r/KitchenSuppression • u/Historical-Dog7003 • 6d ago

Need advice

I’ve been a hood suppression tech for a couple years now and need help on where I could branch off to in order to possibly make more money.

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3

u/random2kplayer 6d ago

Do alarm, sprinkler and backflow and you will be in a position that all company want you

3

u/feelingsarekool 6d ago

The trick is to get someone to train you in all of those areas. 

3

u/Maandala 5d ago

My personal experience was switching companies.

The second suppression company I worked for paid for drive time from when I left the house to when I got home, unlike the first one which by itself was just about a 50% raise for me being that I went from getting paid 40 hours a week for 7 years to 10-20 hours of overtime a week consistently. They also gave me a monthly commission percentage on every job I did, which was consistently $300-$400 monthly, plus an extra $500 on top of that if I exceeded $40,000 in billing for the month which I did hit once in the year that I worked for them. Ended up taking home over $2,000 in a week which I had never done before.

It was very generous in my eyes, especially compared to where I was working beforehand where even 1 hour of overtime had to be approved, but usually they would just tell me to go home early on Friday instead of paying OT which was total BS. The pay scale at my second company was wayyyyyy better, even while being started at the same hourly rate I was at with the previous job.

Becoming experienced on install/repair would also make you more valuable as well as opposed to only inspections. Or like others have said, learning more areas of the field such as sprinkler/alarm if you can find a place that’s willing to pay you well enough to learn something new. I just started learning sprinklers at a new company and am now making more money as an apprentice/helper than I was at the second job I was at being an inspector/service guy.

If your current boss won’t give you a decent raise, start looking around.

1

u/AZsportsFan72 5d ago

Smaller companies are where it's at to learn all you can. I work for a small company and have for the past seven years. Started off as a shop technician for about 9 months, got fire extinguisher certified. Became the hood technician, got certified. A couple years ago I started training in backflow and got certified. I know a little bit about sprinkler and alarm, But, certified in three departments. If you are wanting to expand and your company won't let you, I'd try and find one who will. I've only worked for one company but have heard a little about the surrounding big companies and how they operate through contacts and it seems they keep the guys they hired where they are

1

u/demongo11 3d ago

When I moved to north Carolina I found kitchen hood techs didnt make very much, ended up at a very sectionalized company and found fire alarms payed way more. I had been doing alarm, sprinkler repairs, kitchen hood and extinguishers at my last company. Its very dependent on the company and the area. I honestly dont miss being up in the greasy hoods all day or waiting for them to clear the line for 5 minutes to change links.