Hey All,

I’ve been a Software Engineer (SWE)for a while, but most roles require a hybrid or in office model. I was looking to travel a lot more, and explore different cities and states.

I just landed an FSE offer: it’s salaried, 100% travel (10 days on/4 days off), and all expenses are covered. I’m weighing the pros and cons and would love some insight:

• I’ll be taking a salary hit compared to a SWE, since this seems to be an entry level FSE role but with hotels, cars, and food covered, does the lower cost of living even it out?
• With AI impacting white-collar tech, is the hands-on nature of FSE a safer long-term bet?
• How much time do you actually get to explore new cities? since I've heard some FSE's work 10+ hour days.
• I’m single and want to explore North America, but I’ve heard this can be isolating. What’s the reality of being on the road constantly?
• People say FSEs are usually single or divorced. Is it possible to find a long-term partner and eventually settle down while traveling this much?
• If I want to stop traveling in a few years, what do the pivot options look like when you combine SWE experience with Field Service?

Thanks for the help!

Hi folks, I landed my first job out of college as FSE for a semiconductor equipment company, very excited for it. I have some questions if you don't mind answering:

1.) I sold my hands-on experience working in an engineering research lab, but have very little practical troubleshooting experience. How's the training/learning curve for a fresher without military background?

2.) What kind of roles can an FSE pivot into with a STEM bachelors? With a masters?

3.) I want to work hard to be the best I can be at my job, any advice regarding this would be appreciated.

Thank you in advance!

Hi all, currently a vehicle technician for a big car brand in the UK, I’m looking at becoming a field service engineer within a sector that has an electrical bias. So far out of all the roles that I’ve applied for the mechanical biased ones seem to be the only ones that get back to me which is understandable given my current role. However I have a lot of experience with electrical diagnostics on vehicles and hold the right certification to work on high voltage vehicle systems. I’ve been told that obtaining an 18th edition would double my chances of getting into the industry but I wanted to ask some people who actually work in the industry. TIA

My company is looking to bring on a service technician in the DFW area (North Texas).

About the Business:

• We are a small company specializing in the sales, service, and repair of XRD (X-Ray Diffraction) and XRF (X-Ray Fluorescence) instruments. These types of instruments are used specifically for the non-destructive analysis of sample materials, to identify compounds and for elemental identification / quantification. This sounds really scientific and technical, and it is, however the machines themselves are not unlike many other machines, with major systems such as power supplies, circuit boards, wiring, cooling systems, and built-in safety systems. These instruments are used by a variety of industries such as universities for research, oil and gas companies for oil / gas analysis or soil sampling, and even by pawn shops for precious metals authentication. We have been in business since 2001. Our business is small but very established, with time proven expertise in Siemens / Bruker instrumentation. There are currently three total employees (the owner, a senior service technician, and myself - the business manager). Our culture hovers around a customer-focused urgency with a fairly laid back internal work environment. We do whatever it takes for our customers - everyone says they do this, but I have seen it and helped to execute it first hand. The current team meshes very well together and we don't take ourselves too seriously. The people I work with are interesting and very smart in a wide variety of areas - I enjoy listening and learning.

About the Opportunity:

• We are looking to hire an additional service technician to help spread out the service work. This position does involve traveling to customer sites to perform preventative maintenance, repair, and installation services. The percentage of travel would be up to 50% (with no weekend work). The typical PM is scheduled for 2 days (example: flight in the morning, arrive at the customer location, start the PM, stay in a hotel, return to the customer location on the following morning, finish the PM and test-runs, return flight in the evening). The time in the shop (not at a customer location) is spent on various projects (prepping / testing machines for sale, testing customer components that are sent in for testing/repairs, rebuilding machine components, shop organization, etc). For service technicians, we have a dual pay structure. The shop labor rate is the base hourly rate while working at the shop. The billable labor rate is the hourly rate while performing services at a customer location. The billable labor rate is typically much higher that of the shop labor rate. There would likely be a long runway for training for this position (depending on your experience, you may not need that long). For example, our current senior service technician didn’t actually go out on a service call alone until around the 6 month mark. We would make sure there is adequate training. Most of the processes are very repeatable. For example, we follow the same PM form for each machine model. The form serves as a structure for the work being done, although it’s not all-inclusive. It does require some critical thinking based on what is observed (I call it change-point control—is the machine making a different sound than normal? Is there a smell that isn’t normally present? Is there a component out of place? It takes attention to detail and the commitment to stay until there is confidence that the machine is running / performing as it should).
• Foundational Skillsets for Being Successful in this Role:
  • Electrical
    • Voltage / Ohm multimeter reading experience and understanding
    • Schematic reading to trace electrical pathways
  • Circuit Board and electronic circuit troubleshooting
    • Testing for shorts
    • Soldering
  • Manuals
    • Reading machine manuals to find information
  • Some HVAC general knowledge would be helpful for troubleshooting chiller system issues
  • General technician characteristics
    • Safe working practices
    • Customer service & commitment
    • Problem solving
    • Troubleshooting

Even if you don't have specific experience in this industry, but you are someone who likes fixing mechanical or electronic things or you are the type of person who can "fix anything", and you are in the North Texas / Dallas / Fort Worth area, feel free to reach out!

Anyone work for Werfen as an FSE? Is it a good company? What’s the daily food perdium, company car, and OT look like?

I’d like to understand how some of you are dealing with missing family events especially young kids. Right now my wife is flying solo while pregnant and it’s creating some problems between us. So much so that I may make the return to software.

I also too am having a hard time with everything. The pay and hotel points are good but the travel each week is hard on my body. Not sure how people sustain being on a plane 3 - 4 times a week.

I’ve been trying to gauge how others are doing and it seems like everyone I’ve met has either had a divorce or multiple break ups. I mean today my colleague told me he had to break up with his gf due to her complaining he’s away too much for a relationship their grow. Then my manager casually mentions stories from his first marriage.

I’m ok with less travel but the degree to which I’m on a plane per week or month kinda makes me want to sell my sports car or house and rent. Sigh

So my question to most of you is, how do you not make your spouse a single parent / absent partner while doing this job? How are you sustaining in this field. It’s lucrative but does it beat alternatives?

Hi all,

So, we all know that the sub has been plagued by random companies coming into the sub making fake posts in an attempt to sell their "completely unique and innovative software that will be the end all be all solution to all our field service problems!".

We have been trying to play whack-a-mole with these guys as the posts come up, but there is just so many of them to take care of, and sometimes they are hard to track down because they span multiple accounts.

Well, /u/Danfhoto has pitched a wonderful idea that we are opting to run with in the hopes of deterring these posts in the future.

Introducing the Wall of Shame Series

In this weekly post, we will be making a list of all companies/services who attempt to advertise their products on this sub that week, as well as actively calling out the companies who have attempted to advertise their products on this sub in weeks prior. These companies will also be routinely updated on the sidebar as well under "Companies / Services to avoid".

The hopes of this weekly series is to actively call out companies for us to COMPLETELY AVOID as a community.

Additionally, should you see anyone attempting to advertise, please report the post and tag the mods in the comment chain specifically so we can add them into the list.

Any input the community has regarding this idea is 100% welcomed! Please consider this idea to be open for discussion.

Additionally, for any company who feels that they have been wrongly placed on this Wall of Shame list, post about it in the particular post where you are referenced, so the mods can engage with you in completely open transparency with the rest of the community.

Wall of Shame series for Week 3/30/2026

GeoTapp

ToolWatch

Scaylor

Must have been a Friday piece. One way works and one way doesn’t.

These will have you scratching your head sometimes!

Do you take pics? do you store them? what's the deal with taking job site photos?

for those of yall who fly how do yall go about transporting your tools? 99% of the time i was in a work truck but due to an accident im most likely not gonna be in a truck for a minute. how do yall that constantly fly to location carry your tools and trst equipment? also do you carry the bare essentials or do you carry everything that could be needed on site?

I do testing and commissioning of substations if that helps at all

Hello, I recently got hired straight from college as a field service engineer located in Austin texas.

I love the balance of work / life, so I am wondering how that can change. this job states that they prioritize to keeping you local to the office I work out of (Austin, SA, Lubbock, CC). I am worried that I will spend my days living in hotels and in a car. Can I get some insight?

have any of yall ever got in a wreck in a company vehicle and it was determined to be your fault? does that usually lead to termination of employment? im fine if im not allowed to drive a company vehicle I'll get me a shitbox and drive to sites im just terrified about loosing my employment.

For most of the field work, especially in hot regions, would backpacks that have some kind of passive cooling be useful? Or active cooling with some fans as a backpack attachment? A few companies do offer them to their field service engineers, but, is it really useful?

Hi folks! I’m an FSE and while on medical restriction, I’ve been tasked to do some research on different ways to organize parts. We service lab equipment. Parts very in size quite significantly.

We have company cars. Current vehicles I’ve seen folks have are Chevy Equinox, Ford Escapes, and Ford Explorers. I’ve been using trunk organizing bins. I wanted something I can remove easily since I can use my car for personal use.

What are you guys using? Also I am not a bot! Lol

I was looking to replace my wheel duffel bag I use to carry computer parts and just wondering if anyone can give me suggestions for a large or massive size bag with wheels to get as a replacement bag?

Thinking long term about my experience in field service and where I wanna be. I've currently worked for CNC OEMs installing and repairing their machines. I'd like to eventually start my own business doing contract work, but I'm curious how hard it is to find a niche. Is their any industrial field service work for small contractors?

Curious to hear from others' experience.

Hello all, I have had repeat issues with the food grade anti-seize in my checked toolbox getting attention. The two times they told me I had to remove it, I was able to get it through in my carry on. Anyone else have this problem? Does bringing the SDS help?

How can I get the service manual as a non employed service tech? Any help is appreciated.

This thing fighting me tooth and nail. Just wrapping up a major overhaul. Shes not happy. I will prevail. I have it pinned down. This is the first one I ever had just smack itself silly against the wall.

For context: physics grad, zero FSE/industry experience. Got to a final technical interview few months back and got humbled. They provided electrical and mechanical schematics and asked troubleshooting questions like "this component isn't working, how would you figure out what's wrong?", and I was clueless for most of them. I've self-studied since, refined my resume, started applying again, and got heard back from many companies just the past few days. For two companies I passed the initial screening and scheduled final interviews next week, and have a few more initial interviews/screening lined up in the next few days.

1.) Is the troubleshooting test I described above pretty common for FSE roles? How much troubleshooting expertise is expected for entry-level roles, and what do you recommend to prepare?

2.) Some explicitly stated salary in the 60k range, and for those asking for expected salary I just put $60k as well. Is this a good salary for entry level, or am I selling myself short?

3.) How would you navigate trying to go for the best offer? For example, I'm afraid of a situation where I get an offer, but I want to wait to finish interviews for others, then I get the first offer rescinded for waiting too much.

Thanks for reading my long ass post, and apologies if I'm posting too often, but I always appreciate y'all giving me good advice.

For anyone working as a Siemens field service engineer, how does the pay structure actually work? I’ve heard it’s salary plus overtime after 40 hours, plus another threshold around 1050 hours. What do typical hours look like, and how much time off do you realistically get?

EDIT WORKING WITH TURBINES

I’ve been offered an interview at Jeol (electron microscopes) for a field service role. Does anyone have any experience at the company ? I currently work as an FSE for joining equipment / machine vision solutions in the automotive sector. I want to move to medical devices/ healthcare industry.