Pay is low for the cost of living for the area and the specialized nature of the work. You will have to juggle many different assignments and roles due to the small number of production staff. Career wise, you will not advance per se: as a technician, the work does not really change from level to level (everyone essentially plays musical chairs and works on everything that is on the table at that time), and the idea of stratified grades and types of technician are a recent organizational change. The salary amounts between grades do not differ all that much.