mechanic

cnc machinist

machinist

engineer

manufacturing engineer

Solar Turbines

Solar is a fantastic company to work for...until you get hurt. Or old. Many older field reps are putting off needed procedures because they fear the impossibility of re-entry to the field; when these difficulties arise it is best to have a good attorney on speed dial. This is the deal, once you step foot off the manufacturing plants and experience the excitement and independence of the field you will not want to return to anything else. Also, technically speaking you are not on your own: if you run into difficulties anywhere in the world, you have your phone, the internet and your laptop with a rich collection of tribal and technical knowledge. The wages in the field are average but there is often monster overtime that compensates. 

Turbines are complex animals and develop a lot of power. Working on them is interesting if fraught with inherent danger. Dramatic failures are known to occur, particularly with overfired equipment and reckless customers. Gas plants are dangerous places. 

Finally, I have had colleagues who were incredibly helpful and are still friends. Good men. Two things: hoard your money, don't just save and DO NOT GET HURT! If you get injured and you live through it, you will get poor real quick even with insurance.

Other than that, Solar has great, robust, dependable product lines, great customer support and field service is their best job available for a real man. Also good tech training. In the rarified halls of management, you will find the same politics and backstabbing similar to any areas that attract those who would not hold a wrench in a 120 degF engine room and will look down on those who do. But the engineers will return your calls and emails. Trying to be fair and broad in my review here. And mind you, manufacturing is a different animal; San Diego is best, Dallas is struggling with (self censured).

Pros: If you are entry level, and manage to get past the temp contract into full time positions, you will be paid very well and have decent benefits.

Cons: If you are not one of the three families that unofficially owns and operates the plant, you will have to be very good at making friends with your superiors to get any kind of career advancement. Your work doesn't matter. It's all who you know.

Between all the ridiculous meetings and Cat metrics, you'll be jumping through hoops to try to get anything done, and it won't matter anyway, because other employees will attempt to make themselves look better by complaining about you. Anyone you're not sucking up to for promotions is your enemy in a tiresome game.

Rather than use the tools provided by Cat to figure out why their metrics are sucking, your superiors will hold meetings to complain about how it must be the fault of the workers. Enjoy everything being your fault whether it has anything to do with you or not.

Your superiors will say "Safety First" but don't bother suggesting anything about important safety concerns. Anything that's actually dangerous will be left for months to years depending on how your superiors feel at the moment (ie, are they bored enough to do something or annoyed at your word-making).

At the risk of sounding juvenile, the entire place, no matter where you are, at least once a day, smells terrible.  I've never worked anywhere that was as consistently bad-smelling. Bathroom vents don't work, construction consistently breaks open sewage lines, people with bad diets can't control their bowels... whatever the reason, you will gag at least once a day.

Don't work at Solar if you value your sanity.

Solar Turbines, a division of Caterpillar, has been a well-respected San Diego mainstay since WWII. The last of the big local companies, they remain one of the very few "old school" organizations where you can spend your entire working life and then retire on a pension (except for the government, military, police, fire, etc.). They still practice company loyalty. Unlike many big companies, they have always had a reputation for being "people oriented." That is, assuming you're a bona fide, full time, permanent employee with 5+ years service. Unfortunately, that is not the case for"outsiders" (ie; "temp to hire" hourly contractors). I worked as a contractor in their technical documentation department with the vague promise that I might go permanent after a year. After giving nearly a year of my best, conscientious effort, I was summarily dismissed for what I later learned was office politics. Sadly, I also learned that this was not an 
 unusual occurrence, even for the sterling company I thought they were. Instead, the not-so-sterling organization was in fact riddled with intra-departmental fighting, slandering, and plain old cronyism. I similarly learned through the grapevine that many in my department were shocked by my sudden absence, and that some even fought with management to retain me, all to no avail. 

The moral of the story is this. If you're an engineer or other technical professional looking for long-term stability with an established company, Solar is still a decent organization. But God help you if you're a contractor hoping for longevity, appreciation, or respect. You aren't going to get any of these.

Schedule work hours are from 6:30 am to 4:30 pm.Good workplaces are worth examining if for no other reason than that they enrich the lives of the people working there. Everyone, after all, would prefer working in a pleasant environment to an unpleasant one. Since most of us spend the greater part of our waking hours at work, this is no small matter." 
With this idea in mind,  looking at what’s wrong with bad workplaces and how to fix it – and instead sought to discover what is right with truly great workplaces. To do so, Levering interviewed employees and managers at every level of "the best of the best" - the top 20 from his best-selling book, The 100 Best Companies to Work for in America. 

In this groundbreaking book, Levering uses interviews and anecdotes from the best employers to: 

- Show why the most essential ingredient of a great place to work is trust between employees and management 

- Explain why conventional management practices make it difficult to create a good workplace environment 

- Provide case studies of positive and negative transformations of workplaces 

The inspiring message of this book is that any company can become a great place to work. A Great Place to Work helps employees interpret daily experiences at work and determine what it is possible to expect. But it also informs well-meaning employers with ideas and tips about how to improve the quality of a working environment.

Headquartered in San Diego, California, USA, Solar Turbines Incorporated, a subsidiary of Caterpillar Inc., is one of the world’s leading manufacturers of industrial gas turbines, with more than 14,500 units and over 2 billion operating hours in 100 countries.

Products from Solar Turbines play an important role in the development of oil, natural gas and power generation projects around the world. Solar Turbines’ products include gas turbine engines (rated from 1590 to 30,000 horsepower), gas compressors, and gas turbine-powered compressor sets, mechanical-drive packages and generator sets (ranging from 1.1 to 22 megawatts).

Solar’s customers put the company’s products to work in many areas including production, processing and pipeline transmission of natural gas and crude oil and generation of electricity and thermal energy for processing applications, such as manufacturing chemicals, pharmaceuticals, and food products.

Solar’s foundation is people and Solar’s culture is one where individual contributions are valued, diversity in the workplace is encouraged, and safety is emphasized in all aspects of the business. Solar Turbines is comprised of a dedicated and multi-talented workforce of more than 7,000 employees with decades of experience working as a global team.

A climate that employs multiple generations - it is nice to see the young people begin an intership along side a super seasoned 80 year old employee.  Also, there are no limits on learning other aspects of company functions. The climate supports interest in other areas of the company.  Management is very approachable. Work, life, balance is remarkable. The flexibility allows one to participate in other organizations and aspects minus some of the normal time constraints if work/ project deadlines permit.  Meaning if you would like to flex hours of a particular day to attend and support your child's try-out for the school play - there is a climate of encouragement so that this generation of workers don't miss out on the things important to their children while they are still living at home.  The cafe allows you to avoid hassle of driving if you didn't bring your lunch and interacting with fellow co-workers in different roles.  Weight Watchers, Toastmasters, The Holiday Choir makes this a company function as one that is not stagnate but progressive, innovative and inclusive.  They hire the best of the best.

I have never worked for a company like this. Most of their employees have been there for 20+ years. My co-worker hit her 8 year and I thought that was long but to most people there, she is still a "newby". This company knows how to treat its employees well. They know the value of not only a talented employee but the loyalty of the individuals. The reason why this company has done so well is not because it has been there forever, but because of the amazing culture and team they have built that come there every day. I have met people from the shop floor, to the mailroom, the maintenance team, the wonderful people that work in the cafe, the HR department, the directors and even the VP himself. There are always the rough parts but for the majority this place has a fantastic model and work hard in creating a family like atmosphere at work. There is a lot of respect amongst peers and management do a great job encouraging their employees. Great use of Six-sigma and development and training opportunities are consistent. Think about it were at work more than were at home and honestly, I called this place "home". I cannot wait to go back to California and come back to this amazing company.

Always on call but local management good at not making late calls, Learn something every day, local management great team but upper management micromanages everything and everyone, everyone scared of losing their jobs when contradicting/questioning upper management, once in upper managements crosshairs expect retaliation and bad work life, would be a great place if upper management stayed out of local management and employee life/work, upper management slowly chipping away at resources, tooling, company vehicles, privacy(start tracking employees),  and anything possible to show higher profits and in return get higher bonus, not family oriented even though they state that is their main priority, due to what is mentioned above all knowledgeable workforce is gone, mostly all new employees locally, good job for single person, HR is no help company oriented and does not stay neutral

I am a girl and was 18 when I worked there. The environment is very friendly and most of the guys were very nice and seemed to care about my future and safety. There were little to none rude people, but they were openly mean to everyone so they are just ignored. Some supervisors are more lenient than others, but they still make sure you get your job done. Some of the employees are lazy because they have been there so long and they can't be fired, so a lot of the weight fell on my shoulders. I enjoyed doing manual labor, and everyday went by quickly as long as I was doing my job right. The hardest part of the job was the schedule, since I am a full-time student and I was working full-time, too. But other than that, job is manageable if you follow the safety protocols and ask your coworkers if you need help. They are happy to help you succeed.
Overall, it's a pretty good place to work. If something doesn't feel right, talk to a more experienced coworker or a supervisor and they'll gladly help you out. Never felt unsafe or judged too harshly, everyone is extremely nice.

As far as benefits and perks go, this is a great place to work. Unfortunately, dealing with the unfair treatment from middle management is difficult. Not all employees are treated the same across the board. If your supervisor decides that s/he doesn't like you on a personal level, it's common for that supervisor to block your advancement opportunities, send you to work in more burdensome production areas, use disciplinary action for small work errors that other employees don't get disciplined for, etc. Management frequently defies the rules and procedures laid out in the Collective Bargaining Agreement when it suits them; and Human Resources states that they are there to support Management, not hourly employees 
This company has a strong history of building community among employees at all levels of the organization; but they have unfortunately stepped away from that in a big way over the past few years. Hourly employees are frequently reminded that they are easily replaced.

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Mechanic 35 salaries reported	$31.04 per hour
Cnc machinist 26 salaries reported	$35.05 per hour
Machinist 15 salaries reported	$31.72 per hour
Engineer 4 salaries reported	$104,750 per year
Manufacturing engineer 11 salaries reported	$104,476 per year

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