According to Zippia, more than 80% of companies are looking to incorporate robotics into their operations in the coming years. With such a projection, it is clear that the opportunities for robotics technicians will only increase in the foreseeable future. This gives you a great career path if you are interested in technology and engineering. But that leaves you with another question: How do you get a job as a robotics technician?
Well to put it simply, to get a job as a robotics technician you need to get some form of formal training, improve and gather necessary skills, and work to gain relevant experience. However, there’s a lot more to it than can be summarized into one sentence, so let’s dig a bit deeper. We’ll start with the basics: Getting trained.
Get The Basic Training As a Robotics Technician
If you want a career in the robotics industry, getting trained is the first step. This is because you must have a basic level of knowledge before you’ll be considered for any job, even one as an entry-level technician. If you’re like most young people, however, and you find most formal education tedious and almost unnecessary, there’s a bright side here: Fewer years and practical training.
Training for robotics technicians can be completed in as few as 12-18 months, with most technician programs in mechanical, electrical, or electromechanical engineering being in the 2-year range. At most, these programs extend to 3 years, and in such cases, they usually include a co-op or internship term.
Ideally, the program will cover the basics of many aspects of robotics. The following list includes some of the things you can hope to learn from a robotics technician program.
- Hydraulic systems
- Pneumatic systems
- DC & AC Electricity
- Electronics
- Programmable Logic Controllers
- Computer-Aided Design
- Robotic Devices
All these topics as well as others will be covered to varying degrees, depending on the duration and extent of the program you select. Choosing what program to take is up to you, but you should consider your career goals, as well as the time and money cost of each program. After completing an appropriate program, you can now move on to the next step in your career, which is to collect and level up your skills.
Improve Your Skills As a Robotics Technician
It is almost impossible for any training program to completely prepare you for a specific job, except maybe one designed by the employer. This applies to robotics technicians as well, and that is why this second step is extremely important. You will have to learn a lot more than what you were given in your training program to be competitive in the job market. You will need to learn new skills and improve on the ones you learned in school.
A good way to figure out what skills you should be learning is to look at what the market for robotics technicians is demanding. Look up job postings for robotics technicians from companies that you would like to work for (or companies that pay the best) and look for the part that lists the basic requirements/qualifications. Are there any of them that you don’t have? Most likely the answer is yes (If the answer is no, you shouldn’t be here). Make a list of them and try to rank them based on relevance. One way to do this is by comparing multiple job postings and noting which skills come up the most.
Once you’re done your list may include some of the following technical skills:
- Welding/Metal Fabrication
- Robotics Programming – Fanuc, ABB, Siemens, Panasonic, etc.
It may also include other “soft skills” like critical thinking, problem-solving, and communication skills.
Improving your skills as a robotics technician might require that you receive further formal training, which in this case will be more specific, take less time, and cost less money. It might also require that you do some personal research and study to expand what you know. Improving your skills doesn’t necessarily have to happen after you finish your formal study; It can happen at the same time.
Gather Relevant Experience As a Robotics Technician
Now you’re at the final step; gaining experience. Having relevant experience on your resume can drastically increase the chances that you’ll be considered for a job you’re interested in. This is because it’s the best proof that you have a working knowledge of robotic concepts. But that begs the question: How do I get experience before I get the job?
There are a couple of ways that you can get around this hurdle. The most important way is by gaining experience while in school. Employers want to know what you can do with robots, and that’s what the practical component of your technician program teaches you. What you need to do is know how to record it as experience.
Most programs provide course outcomes for each subject studied. These outcomes detail what the course teaches you in industry terms. Look for the ones related to the practical aspect and include those in your resume under experience. You might need to adjust the sentence structure a bit. Also, try to detail any of your practical experience with the course that isn’t expressed in the course outcomes. Remember to use industry-appropriate language.
It might also help to reevaluate what you understand by relevant experience. You don’t have to be employed as a robotics technician before you can record relevant experience on your resume. Many job postings ask for other experience that may be useful in the robotics technician position like welding, computer programming, manufacturing, etc. Jobs like this have less demanding entry-level requirements, and you might even be able to bag one of these jobs while you’re studying.
In the end, the most useful experience will only come from working as a robotics technician. Therefore, you will still need to go through the difficult process of getting your first job in that field. Until that point, continue to apply to as many jobs as possible, even if you are only partly qualified. Optimize your application documents and continue to improve your interview skills. Do not be afraid to go outside your comfort zone. Eventually, you’ll get that first job and it’ll get easier from that point on.
In Conclusion…
Working as a robotics technician can be very rewarding. Not many industries offer as much potential for growth and expansion as this one. However, depending on where you are in your career currently, you might need a significant amount of work to get a job as a robotics technician. This might include taking a formal program, acquiring more skills, and collecting relevant experience. For many, starting a career in robotics might seem complex. Hopefully, this guide has helped make the road to that point much simpler.