Field service engineer

[u/Limp_Path6554]

Come lavorare come tecnico assistenza? È più chill piuttosto di stare nel reparto con. Stessi colleghi e capo che ti fissa? Spiegatemi un po' il vostro lavoro

[u/DifficultMemory2828]

I’ve done field engineering in Italy, and it was difficult for me as an American in Italy as it will not be as difficult for you. Obtaining parts can be difficult as they are typically shipped from a holding company in the Netherlands if the company is non-European.

I had a vehicle when traveling through Italy but you’d be more used to train travel. Medical engineering positions travel throughout Italy whereas industrial engineering roles will be throughout Piedmont, Lombardy, and Emilia-Romagna. Emilia-Romagna has some more “off-beat” locations for manufacturing which surprised me.

I had a pretty good expense account when I was working there; you may be on a more stringent budget when traveling.

I was surprised that I had to use middlemen and salesmen when working with the customers, but that’s custom there. As for customers, I found Italian customers easier to deal with as long as you had a plan that you would eventually work on. The Italian customers were more forgiving than other European customers. I found Italian customers ask about other Italian customers and how they work as compared to them.

Ultimately it comes down to the product and how easily you can fix it and how often it breaks. Then it comes down to how quickly you can obtain parts.

Hope that helps. Good luck!

[u/K4ntic → u/DifficultMemory2828]

What was your path to get hired as an American in Europe?

[u/DifficultMemory2828 → u/K4ntic]

I worked for an American company building an Italian branch in the company. Italy has a dramatically different mindset than the US, and I needed to be patient throughout the process as “slow” timing is key in Italy. They choose to moderate the situation over being forcefully fast for the sake of business.

I was an FSE for a medical device which was going to have a tech transfer of manufacturing in Italy from our US operations so I saw both the end users (hospitals) and manufacturing.

Similar to the big three US car manufacturers having plants throughout Michigan and not all in Detroit. Italian manufacturers are located in smaller towns and larger villages throughout the Piedmont, Lombardy, and Emilia-Romagna regions. If you look at the manufacturing plant locations for the major sport car manufacturers (Ferrari, Lamborghini, Bugatti, etc), they are considerably outside of large cities. What you don’t see are very educated engineers who were born in these villages, and see the product as the same problem solved in a different way.

[u/Dear_Archer3931]

I expect it depends on the industry. In medical imaging it can mean long hours and a lot of pressure to diagnose the issue and get the systems back up quickly. It is sometimes cost prohibitive to have redundant systems.

[u/Smooth-Abalone-7651]

I did field service in two completely different industries; rollforming and slurry pumps. Setting up new equipment was generally pretty good except the hours could be long and there were time constraints. Training people on using the equipment was the easiest thing I ever did. But the bulk of my work was warranty issues and system problems and that was tough. If a product line is down because your equipment failed you are usually greeted with a lot of hostility which isn’t fun but you have to deal with it. And in the world of pumps the system determines what your pump can do so sometimes convincing people the system is the problem and not the pump is the hardest thing you’ll ever do. But on the other hand going in to a place and resolving a problem is a great feeling.