customer service representative

intern

engineer

associate engineer

project manager

DTE Energy

Once upon a time, this company managed to provide useful services to the communities which comprise its customer base while actually valuing its employees. Today, it is overburdened by multiple layers of management whose members perpetuate their own agendas and career paths by appropriating the contributions and accomplishments of lower level employees to buff up their own pedigrees. I had several managers and wannabe supervisors pilfer projects and ideas that resulted in millions of dollars in revenue while refusing to acknowledge the contributions of individuals. Engineers elect to pursue clerical work, finance people have job responsibilities that are not related to their backgrounds, and the marketing department in the gas division are staffed by people with no marketing expertise and are nothing more than glorified customer service reps. This skewed skill set / job positioning contributes to inefficiency and redundant work assignments; which in turn necessitates the subsidiaries' aggressive cost increases via annual rate hikes. Impossible to advance in the company using skill sets innovation or intellect; solely based on a archaic inbred corporate structure. Senior management's only means of showing company growth is to crawl to the Public Service Commission every year to self implement rate increases. Instead of rewarding ability, the company now elects to quantify key processes via one size fits all standard work instructions and process mappings to negate the need value employees appropriately. Engagement is frequently used by management as a catchphrase to stigmatize employees

Overall, I enjoy most of the people with whom I work with however, the particular department in which I work leaves much to be desired from a management level.  Leadership does not care about many things beyond fuel usage/contracts, FERC regulations, government regulations and the MPSC.  If your work does not fall DIRECTLY in line with the aforementioned then they overlook your efforts and have the nerve to say that it lack "visibility."  Also, leadership "picks and chooses" those who progress into higher positions but justify their decisions by following the HR process (ie, publishing job postings and holding interviews.  This allows them to cover their tracks and give the appearance that they are being unbiased.  

I personally have been in interviewing scenarios where job postings were created with specific responsibilities held by individuals currently performing the roles but now have the opportunity to continue the work at a higher salary (that's right, with minimal additional responsibilities if any at all...no surprise who filled the "newly offered" positions).  

Lastly, despite the Gallup goal of promoting diversity within the organization, interviews for full-time and co-op positions are only ever granted to UofM (Ann Arbor) or MSU students.  If you are a minority that works outside of IT...best of luck to you (I didn't want to post that but I am personal living proof and feel like this is a VERY big deal).  I by no means make a poor salary but knowing that the same advancement opportunities are not being extended to you for no other reason than the powers that be conveniently ignores you and refuses to is not cool. 

Again this is not DTE Electric as a whole but particularly in my division.

This was my first job after finishing college.  It's a good job for gaining experience as an engineer in the nuclear power (or power generation) industry.  It's a good job if you like maintaining 50+ year old technology, or if you like doing the same thing over and over again.  The pay is decent.  However, as far as engineering goes, most of the engineers are glorified clerks that interface with vendor experts.  If you want to do real engineering work, then you must present a business case why you should learn/do something that would benefit the company.

Unfortunately, the work/life balance is tied to keeping the plant running, which has been an incredible challenge in the last few years due to aging infrastructure, poor management of labor resources, and lack of knowledge retention.  Be prepared to work challenging refuel outage schedules such as 13+ hour days/nights with no days off for 2+ months, repeated every 18 months.

If you're more interested in research, product development, or anything with the smallest bit of entrepreneurialism, then this is not the job for you.

If you don't like rotating schedules, 13+ hour days/nights, or unanticipated schedule changes (I have been called in on several vacations/holidays), then this is not the job for you.

If you value career mobility, then this is not the job for you (this only applies to the nuclear engineering side of DTE).

If you like 80s work culture, bad (but funny) work politcs, and like ancient technology (including IT), then this is the place for you!

As with many companies, your experience at DTE will depend a lot on where in the company you work. I worked on the Gas side in an engineering role at the Detroit headquarters, and found that engineers are generally not treated the best there by the leadership. They also promised good work-life balance, but then the leaders regularly tried to coerce their employees into working more and more hours. Ultimately, it was the constant unreasonable demands and excessive stress that caused me to leave.

That said, there are good parts of the company to work for. The electric side in particular does well, and even pays their engineers overtime (not so on the gas side). There are also many good people at the company that were a pleasure to work with. Also, looking past the mismanagement, the base work responsibilities of my job were very rewarding too.

The last thing I want to mention is remote work. When I started at DTE and before I left, the company didn't really do remote work, and in general their stance was "no chance", outside of a few exceptions. Even though my job was perfectly doable remotely, I was told explicitly I was not to work remotely (unless I am traveling for work). My understanding is that since COVID, the company now allows remote work for most roles, although I have no details on any work-from-home related benefits.

* 18 months probation- no raise, could be fired at anytime
* Management is cliquish with their favorite employees
* You will be doing the same job as others who are making 3x your pay.
* Storm Duty is mandatory and can be sometimes 16 hours overtime in two days (but you are fed well)
* You will be dealing with callers who are upset because they have had to contact the company several times. Often about the same issue. Their review on you or the survey, depends on your bonuses. If a customer calls and is mistaken your company for another company they may rate you low accidentally. Even if they are contacted for clarity, your score will not be changed and it could ruin your chance of a bonus.
* You are required to follow a robotic eight step program on each call. If not, you will hear about it.
* Upper management places difficult standards on customer service so that they can obtain a JD Power and associates award. 
*Detroit is headquarters and they are treated far better than their Grand Rapids counterparts.
*
*The CEO is out of touch with most aspects of his company.
* We are required to call ourselves customer service specialists, but the pay grade for this title is 17+ per hour as opposed to the 12.20 you will be paid (maybe)

The job of a OM tech is keeping the site operational and functional.  

Management has been a revolving door since I started. Several high up positions have been filled and refilled over my tenure. Management does not take the time to listen to it's employees nor have time to talk over things. Maybe it's the culture, still trying to figure this one out. But it's definitely not an open door as their doors are usually closed and they're too busy to meet with you.  The most input and feedback you will get, will be at the formal reviews. Anything else will need to be scheduled!

Benefits are average at best when it comes to 401k, medical, dental and vision. The vision plan is big box store type, not VSP.  Raises are tight, lower than the national average 1-3%. Inflation has raised 10% in last 3 years, and your lucky if you get 3%, seems the standard is <3. The majority of DTE is union workers so their wages are negotiated by their prospective Union. however many of their out of state work is non union, so compensation and benefits are averages to the local areas.

Lots of mandated training at the start of employment, then it's broken into monthly trainings and online classes. Part of your annual bonus is completion of those online classes.

•	Generating daily Staking report as well as analyzing the number of tickets which are due for completion for the following week.
•	Dispatching and tracking the weekly AMI workloads to the service technicians using Service Suite project management tool.
•	Analyzing the Daily Leaks that are over 60 minutes thereby conducting root cause analysis finding the actual problem.
•	Focusing on the trend change in Performance Metrics for the service operation in the gas company such as Time commitment, First En-route, Productivity, Utilization and Leak Response.
•	Suggesting the plant manager on the crew size for the future year using forecast models utilizing the data on the number of service operations performed for the previous years.
•	Assisting Supervisor in the Field Service and Distribution operations in creating the third party damage report as well as an After Action Review (AAR).
•	Updating the SQDC Metrics on the PRT board for the weekly huddle meeting and suggesting areas of Improvement for a better Field Service, Distribution, and Miss DIG Operation.
•	Working with SAP-ERP Systems for developing reports to track the progress of Performance Metrics for the Field Service in Gas Operations.
•	Working with Enterprise Assest Management (EAM) software- Maximo for Work and Service Management of the Gas Operations.

A leader who can work effectively in a team environment with teachers, students, and the Deaf Community. A motivated and experienced applicant, with strong management and team building skills. Comfortable interacting with the public and has excellent communication skills in American Sign Language with a solid use of proper business grammar. Has worked in a variety of positions, including customer service and instructional positions that include the support of both the hearing and Deaf communities. Utilizes strong interpersonal, analysis, problem-solving and decision-making skills to identify and resolve customer complaints, problems and inquiries while maintaining a high degree of customer satisfaction by achieving quality results. Passionate in support of the needs of the Deaf community. Mentors and teaches America Sign Language and Deaf culture at the college level to hearing students who want to become ASL interpreters. Utilizes teaching methods consistent with current best practices in the field and incorporates technology to support instruction. Knowledge of Deaf law regarding the necessary provision of interpreters, captioning, speech to text, and other methods that meet Deaf people’s needs.

I work on technical writing and communications projects.

DTE is a GREAT place to work for. The corporate headquarters are really cool, the culture is amazing, and the people are so friendly and engaged. I love it. There is a Town Square (cafeteria) with plenty of lunch choices every day; safe walking paths all around the building (they are very into safety and health, which I love); a walkway from the MGM Grand parking structure directly into the building; security everywhere, which is nice; lots of projects to do at all times.

They are very, very flexible with your hours (they're used to working with students), which is great for me. It's also nice because there's always important work to do so you can bury yourself in it for those 40 hours a week if you have the time and want to.

If I could stay here for a while I would, but unfortunately they aren't hiring in too many interns at the moment, which sucks. If they offered me a full-time job I'd take it in a heartbeat!

Job has amazing benefits, discounts, pay, training, union, PTO, bonuses for selling certain products, ample overtime, etc. Schedules… meh. This is definitely not the job for someone who needs a set schedule/has a non-flexible schedule. Training is 8 am to 5 pm for 3-4 months. You can’t miss more than 3 days. After training, you bid for a schedule. The younger you are, the less likely you are to get a schedule you want (they have seniority in the training group). You’re stuck with the schedule for at least 3 months and then you get to bid again. When there are enough power outages, you will be called by your supervisor and asked to work. You will often work 8-12 hour shifts during these times. There is almost always overtime on a Monday that everyone in the call center has to adhere to in the mornings (after training), so if you have school aged children, plan ahead. This overtime can also be thrown last minute towards the end of a shift if there are too many calls in queue. This is all mentioned in the job description itself, but it’s just something to consider! 

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Customer service representative 6 salaries reported	$19.80 per hour
Intern 3 salaries reported	$17.33 per hour
Engineer 3 salaries reported	$98,333 per year
Associate engineer 3 salaries reported	$79,000 per year
Project manager 3 salaries reported	$128,667 per year

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