In reading some of this board, I find that nothing has changed in the rent-a-tech industry.
1. you're still griping about the low pay, (remember, you are just overhead to the utility and they don't budget much for that.)
2. there are still tech shortages all over, but no one (Bartlett???) has used that to advantage in getting money and bennies up.
3. Thanks to IRM (Institute for Resource Management) way back in the beginning for low-balling bids and under the table payments to RPM's and utility contract people.
4. Thanks to IRM for selling us as low rent, low maintenance, non professional technicians. Not even classified as semi-professionals, which is what we truly are.
5. thanks to all the rent-a-tech companies for knuckling under to the IRM picture image of us and lowballing bids.
I started in 1972 as 389-0288 article 108 qualified rad/con, then went to commercial hp in '76 and spent 16 years in a field with a tech half-life of 3 years. The job was physically demanding back then. During that 16 years, I moved up through mgmt, HP QA, and finally Rad Engineering, all as a contractor. ok, my bona fides are out of the way.
Just curious, what does the average rent-a-tech earn nowadays? Not counting per diem. How many 18 day outages are there? Can we even make enough money to live on, in this one field alone?