Originally Posted By: IndyIan
Its scary, between off-shoring and automation, I'm pushing my kids to get into robotics as a career, either design or servicing, depending on their ability.
as someone who did automation / robotics (sort of skirting it, but know enough to carry a casual conversation), I can tell you there's not much money in that either.
The entire industry is dominated by Japanese and Germans because they have enough volume to carry on the low volume businesses. Most of the Americans are now just reselling and customizing them for local markets from these imports.
Yes a $1M robot sounds like a lot of money but you are only selling a few a month, and need that huge profit margin to survive. Most of that goes into R&D and fixed cost to keep people employed, and every customer wants something slightly different and your R&D can only cover 1-10 pieces. You also get a buy 2 get 8 free deal because of the fixed cost overhead too!!! In the 3 years I was there I only see 2 customer orders with the same R&D spec that does not require extra works. I've worked with sales people that make 5% commission but can only sell a few a year and has to pay for their own travel expense, most of them quit and moved on to something more survivable like real estate agency.
The service workers? They travel the globe but only requires a high school education max, and make your typical auto mechanics income.
