Well it’s Sunday now and I have the games going on behind me so the day is like any other Sunday.

Now I am really trying to keep this blog on a personal point and not politics but it seems everything that goes on in my life at this time is tied to the politics that are going on around the world.

I did an interview with the owner of a small electrical company on Friday; this is unusual in my field as most companies do not do interviews on Friday. This company did not have an ad in the paper, or any other job listing data base that I search normally through. I heard about this company from another electrician that I meet while waiting to talk to a friend about some info on what is going on in the job market. Networking is a powerful thing in construction some times you will find a contact that you will not see anywhere else.

Anyways I digress, the reason I mention this interview is because of what happened. The owner took the call and I asked him if he was looking for an electrician with 30+ years of experience. At first he said no they were not hiring but then asked me to drop by the next morning and interview anyway.  An interview on Friday? This seemed strange to me but I made the appointment and he asked me to drop by early morning around 8Am. This is strange also but I agreed and got there a few minutes early (around 10 minutes till 8:00).

When I got there one of the employees was loading up a pick-up truck with some material and tools, I told him I was asked to drop by and he said the owner would be in shortly. Sure enough around 5 minutes after 8 the owner should up driving the service van. He apologized for running late and we went into his office and sat down with some coffee. He explained that he was over stretched trying to do to much to keep everything running.

I handed him my resume he gave me an application and said to just fill out the first page with the contact information and then reference the resume on the rest (he said this would save time and we could talk more).

So I did as he asked and soon we were talking about a job. The first thing he said was that it was hard to find an electrician with my work history in Nashville (I thought to myself this sounds good). He followed that up by saying how much a person like me could really help a small company like his (once again sounds good).

But what came after that was the kicker, while he needed a person like me his job cost could not handle what he felt was a reasonable pay for a person like me (ouch that hurts). I said I understood and that I wished I could take a little less but the economics of the nation does not allow me to work for any less then I am asking for (he said he would not even insult me by suggesting such a thing).

The reason he asked me to drop by was he has been looking for a person such as me and now that he has found one he will start to allow for such a cost in his future biddings. The reason he up till now has avoided this is the market is so tight that this cost could mean getting the job or losing it.

As it is now he hires helpers/apprentices and then with one other good electrician they do their best to get the jobs done. Once the guys he hires learn enough to get more money they leave him and move on for the higher dollars, thus create more work on him.

We talked about a few other companies I worked for and tho he never really said anything bad about them he did wonder how they could hire some of the questionable labor the have hired in the past.

This did bring up a talk about illegal workers, and how it has hurt his business for a long time now. You see he is one of those business owners that is not trying to cheat the system, he just wont take an ID for proof of work status you need more then that. Plus he uses a verification data base to follow up if something looks fishy. Which of course limits his hiring field a lot also makes it a little harder to compete with the big boys in the field.

Anyway the interview went very well, if nothing else I made a new contact. I also found that not all business owners are just looking for a profitable way to make a living some really care about the laws that govern us and are willing to suffer to keep their business on the up and up. He also called later that night to let me know that things look good for work after the holidays, and maybe he could swing something before that.