when the manager inspected it, he found it unsightly and had it removed, leading to yet another replacement with a three-pointer pressure gauge. . . . . After so many changes, in the end the factory itself didn’t know what type of pressure gauge should be used for the pressure gauge at the pump’s outlet. Hehe. . In addition, there are various types of non-conformities; for example, some installations have been in use for 4 or 5 years since their design, construction, and commissioning, yet various issues such as improper installation, irregular wiring, improper piping, and incorrect installation locations were still found. So many irregularities in the design and installation from the very beginning were only discovered now; it’s unclear how the various experts in the past managed to miss them. . . . The actual field instruments don’t work properly, and when they break down they’re not replaced. The degree of automation in the atmospheric and vacuum distillation process is less than 30%; the process engineers have tried various times to address this issue, insisting that it’s necessary to check the instruments to find out what’s going on. More than a year has passed, yet the level of automation remains just over 40%. . Hehe. . . The person in charge of the instruments said it was due to design reasons. .

15% skill, 85% networking – it varies from person to person

Instrumentation is a high-tech field that sounds quite sophisticated, but building a solid foundation in it requires hard work. It takes a long and challenging journey to move from frontline work to management positions. In fact, every industry requires time before one can earn high salaries after starting out from school