You’ve just spent a half hour talking with and asking questions to Bob, the owner of Bob’s Plumbing. You now have a clear view of Bob’s company and how he goes to business. Thank Bob for spending time with you. Make sure you get one of Bob’s business cards and then ask him if he could recommend other people for you to talk with.

As soon as you can following the interview with Bob, make notes on what you learned. Also, pay attention to how the interview progressed. What seemed to work? What didn’t? Make a point to incorporate changes into your next interview.

Send Bob a thank you note. In order to have maximum impact, make sure that thank you note gets into the mail on the same day that you talked with Bob. This will require a little advanced planning but it is so worth it.  I guarantee that folks like Bob are not used to getting thank you notes from technicians. And this pertains to anyone who you informational interview with. Always send them a thank you note!

One side benefit of informational interviewing is that the more you do it, the easier it gets. You will notice your confidence grow. The upside is that when you go out for actual job interviews you’ll notice how much better you’ve gotten in the process. Prospective employers will notice this too!

No matter how fair or unfair it is, you are being judged. Yes, it’s your private life and yes, you should be able to do as you please. And you can. But you’re still being judged. Why not make this work in your favor? (My suggestion doesn’t involve cool whip).

In the future we’ll be talking more about developing a focused online presence that showcases who you are and what you can do, but for now, let’s keep it simple.

Be respectful – when you’re writing and commenting online, be decent to the other guy. I listened in on an online HVAC talk forum the other day. There was a technician who is in his early twenties participating in a discussion with senior techs. As the conversation begins to degenerate, the tech has this to say: “but anyway too all the grumpy guys who are talking about me *middle fingers*”

The grumpy guys are mostly senior technicians who, if treated with respect, would give this guy the world. If I were a service manager and thinking about hiring this twenty-something year old, and I discovered what he said online, I wouldn’t give him one more second of consideration.

Help people out – In this same online discussion two or three other technicians are offering the young tech advice, encouraging him to be respectful. If as a hiring service manager I came upon these guys online, I would want to know more about them.

If you participate in an online forum or comment on someone’s blog or write on your Facebook page, always try to help people out.

Online security settings – Most communities like Facebook, allow you to set your own security settings. This way you can only allow access to people you know. Make sure to make adjustments accordingly.

Lets say you realized that your online behavior will cost you the opportunity to get jobs. While it’s impossible to go back and erase what you’ve done, first, begin to help people online. Or if you have little experience, demonstrate online that you are a student who wants to learn. After awhile a pattern of good behavior will emerge online. A competent hiring manager will notice this. You’ll still have a lot of work to do, in regards to your previous behavior, but at least you will not be a victim of the DELETE key.

You can talk with people who are already in the position that you are interested in or you can talk with the company’s owner-managers.

People in same position – You will learn the most from this group. You should concentrate most of your efforts with them. There is a ton of useful information available from people who are already doing what you plan on doing. Or if it is a position that you are thinking about, you will get a much more clear picture of its day in and day out activities.

Where do you find people to talk to? A good place to start is a trade association. For instance, if you are a HVAC tech, you would contact RSES. The folks who work at trade associations will gladly provide information. After all, they would like you to join their organization. They should be able to hook you up with a technician in your town who would enjoy helping you out.

Once you’ve done one informational interview, ask that person if he knows anyone else who you could talk to. My daughter once spent six months doing informational interviews, talking with over forty people. Each new contact came from someone that she had interviewed. We’ll spend more time on this part in the future.

Owner-Managers – When you go to talk with these folks remember, you are a student, you’re there to learn. Although you know a lot of stuff and probably busting at the seams to tell people in positions like these, don’t. Learn don’t tell.

In the future, we’ll break down each group and provide you with suggested questions to ask.

The term informational interviewing is a mouthful. Don’t worry about that. I am only using it to make sure the search engines can find us, because technically that is what you call it. You can also call it asking questions.

Let’s say that you’ve been driving 1969 Chargers all your life. Or at least in the summer time. But over a period of time, the 1970 Cutlass 422 has caught your fancy. Before you buy one however, you want to know more about it. It’s highly unlikely that you would just go out and buy one before you did some research. Even if you give yourself a thumbs up after performing general research into the 442, you still need to research out specific cars. You know this. I don’t have to tell you. Hell would freeze over before you buy the 442 without doing the research.

If you perform that much leg work prior to buying a car, don’t you think you should log some time to investigate the career, line of work and company that will provide satisfaction and food and rent and bills and vacations and, well, that 442? Sure you do!

A few cool things about informational interviewing:

• You are not interviewing for a job
• You are learning a ton of stuff
• A lot of people are getting to know you
• You are building a network of connections

Stay tuned and look for future posts beginning with Landing a New Job: Informational Interviewing…

Newsflash: You are needed in the workforce. You are in demand. You can get a job.

You can get a job, but you need to get your mind in order and you need to bring your A-game. (Everything about The Technician Shop is designed to help you bring your A-game). The first thing you gotta do is to forget all that you read, see and hear about the economy and how bad it is. It doesn’t affect you. It affects those in your trade who do not take care about their appearance, those who are not continually educating themselves, those who do not make use of all the resources available to them, those who do not care about their families and those who do not care about the people they work with, but it isn’t affecting you.

You need to believe that there is a company out there who will appreciate you and all you have to bring. The thing is, you probably will not find this company in the want ads. It’s up to you to hunt this company down, go talk to them and show them what you can do.

This is gonna be harsh, but it is reality. Most of you will not do what you gotta do to get a job at the type of company that will value you and pay you well. And this is PRECISLEY why it will work for those of you who will – you have little competition. Heck, you have no competition!.

I will be discussing various ways to help you connect with quality companies. The key to success will be your mindset, your determination to go out and get what you want and your ability to follow through.

Good luck!

The counter guy usually deals with the contractor’s employees. They know the employees who have it going on and they know the slacker-deadbeats. You want to work with sharp coworkers. You want to stay away from contractor employees who look like they just rolled out of bed (or picked themselves up from the floor), are on a three-day bender, hang out at the wholesaler shooting the bull and eating all their donuts (the counter guys have excellent intel on everyone who fits this description), drive beat up trucks, cannot speak intelligently about their trade, are not well groomed and who in general, lack respect.

Here’s a good question to ask a counter guy (or an insides sales guy): do the folks in this contractor’s office treat them with respect? Or, tell me which contracting companies treat you with respect. If contractors do not treat the counter guys with respect, there’s a good chance they are not treating their employees and even customers with respect.

Another good thing to know about contractors is if they pay their bills on time. This is simply a sign of good business. You want to work with good business people.

Check out what this smart company is doing. HVAC Agent helps technicians find jobs and helps employers find technicians. On their front page they have a link titled Suppliers. Click on it and you are taken to a list of the fifty United States. Click on a state and you have a list of that state’s wholesalers.

Now go find a counter guy and ask him some questions!

With today’s post I’ll be starting a new category titled: Landing a New Job. I hope to provide tidbits of useful information and advice in order to market yourself in an appealing way to prospective employers. After sitting in the technician hiring chair for over twenty years, I have seen folks present themselves in all types of manners and have a pretty good idea of what works and doesn’t. I’ve had people sit in front of me while applying for a job wearing more metal that pierced their skin than goes into some ductwork systems. I’ve had two different people bring their translators to the interview. And I’ve had more people than you could imagine who should have brought their translators to the interview – and they spoke English.

I am not interested in you just landing a new job. Instead, I would like you to connect with a manager who cares about his coworker’s personal development, education, career and family. There are companies out there that are worth working for. We’ll help you find them. And if you work for one, please don’t hesitate to let us know about them.