Pros
Starting pay is decent (right around $18hr if you have the slightest clue what pair Red/Green is in the White/Blue binder). You will get an increase every 6 months no matter if you suck at your job or not. Your days off are set in 6 week "tours". You will be able to juggle family life and work life fairly well. The maximum amount of overtime you are required to work per day is 2 hours. You can stay and make more money if you wish though. You get a company van (used..they kinda smell like cigarettes and old coffee) Eventually you will get a new one though. You will also be provided tools for the job...but I buy mine...Greenlee? Please! Give me my Klein please and thanks! Benefits are ok. You will usually get a nice Christmas bonus. You can join a union if you wish...You usually get to work in the same area for a very long time which is nice because you can slowly clean up your plant and make your job easier one day at a time. Sometimes you hit the lottery like I did and get an AMAZING manager and crew to work with.
Cons
Once you hit top pay, that IS IT brother! You WILL however get increases for living expense, usually not much though. Management is not really a step up because it usually means a cut in pay (crazy right?!) and you will also transition from Union to Corporate... which isn't good for job security. So once you hit top pay, you hit a wall in the financial ladder...not that you will be struggling at top pay though...you'll be making more than nurses do. There is no longer a Pension Plan for new techs. You wanna retire? Set up a 401k. Upper management (not talking about the APS's) will not know who you are, what you do or what your name is... but they will definitely come out to your job site and point out to you with their soft, manicured hands what they feel you are doing wrong. Which is highly annoying when you are a tech with very very low repeat rates and very very high customer satisfaction rates.... HIGHLY ANNOYING INDEED! You will get hassled over the small stuff. "where are your cones? (as you are parked in a driveway) "did you put a sticker on the NID?" "Did you do your level 1 rehab at every house you went to today?" "Your sweater says Starter, not Centurylink...take it off"... and so on and so on. If you can let it all run in one ear and out the other without getting mad and just doing what they say, it will all be fine.
