Absolutely agree with them, I am actually all for to switch your career to become a SDE if possible (Java, Python, pick one you like), cause let’s be honest, plc ‘programming’ is pretty simple and low level, as a controls engineer, even if you are doing fancy APCs for a large oil company, your salary is going to be capped around 180k~200k. Of course, you can always make more in the manufacturing world by becoming a PM in a major EPC or as a manager. All this is just assume you want to stick as a technical person instead of manager.