[Cavalryman]

Greetings !

I am 25 year old and I am working as an engineer in European Union member state (eastern Europe). My duties includes a lot of various things, which is usual for a small company. I design electrical stuff (schematic design and PCB routing) and mechanical stuff (various aluminum parts + jigs sometimes), write technical documentation, internal procedures, participate in field testing of our products.

Mechanical parts which I design are being produced on our 3-axis CNC mill. Our CNC programmer is really cool guy, he is sharing a lot of interesting information each time I visit a shop. I spend more and more time at the workshop and this job looks very interesting for me.

What should be mentioned as well is that our CNC programmer's salary is almost 3 times higher than mine and he has the largest salary in our company (we have engineers, workers and other employees). Actually, this is rightfully because the whole production depends on him and it is almost impossible to find a guy with such experience here.

It seems that I have some possibilities begin sort of apprenticeship as a CNC programmer. Would it be wise to transfer from engineers to CNC specialist ? Can this job become boring ? Is it common, that CNC specialist is better paid than engineers, workers, etc. ?

It is impossible to know what will be in the future, how to make a decision regarding the occupation ?

Sorry for a lot of letters.
Best regards.

[Wombilly]

I dont know what the status of cnc programmers are in your country but here in the uk, there are plenty so the salary is a lot lower, I am a service manager recently promoted from service technician, I find the role of programmer somewhat boring, whereas as an engineer, the job is varied, are you able to read G and M Code? learn it like another language, then when you are reading and or programming it, see it in your mind, imagine the machine doing what you asked it to do,

now the hard part, tell your company that you are interested in the position and ask if any training is available in your own time if neccesary, spend evry spare minute researching and learning, become the best you can be,

thats exactly what i have done and now im on 60k a year.

[aartun]

Here in north america, average engineer will make a lot more dollar than an excellent programmer. But of course it depends eh, some engineers are responsible for cnc programming so you never know really, like i said depends on each individual and company . keep in mind though, i agree with you as well, in some regions there maybe a lot engineers with no knowledge of programming and a great demand of programming. You are better of talking to people in your own country i would say.

[pliedblad]

The pay difference is not a reason to change your job or career, After time the pay will probably become more equal.

"Find a job you love and you will never work a day in your life. " - Confucius

Phil

[Cavalryman]

Thanks for all the replies !

Wombilly,

I find the role of programmer somewhat boring, whereas as an engineer, the job is varied, are you able to read G and M Code?

aartun,

But of course it depends eh, some engineers are responsible for cnc programming so you never know really, like i said depends on each individual and company

Very interesting. The way it works in our company is that engineers design a part and prepare a drawing using CAD software. 3D model of the part and drawing in pdf goes to our CNC workshop, where CNC programmer opens the 3D model with let's say MasterCAM and makes the program for CNC mill. I have never seen the programming through the machine panel.
Engineers know only some basic things like minimum radius of the fillets, maximum hole depth, the need for jigs, etc... I know what G-code means, but i have never thought about it at this job, same thing for other engineers.

pliedblad,

"Find a job you love and you will never work a day in your life. " - Confucius

Nice, didn't hear it.