I work for a small size company as an inspector and having been programming CMM with PC-DMIS 2016 for about 1 year. The pay is not that good (under $20 per hr in Bay Area, CA) probably because I dont have too much experiences (i can make a program for inspecting complex parts tho). Is PC-DMIS programmer in high demand, especially in CA and does it pay well? Is this a good career to continue with?
Good morning and welcome to the forum. I have been doing this for almost 18 years now. If you have a love of geometry and a good understanding of GDT, (unlike most engineers), it can be a good career choice. To answer your question about demand, I find that I am always getting invites to consider a position offer from various places throughout the country. Granted, I have been doing this for a while but I have never been without work or offers for work. Pay will of course depend on where you work and how much experience you have but I have been able to make a decent living doing this. My past work experience prior to this has been as a psychologist and mental health counselor; quite a different career field but I love doing this and likely will until I retire. The biggest challenge, and I think most on this forum would agree, is trying to give the design engineers what they want rather than what they state of their prints. It can be quite the challenge but the rewards of learning PC-DMIS and its awesome capabilities is mostly worth it. Those are my thoughts on this matter. If you love it, keep going.
This career path has paid off quite nicely for me. As Jim mentioned, there are challenges, but this is a job for people who love what they do. Just my 2 cents.
Hello p.huang09 and welcome to the forum. I have been using CMMs for over 9 years now and have been programming for almost 7 years. Manual at first but progressed to auto. I have been asking myself the same thing but I really like programming and will hopefully continue programming. My problem is I work for a smaller company and money is not the greatest. I have looked up average pay for my area and it is well above what I am making now. I am currently in search of what's out there and if I can find more money I will move on. I am continually making more money because I keep pushing management for it because I am the only programmer here. My company has sent multiple other people for training but none of them have programmed and they cant figure it out. So the more it happens they realize what it actually takes to program. Not everyone can do it.
I would suggest that if you like programming to stick to it and as the experience increases the pay will increase. Maybe you will have to go to another company but by then you will have the experience.
I get messages from LinkedIn and similar job searches all the time, like Jim said. I do believe the demand is there and the pay can be great if you find the right company and area. You should google CMM programmer salary for your area and check out the high/low/average and see if that is what you are looking for and go from there.
Every position has its problems and programming definitely isn't different.
If you like programming and you understand what you are doing and why you are doing it then I would stick with it. This isn't something you will figure out overnight but every program you write will get better and soon you will look back and see some of your older programs and laugh but as long as you keep growing and learning you will make it.
Good luck and I hope you find what you are looking for. Have a good day
Of course those design engineers probably get paid much more. If you want to continue in quality you need to do it because you enjoy the aspects that Jim referred to, not because its the best paying area of manufacturing. Yes you can make a decent middle class living, but I think Quality Department staff are usually paid less and appreciated less than comparably trained and skilled staff in engineering and production.
Its a Calling - a Mission in life! not just a job!
If you're an upper level programmer and live in the right area, $20+ per hour is guaranteed. Get a degree & work in the right area and you'll do even better.
I've also been at it for roughly 10 years, and my pay shot up like a rocket for a few years, and then settled at annual raises.
Aside from pay, I like the work, usually. Not so much the dealing with non-quality people, but the programming, GD&T, print reading, etc, I enjoy.
My last job was a bit more enjoyable, because I was actually treated like one of the team when it came to production and engineering. And here I'm just an arsehole/roadblock/time-waster/etc (which, to be fair, I also enjoy doing, because I know that I am helping to keep as much as I can in check. And it means I'm doing my job.)
- a Mission in life! 
not just a job! 
