Appliance Repair Apprentice / Technician

What Sets Hometown Hero Apart

We've been fixing appliances since 1988, out of Doug and Anne Carlson's garage in Omaha, and we're now one of the Midwest's most trusted service companies. Their grandson Todd runs the company now, and he's done the job himself. So has our VP, our trainers, and every service manager. All of them started as apprentices. You will never hear "that's not how it works" from someone who's never held a multimeter.

Manufacturers keep asking us to expand, we've got a 4.9-star average across thousands of reviews, and the trophies are real: Sub-Zero Best-in-Class Service Provider (2025), Bosch Service Provider of the Year (2025), and UASA Most Professional Servicer, twice.

We'll Train You From Scratch

Read the whole thing. Some of it is written to talk the wrong people out of applying, and that's on purpose.

Let's Start With What You Already Know

If you've been in the trades a while, you've probably worked somewhere that overpromised. Rushed schedules, a boss who's never turned a wrench, pressure to oversell people, customers who got burned by the last guy and take it out on you. We're not going to do that to you.

So instead of selling you, we're going to lay out exactly what this job asks and what it pays, and let you decide.

Business in the Front, Party in the Back

With customers, we're the real deal. Clean truck, straight answers, honest repair, no games. Not because we're putting on a show, but because we take the work seriously and that's genuinely who we are. That part is never negotiable.

With each other, we're not a corporate place. We give each other a hard time, we joke around, we have fun. If a buttoned-up, everything-by-the-memo office is what makes you comfortable, we'll probably rub you wrong. But if you can be truly professional with a customer and still be loose and human with the crew, you'll fit right in.

This Is a Skilled Trade, Not a Fast Track

Here's the part that helps the wrong people opt out early.

You start as an apprentice, and you get better every year. There's a real ladder: apprentice, to certified tech, to master tech doing sealed-system and refrigeration work, to lead tech, plus some lateral moves. But nobody walks in the door and runs the place by summer. If you want a title fast, this isn't it.

And here's something a lot of shops won't tell you: you don't have to leave the wrench to earn well here. Advancement isn't about climbing away from the work into a different title. It's about getting so good at the craft that your pay climbs right along with your skill. Some of our highest earners are techs who mastered the hard stuff.

The Thing About the Work Itself: You Never Finish It

We call the top rung "master tech," but between us, nobody ever really masters this. New models land, new problems show up, and even after years of doing it you'll walk into a job that stumps you cold. There's no summit where you've seen it all and it finally turns easy.

For the right person, that's the whole appeal. If you're someone who gets restless with repetitive tasks, this career offers constant variety. Every call is a fresh puzzle, a crossword you get paid to solve, and there's always another one waiting.

For the wrong person, it's torture. If you need to feel finished, to reach perfect and stay there, this trade feels like climbing a sand dune that keeps sliding out from under your feet. You'll be miserable, and that's not a knock on you. Better you find that out today than a year from now.

The Hours, Straight Up

This is in-home service, so your day ends when the work does, not when a whistle blows. Plenty of days you finish around when you'd expect, and some days you're done early and headed home. But some days a job fights you and you get home late. Here's the honest part our own techs would want you to hear: you won't always know in the morning exactly when you'll be done that night. If you can roll with that, you'll do fine. If your life only works when you clock out at the same minute every day, this one will wear on you, and we'd rather you know that now than find out in month four.

When a day runs long, you're paid for every hour, and anything past 40 in a week is time-and-a-half. What doesn't work here is walking out on a customer mid-repair because the clock hit 5:00.

You'll Have to Sell, But It's Not What You Think

Not a script. Not a pitch. But you're standing in someone's kitchen, and you have to earn their trust and clearly recommend the fix that's right for them. Some customers will watch over your shoulder the whole time. Some will be unreasonable, want to junk a machine you can fix, or take a rough day out on you. You stay professional anyway. Not as an act, just because you take the work seriously. That part's not optional. If that sounds exhausting, you'll struggle here. If it sounds like being straight with people, you'll be great at it.

The Hard Part Isn't the Wrenching, It's Everything Around It

The guys who've left us have been honest about this, so we will be too: turning the wrench is the part that comes fastest. The systems are what get you early. Parts lookups, serial breaks, digging a manual out of some manufacturer's buried website, learning the tablet and the software. That's the real climb the first few months, and some days it'll make you feel dumb even though you're not. We train you through it and back you up on every call. But if hitting that wall early is the kind of thing that makes you quit, know it's coming.

And it's physical. You'll pull built-in units, wrestle stacked washers and dryers, and move heavy appliances in tight spaces, day after day. We give you the equipment to do it right, but your body will know it put in a day.

About the Money

We're not going to bury you in a formula. Here's the shape of it.

• You start at $20/hour while you learn, and most people are working on their own around 90 days after hire.
• After that you also earn commission and bonuses tied to the work you produce, on top of the hourly base pay. The more you get done and the better you get, the more you take home.
• Get certified to run sealed systems and refrigeration, and your commission rate doubles. That's a skill you can master, and it's the one that pays the best.
• Move up to team lead and there's a stipend on top of all of it.

One honest reality about commission: your pay moves week to week, and it can swing on the mix of work. The good weeks are for building a cushion for the slower ones, and early on we help smooth that out while you find your feet.

Where does that land? Our first-year techs generally make somewhere in the $60,000 to $70,000 range, and the ones who get really good clear six figures after a few years. We're telling you that so you're not guessing in the dark, not so you'll pick the job for the number. Because here's the honest truth: if the money is the reason you take this, you'll feel stuck every week you're still learning. The techs who earn the most came for the craft, got good, and let the pay follow. The ceiling isn't set by us. It's set by how good and how fast you get.

How We Invest in Your Success

Here's what you get before you've proven anything:

• A company truck with gas covered. No miles on your car, nothing out of your pocket.