Chromatography Forum

Hi, I'm currently a college student studying mechanical engineering as an undergraduate. I have had an internship last summer assisting and learning from experienced service engineers in troubleshooting and installing mass spectrometers. I never really seriously considered a job in this field until now since I was pretty much just focused on trying to get some actual working experience instead of lying around reading text books all day. I would really like to work as a service engineer, but am a bit let down by all the required travelling. So here are some of my questions for those who does this kind of job:

1. How often do you travel out of state or any where far that requires an air plane?(I would really like to just be able to drive to the places most of the time)
Really depends on the position, and location. Some FSEs travel 80% of the time, spend one or two weekends away from home. Others generally serve just the local area driving a couple of hours a day and a flight here and there. Very job and location specific. Also depends on your speciality.
2. How are the working hours? Can be long, especially if you are away from home. DO NOT expect a 9-5 job at all..
3. How much normally is the annual salary?(this might be a deciding factor if I'm often required to travel long distances away from home) Depends where you live.
4. How are the opportunities? Once you have training and experience there will be more opportunities. But starting out could be hard.
5. What Path's should I take(that you recommend) to get a job in this field after i graduate? Do you have any lab experience like chemistry etc? Some sort of background helps.

Thanks a lot!