My career 35 years back started out in machine manufacturing wiring up printing presses and associated folding machinery. That is where I learnt to be a tidy electrician. I then spent a few years in the construction industry. That is where I learnt about the dangers of electricity on construction sites.
The bulk of my career has been in maintenance and engineering where the practical skills have started to take second place to the theoretical requirements of the job. I guess I am classified more as a process industry rather than manufacturing a material object. Whilst we cover overall maintenance, the facilities and infrastructure tend to be a smaller part of the job requirements.
I worked for 10 years in the design, programming and installation of access control and presence systems for buildings using chip cards and biometric control. I was fortunate that I was able to lead the change of the access control system of all the buildings of the main Spanish telecommunications company and the access control system of the Spanish Royal House, a challenge because we were a team of only three people for the hardware, the software and the installation.
At one of the final positions, prior to retirement, I worked for a company that built wireless control systems for office buildings. The goals were to provide intelligent control of lighting to lower energy costs. This was achieved by several strategies, i.e scheduling, day lighting (augmenting existing day light to meet programmed light levels), occupancy controls. etc.). On very large installations, or for new product introductions, they would send engineers to work sites to assist with installations, training and/or troubleshooting. I went out for a couple of visits when we were starting out installation at several of the Amazon offices that they were building in Seattle.
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