How did you get into your trade? What was your trade education experience like?
I fell into the trade. My brother owned a plumbing company, and once I graduated I needed a job, and he needed help. I didn’t anticipate this being a career, more of a way to make a paycheck. I started at the bottom and slowly worked my way up. Eventually, I started to enjoy what I was doing. Once you learn the fundamentals you can then apply those to any task you find yourself having to do.
What was your trade education experience like?
I learned via the old school method: you keep your eyes and ears open, pay attention, and try to pick up on things as they come. Starting out in the new construction side of the trade laid a solid foundation of fundamentals that were then leveraged when I got into the service side of things.
What did you like?
When I first started, I really liked running copper. That’s what I did for years. I enjoyed the challenge of making it look perfect and simple.
Piping or pipe work may appear simple, but you wouldn’t believe the challenge it is to make it look that way.
What are some things that surprised you about entering the residential home services field?
I couldn’t believe that people would pay the prices demanded from a flat rate book, sometimes without blinking an eye.
What is your favorite technical task to perform?
I LOVE troubleshooting! The more complex and complicated the problem, the better. Once you find the “needle in the haystack,” the sense of accomplishment is unmatched.
What was your most memorable service call?
I have several but one that sticks out is a customer I had for years. You’ve heard of people that stress-eat, well she would stress-cook. I remember one time she had called for service and she was making Crème Brule. Did I mention she was a gourmet cook? Needless to say, I left with a goodie bag once her problem was taken care of.
I had another sweet old lady that insisted I stop and have some ice cream with her during her call. Unfortunately, one of the other guys stopped by and caught me mid-bowl. He gave me all kinds of hell (razzing) after that.
What has been your most favorite lesson you’ve built for NexTech Academy?
I don’t have one lesson that I would call a favorite. My favorite part has been NexTech’s creation. When I came into the picture, NexTech Academy was a concept. This ties back into my love for troubleshooting and solving complicated problems. NexTech Academy was a puzzle to solve and over the last few years it has evolved in ways that no one could have imagined it could. That’s the best part of being pioneers in this area of technical training. NO ONE has ever done this before so there is really no wrong way to do it.
With that said, there are effective ways and ineffective ways of doing things. With the team that has been assembled for this project, we’ve been fortunate to catch those ineffective ways quickly and course-correct for better solutions.
I wish that a program like NexTech Academy existed decades ago when I got into the trade. It would have made learning the trade so much easier.
One could say that NexTech Academy is our team’s way of paying it forward to all the kids coming into the trades today. Learning from our mistakes and the lessons we learned the hard way.
