solar technician

safety trainer

Run Energy

This company cares more about making a buck than it does about taking care of its employees. Time sheets are often changed by mgmt without notice. You are told you are working in another state often with less than 12 hour notice. There is no raises and you don't get an answer when you inquire about a raise. Pros are that most technicians are great to work with but often they just hire anyone off the street with no experience and expect seasoned techs to train and be responsible for the newbies with no pay incentives. Management won't pick up their phones and you never know where your working next because mgmt doesn't even know. They are VERY disorganized at this company and very shady when it comes to sick and vacation time. My vacation and sick hours have been the same for the past 3 months. Mgmt doesn't care about their employees just about making a dollar regardless of whether the job is done right or not and whether the techs have even been able to see their families.

The job allows you to build a solid foundation in the wind industry, primarily through maintenance OJT. It allows an opportunity for hard workers to advance and learn as fast as they are able. They make it easy on you to come in and start working quickly and safely. Nobody can maintenance a WTG like a team of Run technicians, yet you are also exposed to and learn much more than only maintenance. They make traveling from all locations easy and as stress free as possible. You are allowed to take rest and relaxation after 6 weeks of work, which they will provide all travel to and from as well. All in all I loved the job, but it becomes hard to stay on the road after a while, especially if you have any family or aspirations of building a family.

Morning safety meeting gathering tooling and consumables,
Drive to tower another safety brief to make sure the team has all the tasks planned for the day. Climb the tower make it to the top unload all of the equipment for days work. Torquing bolts and greasing bearings visual inspections, checking sensors. maintaining a packets of the tasks to be completed for the maintenance, once all tasks have been completed pack bags gathering all trash accumulated from the day. making sure to leave the tower in a better condition than we have found it.

What is the best part of working at the company?
The pay is good and excellent benefits.  

What is the most stressful part about working at the company?
Being away from home. This is stressful but the company allows benefits form going home to R&R.

What is the work environment and culture like at the company?
Safety is one of the best parts of working at heights. PPE is always provided to help keep you safe at work.

What is a typical day like for you at the company?
We start early and have a safety meeting.  Then we go over the plan of the day. Each crew is given a specific set of instructions as to what's needed to safety perform the service.

A typical day begins with a morning meeting followed by tool and safety inspection then a drive to turbine or site. 

I learned how to do maintenance, fix and repair, wind turbines, use hydraulic pumps. I was able to use a wide assortment of tools from hydraulic to electric and hand tools. 

I get along with my co-workers most are very good workers and good people. 

Traveling for more than 6 months at a time.

The things I have learned and the experience I have received is something i can use later at another job and in life.

This company is a joke. They do not train their new employees, they just assume they have wind turbine experience and can troubleshoot. Travel techs are only good to get in the truck and cash their paychecks. Work ethics is not in this company's standard. They hire children that refuse to work but want all the benefits. Management is awful. People in positions that they are not qualified to do. Regular techs who call themselves engineers expect everyone to bow down to them. They want towers to run but don't want to pay for the parts to get them going. 

My typical day would consist of doing a maintenance on a GE 1.5 wind turbine. I learned the basis to how a turbine works and functions. When I first started with Run Energy my site wasn't the best. He would say one thing but do another but he got moved up to a higher position. The new site lead I enjoyed working for and he did what he could for us. My co-workers is what made my job more enjoyable and interesting. The most enjoyable part of my job is the scenery and the thrill of being up so high in the air.

They hold all of your certs hostage so that you can’t move on. They don’t have a retirement in place. They will hold your final check even though it’s against the law. All of the bosses are related in some way so there’s no possibility to move up. Every since the old boss passed away Run went downhill. The mentality there is you can be replaced for half the price so they don’t care about your needs. If there is a lack of work they will not help you get unemployment or give a reference for another job. If you have experience do not work here.

To me it’s simple. If you show up for work, do your job with the willingness to learn and improve the day to day ops for your crew. Things go smoothly. Management has never been an issue about time off, PTO, needing a day off for personal issues, etc. Having communication with your crew, lead, supervisor, and even site management— will progress you further in this business. Run Energy is a place you can grow and move up in if you choose to work/communicate. 

It's a good place to start out as a wind technician.  It requires a lot of traveling which is very hard for a family man.  The starting rate isn't very much, but they do pay well as you gain experience and stay with the company.  This job will teach you a great deal about the wind industry and the maintenance involved, but it will require you to be away from your family for most of the year.

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Solar technician 2 salaries reported	$31.50 per hour
Safety trainer 2 salaries reported	$80,000 per year

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