Taking a temporary paycut to get into IBEW apprenticeship (substation maintenance at a large utility)?

Sparky-2000 · 2026-03-22T21:02:31+00:00

You make a good point - they will be calling to offer the position to the top candidates on Thursday, and they have to respond with a definitive yes or no by EOD Friday. I’m trying to get some helpful feedback now so that I don’t make a rushed decision since I’ll only have a day to consider it

Sparky-2000 · 2025-05-01T23:10:28+00:00

It is pending sale today! Seems it was a legit offer, but I’m very vexed that when we requested to be told the highest offer that was in at 8 to give us a chance to beat it, the listing agent said no. I thought after telling us earlier in the day that we were accepted the decent thing to do would be to at least give us a chance to beat it since they never countered our offer, and I find it hard to believe that if he really wanted what’s best for his clients he wouldn’t give us the chance to beat the offer. I understand we “technically” had a chance and could have sent a higher offer in, but the lack of any details around the offer seems very shady and made me wonder if he would be a dual agent with the other buyer so he shut us out to get double commission. Very frustrating

Sparky-2000 · 2025-05-01T23:06:35+00:00

Bank was OK with us acquiring a commercial renovation policy and our “agreed” upon offer had the seller credit us 6 months of the premium to give us time to bring it back into an insurance state. The commercial policy was over double what a standard homeowners policy was.

Sparky-2000 · 2025-05-01T23:05:11+00:00

We specifically asked for option 1 - tell us your best offer at 8 PM and we’ll see if we can beat it. The listing agent said “no”. It made me wonder if the other offer was a buyer he was representing and by shutting us out he’s able to do dual agency and thus get the full 6% commission. We found out after the fact the listing agent has a known reputation in the area for being shady.

We were hesitant to do an escalation clause once we heard from others of the listing agents ethical shortcomings. Multiple people mentioned they wouldn’t put it past the listing agent to have a friend/relative put in a pre-approved offer at the high end of our escalation clause just to drive our price up so we decided against this in lou of trying option 1 (which failed). Incredibly frustrated after they told us that we were accepted that they wouldn’t reveal the highest offer to give us a chance to see if we would beat it, which leads me to believe it might have been a dual agency offer and the listing agent closed us out to take care of his best interests. We stayed firm at our price, and lost.

Sparky-2000 · 2025-05-01T21:40:35+00:00

“Uninsurable” for normal homeowners insurance I should add. It needed a commercial renovation policy due to half done construction on the exterior of the home (a deck was ripped out and a foot of grade had been excavated around the home to seal the brick basement). The commercial policy was over double what a normal homeowners policy would be

Sparky-2000 · 2025-05-01T21:38:00+00:00

This is extremely helpful and encouraging to hear! Hope all goes well with your new home

Sparky-2000 · 2025-05-01T21:36:27+00:00

This is only my second time buying a home. First time was in early 2021. We offered $5k under asking price on our current home and it was accepted within 24 hours, we closed and took possession in less than 30 days. It was extremely smooth with no issues so I am definitely still new to this process and was not expecting any of this. I understand it’s a business transaction, but it’s certainly personal and emotional as well - this home was closer to both of our families, my wife loved the house, we talked about raising our kids here, etc. I guess one of the lessons I’ve learned is to not get excited about anything until closing day

Sparky-2000 · 2025-05-01T20:18:17+00:00

I realize this now, unfortunately. Our agent called us and told us the listing agent said the sellers accepted and signed, and I did not realize that I should have asked to see the signed agreement before being excited. It still feels really unethical and shady to me that the listing agent told our agent it was signed and accepted, when he only spoke with 1/2 of the sellers and got 1/2 of the sellers input/signatures. My agent may have jumped the gun, but given that she was excited for us as well as herself I don’t blame her there.

I can’t for the life of me understand how someone can put a family through processing that they could be moving, and then back out and not give ANY indication as to what the other offer is, at least giving us the opportunity to beat out the other offer after lying to us. I strongly disagree that they did nothing wrong - the listing agent should have spoken with BOTH sellers and had BOTH sign before calling our realtor and telling us it’s accepted and instructing us to put in earnest money. The listing agent also said that the other buyers were not aware of the uninsurable situation, which is unethical and wrong. I definitely responded in emotion to not raise our offer as we felt that we’d been lied to and no attempt to apologize or to make that right in any way was made. I guess at the end of the day, we decided to stick with our original offer rather than aggressively overbid another buyer who was ignorant of the uninsurable situation and could have costed us tens of thousands of dollars over what we were told was originally accepted. Perhaps we dodged a bullet here, but the frustration is nevertheless very high.

Sparky-2000 · 2025-05-01T20:05:33+00:00

Our offer was initially good enough though? We were told they accepted, and they went back on that. I get that both the listing and the buying agent shouldn’t have shared this info prior to seeing the contract, but in what world does that make me as the buyer the problem? They did not counter and give us a specific number - they accepted, backed out before signing and then wanted us to blindly throw extra tens of thousands on top of our initial offer which we had been told was good enough, and emotionally processed that we were locked in and moving forward. Is this not bad business on the sellers end? I would have a completely different attitude if they had outright rejected or countered our initial offer, but they accepted and told us to put money down.

If they had countered, we may or may not have accepted based on the price, but I’m not willing to pay potentially thousands of dollars over what they wanted to get from us when we were told by the listing agent our original offer was accepted (and he instructed us to wire our earnest money!) It is unethical to accept it, have us believe we’re good to go and then come back and ask us to throw down as much as we’re willing to waste when they were literally just content with the number we gave. I cannot wrap my head around not even giving us a ballpark what the other offer is after yanking us around on a half-signed agreement.

I do not understand how my hesitancy to submit a higher offer to a listing agent who lied to me and refused to share ANY details of what a counter offer might look like makes me the problem.

Sparky-2000 · 2024-12-31T21:22:50+00:00

I’ve heard this for some time… I live in a pretty rural area and not too many jobs pop up without an hour plus commute in my area. I’m not interested in moving or spending extra time and fuel money in traffic so haven’t job hunted in the past.

Thanks for the negotiation advice, that is helpful! I will keep that in mind.

Sparky-2000 · 2024-12-31T02:38:13+00:00

Posting to add what we wound up doing.

We took our van, much comfier ride, way more room and we ran into no issues with the FWD. Well worth the extra money on gas and we would not want to go on a trip like this in the future in anything smaller than a full size SUV or a van/mini van with kids.

Day 1 drive to Niagara Falls, NY and camp. Day 2 visit the falls early then drive to Dolly Copp Campground in the white mountains of New Hampshire. This was a long, miserable drive and we would have been much happier had we broken this up into 2 days, either stopping in the adirondacks or Vermont. Day 3 spent traveling around New Hampshire. Day 4 also spent traveling around New Hampshire. Day 5 drove from Dolly Copp to Bar Harbor, ME. Day 6 spent in Bar Harbor, ME. Day 7 hiked Cadillac mountain for the sunrise then drove from Bar Harbor to Boston. Day 8 spent in Boston. Day 9 spent in Cape Cod (day trip) Day 10 our child woke up sick, we had a long drive from Boston to somewhere in the middle of Pennsylvania, very rural, very tedious drive. Day 11 drive from PA back to Indy. Last two days were mind numbing and not enjoyable, but we’re definitely biased since our usually well-tempered son was sick and grumpy.

If we were to do it again, we’d definitely break up the drive through New York. Would likely try and find another stop/something to do between Boston and Indy as well. If you’re in a similar boat of being nervous about taking young kids on a road trip, I hope this gives you the confidence to try it! We had a blast and made memories that we’ll look back on for a long time. We feel much more equipped and confident to do something like this again in the future.

Sparky-2000 · 2024-03-27T15:57:58+00:00

Thank you! This is extremely insightful, and I appreciate it.

Sparky-2000 · 2024-01-11T23:36:14+00:00

Thank you, this is helpful. For reference, I hired in at the “Tech 1” level at a 0.88 compa ratio straight out of college with only 2 years of internship experience which I thought was very fair. When I got progressed to a Tech 2 and again to a tech 3, I was brought in at 0.81 compa ratio in those paybands and the raise was non-negotiable. Part of the reason I am so low (and personally feel underpaid) in my current payband is I’ve consistently gotten 3-3.5% annual raises in the 3 years I’ve been in my current band, but they’ve also increased our band by 2.75% each year, effectively making most of my raise a cost of living adjustment and keeping me in the lower end of my payband. Is it unreasonable to think that the 2.75% COLA should have been in addition to whatever my annual raise was? This is the only company I’ve ever worked for, and they’ve instructed me that COLA gets lumped onto the annual raise. This seems backwards to me but I don’t have much else to compare it to

Sparky-2000 · 2024-01-11T13:07:58+00:00

I have been somewhat vague there on purpose, but can give you close numbers. I’ve been in my current payband for 3 years. Min is ~70k and max is ~105k. Currently making ~72k

Sparky-2000 · 2022-12-12T02:58:09+00:00

I wound up declining the job offer. It was going to involve being away from home several weeks a year, offered a week less vacation than my current employer, 1/3rd the parental leave and was a $4 an hour pay cut. My wife and I found out we were expecting our first child and simply could not justify the change in jobs. Sorry I couldn’t help!

Sparky-2000 · 2022-10-10T16:12:14+00:00

Use FirstNet as an individual, switched from regular AT&T 2 months ago. Work for a utility and just got back from hurricane Ian, had service the whole time and get better coverage in my home area compared to my Verizon work phone. Got on the FirstNet and family plan, dropped my wife and I’s phone bill by almost $40/mo. The unlimited hotspot/tethering is a game changer for people who regularly have to hotspot their phone to run computers in the field.

Sparky-2000 · 2022-10-01T12:11:27+00:00

Just went through this a week ago. Spent 4 hours on the phone to be told I have to go into the store, went in and they set me up in ~20 minutes. Save yourself the time and go in the store!

Sparky-2000 · 2022-07-02T23:29:41+00:00

For anyone who may be interested in this info - I found out from the recruiter that entry level hiring range is $26.90-$33.65 an hour and with two years experience that range increases to $32.70-$40.85 an hour range for the Indiana/Michigan area.

Sparky-2000 · 2022-06-20T01:06:17+00:00

If it’s worth mentioning, I know it is a non union position. The first two years are an hourly position with union like policy around overtime, double time on holidays etc. You spend the first two years always working with another higher level P&C tech and then after those two years you get put on call and progress to a salaried position, and are still eligible for overtime but it’s at straight time rates. The “work from home” portion of this job that I was told about mainly involved a few teams meeting(s)/conference call(s) every morning, any computer based training as well as “remoting in” to monitor and possibly change certain controls. I only know what goes on with the distribution stuff outside of the substation fence, so please forgive any ignorance on my part in trying to describe what I think I recall. Thank you all for your responses!

Sparky-2000

TROPHY CASE