What are typical field service technician salaries?

Do some companies pay a lot more for this position than others? What does a top earner make in this field?

What skills should you learn to increase your salary?

Just inquiring for a new oppportunity

I will agree with Jim from Cincinnati about the salary, but to an extent and I am here to warn you how easily screwed and misled you can get by a company. This is coming from my experience with a pipeline inspection company called Rosen USA.
Salary: (What factors MAY influence it)
1. Experience
2. Technology-(Yes and No)
3. Willing to travel- You may give a percentage, but the company will blow smoke up your
arse and then you will eventually travel more than what you wanted
4. Technical Education- ITT or DeVry
My experience:
I was hired by Rosen USA through a job placement agency as a Project Manager Trainee and here is a number of things that happened.

1. I was suppose to have three months of maintenance training and in class training at the Houston office before I went out in the field, but it was only for one month. Their training was horrible. It did no good to tell them in a cordial professional manner that you did not recieve training for it.
2. They hired me as a Project Manager Trainee because I had a degree. However, within two months the HR guy said that I was now a Field Service Tech. So now I was just like the other grunts/dregs of society who had no college degree or had a criminal record of some sort who work there.
3. The stated proposition of earning $450 each week through perdiem is subjective because you can only make that amount if you are gone for 7 days straight and not in the Houston Area ($50/weekday and $100 for both Saturday and Sunday).
4. Illegally, made me sign off on work I did not do.
5. I recieved a salary of a whopping $30,500 while working approximately 65-70 hrs per week and NO OVERTIME! The per diem I made did not make up the difference for the long hours and low pay.
6. Unused comp days and paid vacation days did not carry over to the following year. Earned "comp days" would magically disappear and there was a great probability you would spend Christmas in a hotel away from your family.

Field Serv Tech continued:

7. Originially, they had told me in the intervew that I would be traveling 60% through the year, but it was acutally 85% and ironically the other 4 guys who were hired the same position as me were given higher/lower percentages as me.
8. The type of traveling I did was mainly by a not regularly maintained F-250 truck and I drove from Houston, Texas to Eugene, Oregon in three days just to inspect 6 miles of pipeline! It would have been more cost effective and efficient to fly me and the inspection tool to there and back. I know for a fact that Rosen flies tools and Service Techs to job sites because of long distances and sends and recieves these tools, that weigh between a few pounds to two metric tonnes(over 4400 lbs) to and from their headquarters in Germany or their office in Mexico!!

In conclusion, other companies are just like Rosen and I have heard some are worse in the pipeline inspection industry. The only way that high salaries/income or Jim's $100,000 salary is feasible is if you work:

a). You are in middle to upper management
b.) Work for companies like Baker Hughes who pay hourly (start around $20 and can get raises up to $30 within a couple of years) overtime, and have been known to pay double overtime for the hours you work.
c.) A partner or own piece of the company

Salary is a euphemism to work you long hours for low pay and this especially happens in the oil/gas field. So for a job like Service Technician make sure you are paid hourly. Also, do not fall for the manager in training position because that is of course what happened to me. You are still a peon, but no better if you are on salary.

Host said: Do some companies pay a lot more for this position than others? What does a top earner make in this field?

What skills should you learn to increase your salary?

Interested to know...thanks

Not sure what level you are at. Certifications are very helpful including A+.

I agree that hourly is best. That way the employer has to abide by the minimum wage laws.
SALARIED=FREE LABOR.
(In caps for employers who think someone will used for little or no pay)

Has anyone heard of the company Universal Hospital Services out of Minneapolis? Just wondering if you are aware of potential salary with this company. Thanks!

Host said: Do some companies pay a lot more for this position than others? What does a top earner make in this field?

What skills should you learn to increase your salary?

I am currently interviewing for field service technicians and the range is $50-$60K. Mind you there are numerous perks with the role and so I would have to say the compensation package looks more like $80K. (Perks=benefits, pension plan contributions, incentive bonuses, vehicle, compensation tax free for your home based office)

Horrible company... do not even think about working there... They lie to their customers about EVERYTHING they do. They say they do preventive maintenance on equipment but most of the technicians do not have the training or proper test equipment. UHS deems "their inspections, that they wrote" equal to or better than the manufacturers... it's a joke. They keep cutting benefits and have all these excuses acting like they have no money. But it's really only to show more profit to the shareholders. ...crapping on their employees.

The company is very inefficient as corporate office spends the most on salaries, yet the field service techs are rented out to make money for them. The rental equipment side is a joke too. They have people with no training on equipment read line item how to check ventilators, infant warmers, and infusion pumps without a working knowledge of the pump. They do this because they tell the customers everyone has received training... not so.

Also, the way the company bids equipment is a joke to. We charge a 70 percent parts markup on repair parts, and 25 percent markup on vendor services... for example. If the local technician cannot fix it, we send in the manufacturer, then mark that cost up 25 percent and tell the customer that was the actual costs... it's ridiculous. Plus, if you work their expect the on call to kill you.

one night a week and every six weeks (on the weekends) you are on call.You may get a call at 2 o'clock in the morning to run a simple pump that we charge the customer 1.00 a day for. Show me how paying overtime for that 1.00 a day...works out... it's a joke.

By the way, any company that says " we can handle everything" but then uses manufacturers to come in when they cannot fix it and then pretends we fixd it