How to Hire Maintenance Technicians in San Francisco

Current Environment

Since the inception of the Industrial Revolution, our world has been one that consistently includes a plethora of mechanical devices. With each year that passes, these devices become more and more complex. No matter the simplicity or complexity of these devices, though, there must be a competent mechanic to not just keep up with the changes, but be prepared to deal with the current mechanical realities and the future ones that are, literally, right around the corner.

Depending on the size of the organization and maintenance budget, maintenance technicians have varying degrees of responsibility. For instance, a maintenance professional for a small apartment community is a “jack of all trades.” Simultaneously, one within a world-class manufacturing plant specializes in preventive, predictive, and emergency maintenance on specific types of equipment.

Maintenance technicians have different skill levels that are specified with roman numerals, usually I through IV. A lower numeral indicates less experience; a higher numeral indicates more experience. Each skill level has the same amount of responsibilities but, depending on the skill level, responsibilities require more or less technical aptitude and leadership.

History

The second industrial revolution started the need for maintenance professionals. Historically, maintenance has been viewed as an expense, necessary but not wanted. Although some organizations may still hold this idea to be true, many companies today regard maintenance as an essential part of business operations and an area where an experienced maintenance professional can find ways to decrease costs and diminish the impact on the bottom line.

How will Recruiting maintenance technicians Help Your Company?

How will Hiring maintenance technicians Help Your Company?

While the exact scope of work differs depending on the size of the company, a typical maintenance technician is responsible for keeping machinery running and production flowing properly.

Hiring the right skilled maintenance mechanic can and will make a significant difference when it comes to ensuring your company’s machinery is running and production is flowing properly – and it will reduce the stress of knowing that even the smallest of details are well cared for and looked after.

While many companies are moving toward outsourcing their technician requirements due to a shortage in properly trained and competent technicians, finding and retaining strong talent can and will make a world of difference as your company can do things in-house and save time, money, and effort that is otherwise spent on working with external contractors.

Before we get to exactly how to hire the best maintenance technician in [city_name] let’s review some of the details…

maintenance technician Details

Responsibilities

A highly skilled maintenance technician will have the capability to perform a broad range of tasks. Hiring the right technician(s) will impact areas including procurement, supply chain, and storeroom management. These are important day-to-day tasks that go hand in hand with maintenance functions.

Maintenance technicians also carry out the following tasks and responsibilities:

Performs different types of reactive and proactive/preventative maintenance
Disseminates site-specific knowledge to contractors
Performs Quality Assurance on components manufactured in-house or purchased from vendors
Updates PMs and work orders in the CMMS
Works with other departments such as production support and manufacturing engineering to keep a facility and related equipment in good working order

Looking for another position? View other positions we place in San Francisco, California.

Education

Maintenance technicians typically need a high school diploma; a year or more of training after high school will help them significantly. Some may go through an apprenticeship program that could last several years.

Some maintenance technicians complete a 2-year associate’s degree program in industrial maintenance. Industrial maintenance programs may include courses such as welding, mathematics, hydraulics, and pneumatics.

Community colleges often offer the types of courses and certifications needed for positions that require it.

Here are resources to help you find community colleges in California, Arizona, and your own state.

Top Schools

Community Colleges in California
Community Colleges in Arizona
Search Community Colleges in Your State

2019 U.S. National Data

Salary Range

maintenance technicians in the U.S.

$33k

Low

$52k

Average

$76k

High

$59k

Average CA
Salary

$28.47

Average CA
Hourly

521k

Total maintenance technicians Employed in the U.S.

95.9%

Men

4.1%

Women

maintenance technician Salary Comparison

National

Maintenance technicians are integral to a company’s operations, particularly in manufacturing. Highly qualified maintenance technicians are difficult to find and highly coveted by companies today. It is a great opportunity to break into a rapidly growing field that provides a tremendous opportunity for growth and development and, eventually, well-paying salaries.

California

The average annual salary for maintenance technicians in California was 59k in 2019. The hourly wage averaged $28.47.

For more detailed compensation information for maintenance technicians in San Francisco, download our free compensation/salary report below.

Working in San Francisco

Do maintenance technicians find the beautiful seaside city of San Francisco a good place to live and work? Most people say yes, although some of that is based on good-paying, steady employment. Those with high-paying jobs love the city, and those without struggle financially with the high cost of living.

As the de facto national hub of tech and innovation, jobs in these fields are highly valued and in demand. Companies regularly entice the best candidates with the lure of living in this picturesque and diverse city, and for those top-notch candidates, the salaries are some of the heftiest in the U.S.

Here are a few first-hand comments about the pros and cons of living and working in the City by the Bay.

Pros

Tech leadership: From startups to established industry leaders, like Apple, Google, Facebook, Twitter, and Salesforce, the city attracts world-class business, capital, and talent from all over the world.
350,000 tech jobs. Between San Francisco and its close neighbor San Jose, 200,000 digital services jobs have been added since 2010, concentrating 11% of the nation’s digital services employment, equalling nearly 350,000 of the nation’s 3.1 million total tech jobs, according to Brookings Institution research.
Dog culture. If you have a special, four-legged friend, you will love San Francisco. From dog parks to dog hotels and even dog-friendly workplaces, accommodations for your furry friend are everywhere.
Ethnic diversity. A minority-majority city, it boasts an ethnically diverse population and celebrates the culture and history of Chinese-Americans, Latinos, Italians, and more. The LGBTQ+ community is a driving force of this community, and its members and supporters are loud and proud.
Beauty and history. The cityscape of San Franciso and its surrounding communities is magnificent, from the spectacular Golden Gate Bridge, and historic Fisherman’s Warf, and so many cultural attractions, it’s a great place to spend time.

However, living in this urban paradise comes at a price. The con that stands out the most for San Francisco’s current and wanna-be residents is housing costs, and a few more.

Cons

Housing: It’s one of the most expensive areas in the world to live. It has a staggering average monthly rent of $3,111. The median home value is a staggering more than $1.3M.
The homelessness crisis. San Francisco’s homeless problem is also more visible than it is in other cities and an especially stark contrast with the wealth in the city.
Not great for kids. San Francisco, population 865,000, has roughly the same number of dogs as children: 120,000.
Weather. Although this is not a con for all, the city is notoriously foggy, creating what some consider bone-chilling cold in the winter.

San Francisco, California

Current Weather

Not your city? View other cities where we place maintenance technicians.

Demand for maintenance technicians in San Francisco

Any organization with a large amount of machinery will employ a maintenance technician or a team of them in order to make sure machinery is functioning properly and that business is not lost due to malfunctions or outages.

There is a quickly growing need for qualified maintenance technicians and is projected to be so for the next 10 years. In fact, projections are that this field will grow at 13%, much faster than the average job growth rate of 4%. Now is a great time to enter into the profession, knowing that there is job growth potential and these positions tend to be well compensated.

The supply of candidates and demand for open positions have a direct correlation to a company's ability to hire. Download a free Supply and Demand report for maintenance technicians in San Francisco, California below.

How to Hire the Best maintenance technicians

Finding and hiring the best maintenance technician candidates can save you money right away and well into the future.

The costs of making a bad hire are well documented. The cost can run as much as 30% of the employee's first-year earnings according to the US Department of Labor. Bad hires can cost a whopping $240,000 in expenses related to hiring, compensation, and retention per The Undercover Recruiter. 74% of companies who admit they've hired the wrong person for a position lost an average of $14,900 for each bad hire according to CareerBuilder. These statistics support our long-held position that behavioral questions are the best way to get to know your candidates and past behavior is the best indicator of future performance.

Recruiting Best Practices

The information below comes from the best practices Amtec uses for finding the highest quality candidates.

Defining the Position

When defining the role you are creating, we recommend a position profile to fully evaluate the position you are hiring for. You must decide if the engineer can work remotely or must work in California. If working in San Francisco is essential, make sure you include that in your job posting so candidates can decide how many miles they can commute.

How to Source the Best Candidates

When you are looking to source the best quality candidates for your open positions, make sure you have done the legwork to hire an "A Player". You can do this by making sure your company's perspective is aligned with the current market, you have taken into account the job responsibilities, as well as what type of characteristics you are looking for to fit your company culture. Then proceed to write a job posting to attract high-quality candidates.

Characteristics of maintenance technicians

In the big-picture sense, maintenance technicians can be considered the “glue” that keeps the facility operating as it should, in numerous ways. When you are searching for maintenance technicians, look for candidates who are safety-focused and experienced with the types of equipment and machinery in use.

For more detailed compensation information for maintenance technicians in [city_name], download our free compensation/salary report below.

How to Screen Candidates

You wrote a job posting, posted the position online, and received a lot more resumes than you’d bargained for! Next comes the enormous task of sorting through those resumes to eliminate the ones that are clearly not a good fit. Now, you have a stack of resumes for candidates who have potential. So how do you go about screening the remaining candidates?

It starts on the phone! As a recruiter, the goal of your telephone screening is to learn more about your candidates. You can confirm that they have the educational qualifications and relevant experience, but you also need to determine if they would fit into your company's culture. To make this job easier, use a system to consistently evaluate results. This way you can equally and objectively compare candidates and evaluate their "soft skills", like communication and thinking process. Download Amtec's Professional Assessment Questionnaire below to help with screening candidates.

Free Professional Assessment Questionnaire

An individually customized questionnaire that helps assess a candidate's competence with written communication skills, thinking processes, and other relevant skills.

How to Interview Candidates

At Amtec, we believe in the power of behavoral interview questions to go beyond the experience and skills listed on the candidate's resume. Although you will want to confirm in the interview that the candidate does indeed have the experience listed on their resume, your assessment needs to go much deeper than that. An interview using behavioral questions can help you determine how well the candidate will fit with your company culture.

Download Amtec's best practices on conducting super effective interviews to find the best candidates and fill your open jobs.

Behavioral Interview Guide

Get the info you need to hire the best maintenance technicians

Free Interview Guide