ROBOTS NEED HANDS.
SO DO YOU.

This site's job board is robotics and physical AI, and it will stay that way. But the honest reading of that board is this: the roles hardest to automate are the ones that end in something physically working. Somebody has to build the robot, wire the building it works in, and fix it at 2am when it stops.

These are curated first steps, not a curriculum. Every link is free and goes to a primary source — a manufacturer's own guide, a public curriculum, or a maintained wiki. Nothing here asks for your email.

One thing this page will not do is pretend a web page can certify you. Electrical and gas work are licensed trades in most of the world, including India — the paths below are how you find out whether you want the apprenticeship, not a substitute for it.

Soldering & electronics assembly

The single highest-leverage manual skill on this list, and the cheapest to start. Every robotics lab, drone shop and repair bench needs someone who can make a joint that survives vibration.

NASA soldering standard (NASA-STD-8739.3) — the actual bar, free
Adafruit: Guide to Excellent Soldering — start here
iFixit soldering guide

Starting kit: a temperature-controlled iron, 60/40 or lead-free wire, flux, braid. Practise on dead boards before anything you care about.

Electrical work

Licensed, well-paid, and not going anywhere: every data centre, factory and charging network is a building someone has to wire. In India this runs through ITI and NSDC; elsewhere, through an apprenticeship.

NSDC (India) — Skill India — find an approved centre
Bharat Skills — DGT trade courseware
MIT OCW 6.002 — Circuits and Electronics — the theory, free

Do not self-teach on live mains. The classroom part is what the licence is for.

Drone build & repair

The closest trade to this site's actual job board, and the one where a portfolio beats a certificate. India's DGCA now licenses remote pilots, which makes the paperwork a real, checkable credential.

DGCA DigitalSky — pilot licensing (India)
Betaflight wiki — build and tune
ArduPilot Copter documentation

Build one, crash it, repair it. That loop is the qualification.

Carpentry & fabrication

Making a thing that holds a load, to a tolerance, from a drawing. The skill transfers straight into jigs, fixtures and test rigs — which is most of what a robotics lab actually builds.

Measure, cut, check. The habit of checking is the part that pays.

Plumbing & fluid systems

Unglamorous and structurally short-staffed nearly everywhere. The same instincts — pressure, flow, sealing, leak-finding — are what hydraulics and liquid-cooling work rest on.

Gas fitting is a separate, licensed ticket. Do not conflate the two.

CNC & machining

The bridge between the CAD half of this site and something you can hold. A machinist who reads GD&T and can hold a tolerance is scarce, and the pay reflects it.

Machining Doctor — speeds, feeds, tolerances
FreeCAD CAM workbench — free toolpaths
CAD Studio — design side, built by us

Learn to read a drawing before learning to run a machine.

WHY THIS PAGE EXISTS

Every other job site's answer to "the market is bad" is to sell you a course. This one is a page of links to other people's free material, on a site that makes no money, because the useful version of that advice has never needed a paywall.

If you came here from the resume checker: fix the ligatures first. Then consider that the most automation-proof line on a CV is still evidence that you have made something work in the physical world.

← back to the checker and the live roles

SPECIMEN B survives everything

ROBOTS NEED HANDS.SO DO YOU.