field service technician

production technician

specialist

warehouse technician

mechanical engineer

Plug Power Inc

As a Field Service Tech you will most likely be assigned to a single customer site location, although, your  Regional Manager will likely ask you to rotate to other sites as they need help. A typical day will involve sending out reports to the customer, maintaining and repairing the GenDrive Units and the Hydrogen infrastructure at the site. 

If you show up on time, do your job, communicate and contribute the immediate management is usually reasonable. Upper management makes grand promises that middle management cannot deliver on. Middle management claims to "hear" and be "working on the issues" that the field service team brings up but two years latter the changes they have made are still not making the difference.

The company sales team is great at selling their "green energy" hydrogen fuel cell equipment and brag to the customer about how reliable and great the equipment it is, but the truth is that the field service team struggles every day with down equipment, lack of parts, bad from stock parts, bad communication from their support team, and some support teams don't even treat technicians like they are intelligent enough to do the job. It is a constant battle for the Field Service Technicians to provide the customer site with a "Good Customer Experience". 

Add to that the stress that employees are asked to be "on-call" with no paid on call time unless we are actually called in. That means a technician must remain within 1 hour of the site prepared to come in at a moments notice. 

If you are interested in Hydrogen Fuel Cell Technologies this might be a role to consider since Plug Power is one of the leading companies in the industry, but if you ask me, Plug Power's lack of listening to their technicians, their reactive approach to issues, and their bad parts quality coupled with over selling how good their equipment is, will run Plug Power into the ground. 

Message to management. If you care about your employees not leaving for better offers (and yes we are getting them, I get calls or emails from recruiters several times a day, if I weren't looking for a specific role I would be gone already.) then you need to listen to your field service technicians AND then fix what they are complaining about. Second, fix the quality of parts, it is no good for anyone for me to waste 3 hours replacing a part that turns out to be bad when I'm done. Finally, educate the sales team, they are promising more than Plug Power can deliver, be more transparent with your customers and you might find them more receptive when hard times come. 

The good: Pay was good for my position, largely because of the amount of hours I ended up putting in due to mismanagement and ineptitude of other field employees. Decent benefits.

The bad: Unfortunately there are only a handful of people who are good at fulfilling the requirements of their role within the company. There are very few in the office that are overworked and under compensated; these few do their best but upper and middle management seem to tie their hands more often than not. The remainder seem to be secure in their roles largely due to nepotism and brown-nosing; if you are the type that typically allows your work to speak for itself then you are probably going to have a bad experience. Most field employees are overworked due to mismanagement, general lack of communication, and supply chain issues. 

While on the subject, supply chain problems exist largely because Plug Power refuses to pay for services or products already rendered, until they are ultimately placed on “ship hold” with everyone. Plug Power refuses to pay contractors in a timely manner, effectively “poisoning the well” and increasing the cost of contracted work

There is a massive disconnect between office and field employees. Upper/middle management and HR have no idea what their field employees tolerate on a daily basis, and they really don’t seem to care when it is brought to light.

Regardless of the terms you part ways with the company they will do everything in their power to keep from paying out accrued vacation time, employee owed expenses, etc.

Essentially no work/life balance. In my second year with the company I spent 342 nights in a hotel room.

If you report suspicious or illegal activity they will terminate you regardless of track record.

What is the best part of working at the company?
This company has showed me time and time again that they value their employees, they really try to work with their employees and keep them informed of what's going on globally with the company. However, I really like that the products we are making and developing are going to leave a better future for future generations. 

What is the most stressful part about working at the company?
Because we are developing green hydrogen. Stacks at newer facilities their can be a lot down time, but you still get paid to come in and do computer work.

What is the work environment and culture like at the company?
The work environment is,well, friendly at least in my department I can't speak for other department although most people seem happy.  The culture is unique I've heard a lot of places preach about their "values" and everyone is miserable, at the end of the day I'd go home;miserable, this place not only has values they actually implement them, this is the first job I'd call a career because I want to show up to work, I leave feeling good about my work and know that it's appreciated.

What is a typical day like for you at the company?
A typical day is easy going. Follow all safety protocols, make sure parts are high quality. It's stress free both mentally and physically most of the time.

Personal development and company growth are valued here. Every tool is at your personal disposal to advance within the company. No matter your level of skill in the beginning you are treated with understanding and hands on learning that will help you take a personal interest in the success of the business. This company believes that their employees happiness is important therefore they reward for quality. Management is knowledgeable and involved in every day processes. Learning new trades and skills was highly enjoyable. I never experienced a dull moment as there was always something new I could learn from an experienced colleague or new work center. I loved being personally in charge of bringing a machine to life. From the casting to the wiring I would watch as I transformed nuts and bolts into something amazing. I loved testing the machines and watching them do their job knowing we've built something someone will be using for years to come. Knowing that this company from the president to the technicians like me really care about the quality of their machines made this an amazing company to work for.

Schedule fluctuations that are totally dictated by the customer. The job is cool in as you are learning about a product that can work well if properly manufactured. Parts will fail whether through normal wear and tear, or bad from refurbishment and poor design. Either way, you as the tech are the scapegoat and the face of the product for when things go wrong. Customer management will force you to perform "quick fixes" of units which in turn makes breakdown diagnoses worse and adds more work on the tech. Anything you say and do will be used against you if you show that you are not willing to put up with a culture that stifles logic. You will get easily burned out because there are more units than techs in the region as a whole. Plethora of overtime that sometimes you have to work because of so many breakdowns. This company is built on emails instead of face to face which can create tension between employee and management. For the most part they have your back, but are very limited to the politics that goes on between company and customer. I see this job as having high turn-over because they want people to suck it up and take whatever the customer dishes.

The company has been in a downward spiral for years. Management is a joke, all bluster and pomp with no actual knowledge or follow-through. One by one, all the perks have dwindled away. The medical and dental is good, but PTO is a joke...and not a ha-ha kinda joke. Personal time was taken away and made into a write-up offense if you use it and the vacation time is actively denied at every turn. When there is work, it's all hands on deck and you get written up if you can't work 10-12hr days, 6 days a week. Management openly tells hourly workers that they don't do enough, that they're the reason the company is struggling, and that "you're here to work, not be happy". There is no job advancement available because the company wants 'yes' people who pander to leadership...and then the old-timers are left to pick up all the slack of the 'world class' leadership they brought in, with NO appreciation. Persons with health concerns are put down and belittled for being sick or having a chronic illness. The work itself is easy enough, but the environment is so terrible that the turnover of employees is astronomical. I'd say that it's the WORST company I've ever worked for.

So far I have enjoyed every day coming to work. I feel what I am doing is meaningful. Yes, I just work on fuel cells inside of forklifts, but the positive environmental impact on that alone feels good, and this is just the start of my career here. I would love to eventually move on to other projects with Plug Power working in the fuel cells for aviation, generators, power grids (if that becomes a possibility), or even directly with the hydrogen ecosystem. 
If you're wanting to work in an environment where you have the same tasks day in and day out, working on repeat..then this isn't the company for you. You can be pushed to your mental limit on occasions when diagnosing issues, however that is the part I enjoy the most. When you finally figure it out, it's an incredible feeling. 
I have a great support team at Plug Power. They are understanding, flexible, and always willing to assist when needed.
Pay is pretty good, PTO is great, company benefits are awesome! 
If there is an opening in your area to join the team, I urge you to apply!

High turn around. Interview style is they go in looking for every reason not to hire you. When yearly evaluations happen same as interviews they look for every reason not to give you a raise. Even with the quarterly bonuses they look for every reason you do not qualify for it. Temp to perm positions same way they look for every reason not to bring you on as permanent. Also a lot of management throwing people under the bus for the issues that happen due to lack of communication management has and the micro management of the vast paperwork and computer logs on a Windows XP style program they use to track product and production. Company hasn't made a profit in almost 30 years. It's complete chaos! 

People hired on by company or temp agency and they soon realize it's a mistake and go job hunting again and leave the company once they find a new job to transition to. They also walk people out when they give their 2 weeks notice. 

 They over promise employees and customers and fall short on delivering on the promise they make. 

Avoid the mistake of working here.



What is the best part of working at the company?
I once had a boss that didn’t micro manage me but when they got rid of him there was no positive aspects to this company

What is the most stressful part about working at the company?
Never knowing if you had a job the next week or not.  Also trying to work for managers who had no idea on how to manage

What is the work environment and culture like at the company?
Upper management always made sure you felt inferior.   Trying to fix equipment with out parts and having to lie to the customer as to why their equipment didn’t work.   Low pay and pay raises that were worthless while the upper management got big bonuses 

What is a typical day like for you at the company?
Arrive at work and worrying about what negative emails you would find either from your manager or the customer.   Trying to fix fork lifts that were broke but unable to because there were no parts and because the company didn’t pay their vendors we never knew when we would get parts

What is the best part of working at the company?
I enjoyed all the assigned work, the extremely relaxed atmosphere, and the respect with which I was treated (until the end, when that all changed).

What is the most stressful part about working at the company?
In the department where I worked, there was seldom any stress. That is, until I was blamed and fired for my manager's screw-up.

What is the work environment and culture like at the company?
That depended a lot on the department you were in. The department I was in, called ProGen, was very relaxed and a fun and interesting place to work. Other departments were less so.

What is a typical day like for you at the company?
Come in, look around and determine what needs to be done, and start doing it. My job is a production technician involved building subassemblies for hydrogen powered engines, and that is what I spent most of my days doing, though sometimes I got lightly involved in testing and other activities.

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Field service technician 4 salaries reported	$24.72 per hour
Production technician 10 salaries reported	$20.35 per hour
Specialist 4 salaries reported	$78,375 per year
Warehouse technician 11 salaries reported	$19.85 per hour
Mechanical engineer 3 salaries reported	$93,667 per year

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