Topic: Ｈelp! Any information on PLC or SAS? @枫下论坛 The Rolia Forum

Yes, programmable logic control. My friend wants to invest his money and time to learn this, is it a good idea? Furthermore, I'm a medicine and biotech major, should I turn to SAS, the statistic software? Will it be easy to me? -guest:; 2001-4-30 (#57836@0)

I do not think it is very hot right now. The technology belongs 20 years ago. If your friend have lots experience, it may be not hard to find a job. But to learn it from a beginner is another story. -xuhp(LOST); 2001-4-30 {82} (#57845@0)
It is just my 2 cents. I could be wrong, because right now I am not in this field.
I used SAS several years ago in a health institute in China and included it in my resume. Last year one agent asked me if I'm interested in it. -guest:racoon; 2001-4-30 {347} (#57856@0)
I said I almost forgot it. There're really some chances for it. PLCs skills are the most important skill for a control system engineer(Also can be called as Electrical Engineer). What's your friends background, if he/she worked in such fields, it's better to know the popular products in North America, like Allen Bradley PLCs and Siemens PLCs.

Thank you all for replying. My friend is an electrical engineer, but he didn't have any hands on or on site experience in PLC before. Instead, he worked for a design institute in China and works as a autocad drafter here. And for me, I'm -guest:; 2001-4-30 {135} (#57861@0)
working in a bio-lab now, 31K/year. Do you think I should learn SAS to get a better job while I know nothing about math and statistics?

You should have statistics knowledge before you learn SAS. Knowing some software application with business knowledge is better than being a simple programmer. Statistics is not difficult to learn. -guest:racoon; 2001-4-30 {731} (#57899@0)
Working in lab also need some statistics knowledge. I knew someone whose major is hygiene use SAS well(It's several years before in China). The salary of SAS expert is more than double as your current salary.But you have to work from the entry level and employer always like to hire experienced person. You'd better have chance to use SAS in your work(like some lab data statistics) and gain some experience while learning.
For PLC knowledge, there're manuals in some companies' website, like www.ab.com, but you can't learn it without software and device. And experience in this fields are more important for employer's consideration and is also more difficult to gain the experience than the computer language.
Good Luck.

Thank you very much. By the way, you really sounds like an expert. -guest:; 2001-4-30 (#58131@0)