technician

software architect

sales representative

receptionist/assistant

it project coordinator

United Technologies Corporation

I was contracted to work as a system specialist, the company's "front line" employee.  It is a field position that demands extensive travel to various locations across the tri-state area, with a heavy concentration being located in NY and its boroughs.  The hours are either from 7-3:30 or from 6-2:30 depending on the location.  The commute can be nightmarish at times (12-13 hrs from door-to-door depending on where you live) but the company graciously compensates for all travel expenses and will eventually issue you your own company vehicle and expense card.  In addition, you are also outfitted with a mobile phone and laptop.

The ultimate goal of a system specialist is to have a successful startup and commissioning of a building's HVAC system.  This is accomplished through the installation of WebCTRL (the company's proprietary BMS software), its controllers, and all other field devices that WebCTRL utilizes (sensors, switches, actuators, etc.).  Thereafter, the job transforms into service visits that consist of monitoring the BMS to ensure that the entire system is behaving as expected and to the clients specifications.  The occasional repair, replacement, or upgrade may be needed.

The job requires the ability to read floor plans, various prints, sequence of operations, electric schematics.

The ability to decipher plans & prints will allow you to more easily trace duct work and locate field devices for point-to-point testing.  The location of these devices may at times require you to crawl, climb, scale, or otherwise contort your body in order to gain access to them.

There are certain safety procedures and operations that are inherent to most if not all commercial/industrial HVAC systems and then there are others that the client wants implemented.  The order or sequence of operations is a road map for the system specialist.  It informs them on how a system should behave in order to meet a client's specifications.  This may involve physical as well as software alterations.  Generally, the system specialist is working on and implementing a database that was created by a company programmer.  However, there are times when the system specialist will be required to tweak or correct issues that may arise within the database by modifying its coding.  To simplify this process Automated Logic has implemented a proprietary form of programming that greatly simplifies line code into graphic blocks that can be more readily understood.

The system specialist is also required to complete and submit time-sheets, expense reports, on-site documentation, and project status reports.

This job consists of light ladder duty.  
For those that don't like heights or have a fear of falling, please keep in mind that by "light" I do not mean to suggest the occasional, infrequent use of a ladder.  Only that the heaviest thing you will most likely be carrying up the ladder is your own butt.  In fact, as a system specialist the tools you will use the most are a laptop, ladder, techie screwdriver, and multi-meter.  May God help you if you find yourself without one of them.

PROS
*awesome, friendly, caring, down-to-earth coworkers & bosses
*good pay, overtime always available, double-time on Sundays
*Paid training days in the classroom that allow you to make yourself more 
 valuable to the company
*access to cool locations not granted to general public
*some days you finish early

CONS
*short breaks, long commutes, some days you finish late
*not the strongest "on-boarding"
*On-call from 4pm-4am 1-2 wk/yr

There are many United Technologies Aerospace Systems business units, so it is hard to provide a one-size-fits all review.  I had the unique opportunity to view the company from the inside and the outside with regard to Fire Protection Systems for Aero and Defense programs.  Regardless of the corporate mantra, the local business is very much at the mercy of local management.  Local management makes itself look good to upper management and customers, while low level salaried professionals get left holding the bag.  

One example is in how they implemented the mandate for something called Standard Work, forcing it on the engineers, then forcing them to skirt around it when programs fell off track.  Another is placating customer requests that are clearly outside the bounds of reasonable while, again, expecting low-level salaried employees to clean up the mess.  It's easy to hide when these people are not getting paid anymore because of it and chastised for speaking out about it. But, ultimately the program winds up costing much more because you can only squeeze so much out of them and the schedule gets stretched out...way out.  

So, what to do...plan better...manage risk...do it right the first time.  No, find cheaper engineering labor, of course! 
Experienced american citizens are overlooked for jobs they are clearly qualified for, just so the company can put or keep foreign nationals in a position they can pay them less for.  The claim is made that indigenous talent is not available.  Also, the company thinks nothing of employing large numbers of foreign nationals on temporary work visas or sending work oversees to achieve the corporate mandate for 25% or more low-cost outsourcing of engineering jobs.  Some enterprising former UTC executives started a company called Info-Tech which is slowly but surely getting better at taking engineering jobs oversees.  Years ago the quality of the work was bad, but the contracts kept going to Info-Tech, shepherded by the cozy executive relationships.  Now UTAS and other A&D companies are struggling to find the workers and the US Gov't has made H1b visas harder to get.  Perhaps a good lesson for UTAS and other big business that the virtual open border has closed, at least for the current administration.

Recently United Technologies has become infamous in the news.  It is planning on sending its last American factory to Mexico.  More on this later; I should describe my time at work first.

After my freshman year of college, I got a summer job doing factory work for a relative's employer (will not specify which relative, to help maintain anonymity).  Despite the overtime, which included five weekends and normal two-hour extensions on days, I think it was worthwhile getting this experience.  We learned of each overtime at the end of the previous workday's shift.  The overtime was given because the company had a lot of orders to fill.  The company had a policy of having us work no more than two weekends in a row.

I liked the assembly line and part preparation tasks, though others might think otherwise, because I could work pretty quickly at those tasks.

The hardest part of my was easily the mandated overtime.  Being a recent hire, having low seniority made me one of the first to be selected for overtime.

Coworkers were a bit vulgar for my tastes, but then again, they were working for twelve to fourteen dollars an hour, and my tastes are more traditional than among the general population.

Ultimately, this was a fair enough first taste of work.  That was three years ago, however, and the company has changed a little since then.

The highest level of leadership seems to be made of nothing but, as my relative calls them, "bean counters."  The transition of factories out of the United States was predominantly to reduce federal taxes, not, as many people think, to save money on salaries.  The taxes far exceed the salaries.  My relative, as an engineer, enjoyed being able to work right next to the assembly line, where boards could be tried out fairly quickly and engineers could work out any problems more directly.  Apparently United Technologies has had management problems for some years now, with the executives unwilling to spend money to upgrade the facilities, but this scenario takes the cake.

If I were rating the company based on my past experiences, I would give somewhat higher ratings.  As it is, I rate the company based more on how my relative feels.

	Transferred to oversee newly acquired RCS Division in March, 2010.
	Due Diligence in acquisition of RCS Division.
	Lean Manufacturing - ACE Associate Certification.
	Annual standard cost set up, including determination of freight factor.
	Inventory cost valuation.
	Standard costing forecasting to determine forecast for the production line and purchasing department.
	Development of cost accounting process and system for specialized/repaired container manufacturing
	Preparation and analysis of standard cost variances including PPV, labor rate variance, and overhead variance.
	Develop monthly business forecast and cash flow statement.
	Management of finance department for a business unit of a $60 billion dollar publicly traded company.
	Review and analyze financial information for the RCS business unit with $100 million dollars of annual sales, 5 different entities, and 5 different warehouse locations.  
	Monthly consolidations of financial statements including intercompany reconciliation.
	Managed a staff of five.
	Examine, analyze and explain monthly financial actual to plan variances including sales, cost of goods sold, operations and expense.
	Percentage of completion accounting.
	Developed and continually manage banking relationship with Bank of America.
	Monitor and maintain inventory transactions for an operation with an inventory value of $10 million dollars.
	Lead in implementation of corporate policies and procedures, including Sarbanes Regulations.
	Develop annual sales, cost of goods sold, operational (labor, materials, packaging and logistics) and expense plan. 
	Oversee the monthly general ledger close and ensure the financial statements are prepared in accordance with GAAP and UTC company policy. 
	Create and improve processes and procedures using ACE Principles/Six Sigma within the RCS organization to enable the company to meet internal and external deadlines. Advanced knowledge in tools such as root cause analysis, process improvement and process mapping.

I am sure overall this company is nice to work for, but from my experience, at the sarasota location this was an awful job -- likely the worst job I have ever worked. My coworkers did nothing but gossip, with my boss, generally about other employees, notably me. From outside of work gatherings they would plan together, in front of me, and then tell me I wasn't invited to, laughing at me as I didn't understand a reporting tool within their system.  Anytime I had a question in regards to a task that was poorly explained, I was given a rude stare and an uncomfortable silence that would elude to no one helping. My boss regularly shared passive aggressive statements about me in meetings in front of my peers, and often I would walk past one of their offices and hear my name in passing. I was never set up success, given base level instruction, whenever I asked for help, or direction I was gossiped about, and when I failed, I was made fun of. My pay was not nearly enough to cover the awful way I felt daily going in and out of work. 

When I was let go, the door to their office was open, so my peers could hear, and was told that the company was shifting so my particular "skill set" wasn't needed, and that they hoped I had good luck in the future. I asked if I could have a reference for a future job, and they said "oh, we will see. It may not benefit you." 

I was hired through a temp agency, but I still felt devalued, uninvolved, and found that the neighboring department and management helped and supported me more than my own, which is disheartening. 

As Lead Applications Architect, directed 25 Developers, 6 Analysts and 4 DBAs in the design, build, test and deployment of over seventy (70) HR, Payroll and Benefits self-service applications for its global workforce of 220,000 employees in 16 different languages.
Participated in Corporate Applications annual Disaster Recovery & Business Continuity tests with CSC to ensure UTC’s HR & Payroll application and technology infrastructures operated satisfactorily in disaster scenario simulations.
Directed Designers, Developers and Analyst through all SDLC phases in the creation of customized applications which saved UTC millions of dollars compared to alternative HR and Payroll systems capable of meeting UTC’s needs.
Worked with QA Manager to engage QA Tester resources and ensured Developers and QA Testers collaborated on Design Documents and Test Plan Reviews early in the SDLC process and throughout the entire process.        
Monitored and KPI to ensure Developers and Analysts adhered to Best Practices when designing applications and migrating code resulting in fewer defects and the lowest costs per user within UTC’s Corporate Application teams.
Led multiple process improvement initiatives yielding millions of dollars of savings annually as a UTC ACE Pilot

Starts a half hour before shift meeting, be on the floor by 15minutes prior start time to get line set up and associates in proper personal protection equipment, log into Kronos( attendance/time clock) place extra people and move accordingly to job/skill for absent associates. make contact with other supervisors to make sure cross communications are open and to have the parts needed to the line in order to make production.  Deal with bad fabrication parts, machine break downs, purchase part shortages.  Deal with associates who don't feel like working.
Patience , the need for urgency when time calls for it, communication, deal with insubordinate associates. how to work along with a union. importance of cross training associates.
Higher management wanted you to enforce the rules but would never stand behind you when you instituted them.
co-workers are in good spirits all felt under paid and over worked.
Hardest part was dealing with lazy people that the union protected and you couldn't do anything about it but let them be lazy and HR let the union run the plant.
working through a tough shift and still getting production numbers.

I really enjoyed working at UTC.  Sad that this facility will be closing in Albuquerque, NM.  I enjoyed my job there.

I procured all large material purchases and contracts.  We were working toward our Purchasing Department to be ACE Silver Certification.

I priced entire bills of material (BOM) and then purchased the entire BOM.  Saved the C-130J Program $250,000 buying the entire BOM.

I was the SAP Procurement Subject Matter Expert (SME).  I conducted training classes on SAP Supply Chain subjects such as, purchase requisition, purchase order, request for quote development.  Also trained upper management Release Strategy (Signature Authority) module.

Small Business Liaison Officer.  In this function I developed all small business spend goals for all proposals submitted to our customers.  Then every six months I reported the actual spend results against the goal for every open contract we had.  These Individual Subcontract Reports were submitted on a Federal Government Website called eSRS.

Every quarter I submitted an obsolescence report for every electrical device on the C-130 Bill of Material.  This report was submitted to our customer Lockheed Martin as a contract requirement.

During the move to SC from Nogales, the GM and Vice GM were completely out of their league.  Just prior to being released, they cut some people (scapegoats) for their utter failure to establish a project plan or establish accountability.  

Core issues to the haphazard migration to SC were: 
1. failure to establish a project plan.
2. failure to recognize the growing gap in needed production versus the output from the plants.  Instead, Corporate Marketing/Sales picked up on it and then Corporate Management drove the recovery plan.
3. the GM and Vice GM ignored advice from the head of Supply Chain to avoid this.

Corp stepped in and replaced top management with people from a different division.

UTC Aerospace is an excellent place to work. They offered me and many others Voluntary Separation Package and I accepted. My last day is Sept. 15, 2017. I have has awesome opportunities to advance and travel. It has been a privilege to work there. A typical day of work, get your coffee, engage in a discussion (sports, etc.), dive into the day. I learned early that with many people teamed and focused, that you can accomplish almost anything. The workplace culture is to focus on the issue or process and team to meet and exceed the expectation. Work hard and play hard. The hardest part of the job is sometimes the long hours, sometimes the customers expectations to reduce their costs, but all can be accomplished. Enjoyable part of the job, coming into a positive company that gives you opportunity to be successful in all that you do and allows you to make decisions that may or may not always work, but usually do because of the foundation that has been established.

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Technician 1 salary reported	$17.50 per hour
Software architect 1 salary reported	$72.50 per hour
Sales representative 1 salary reported	$90,000 per year
Receptionist/assistant 1 salary reported	$15.65 per hour
It project coordinator 1 salary reported	$60,000 per year

Working at United Technologies Corporation: Company Overview and Reviews

United Technologies Corporation

United Technologies Corporation Ratings

Popular jobs at United Technologies Corporation

Salary Satisfaction

Job Seeker Tools

Employer Tools

Browse

Stay Connected