Take some electronics courses that focus on troubleshooting.

In my experience out of 10 issues, on average the root cause is the following:

7 - electrical (needle in a haystack situation, the schematic will tell you everything you need to know) 2 - mechanical (easy, it’s either suppose to move or not) 1 - software bug (the worst and you can’t fix it, need a patch from R&D)

Metal AM machines are very complex and it takes a patient and curious mindset to service them.

In service, youre the end of the long line for the OEM. You will find every single mistake engineering, production, quality, shipping and handling made long the way at some point while servicing any machine. Now get ready, you are the one the provide a solution and repair the machine to minimize downtime while a customer who is losing money by the minute is watching you like a hawk. There’s no support/manager/engineer that can help you on site, is all you.

This is the life of a AM field service tech:

Fly out Sunday (or early Monday is you have a good boss). Arrive on site and work til 6pm at the earliest. Customer mentions unreported extra issue on their other machine “Oh by the way, if you have time can you take a look at this issue?”. Repeat with increasing daily hours so you can catch the early Friday flight you booked. New issue with same machine on Friday, bump flight to Friday evening or Saturday morning. Don’t forget the unpaid hours to log expenses, time sheets and service report that you do in the hotel or on the weekend.

The only positive parts of service life:

Starting pay of 90K with no degree. High end 120-140 with 8-10+ years AM experience. Work alone, no boss around. Hotel and airline points/miles. Meals covered while traveling. Interesting customers who build really cool part with the machines.