“Competence, like truth, beauty, and contact lenses, is in the eye of the beholder” Dr. Laurence J Peter
Automation Federation has done fantastic work on competency required in Automation.
A must for every hiring manager to prepare job profile and for every Automation Professional to evaluate his skills and compare with this one for self development.
http://www.automationfederation.org/filestore/af/AF%20ACM%20Statement.pdf
Another great resource is from ISA which describes various domains in Automation and explains knowledge and Skill set required.
Click to access CAPClassificationSystemWEB.pdf
From my experience I have learnt that knowledge of various disciplines like Process, Electrical , Information technology, Mechanical, Project Management is required to excel in Automation.
Finally, I would like to quote Charlie Munger, “You’ve got to hang experience on a latticework of models in your head”. Because then only we learn an apply all the theory.
Keep learning, keep applying and keep succeeding …
Kamlesh Parmar Blog on Engineering, spirituality,Business 