Re: How Many Years Have You Been in the Industry?

["Bob La Londe" <usenet@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

"Bob La Londe" <usenet@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:vKydnXwBSczHSWDeRVn-tw@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
>I have a hard time with this.  I took a correspondence course in electrical
>and refrigeration when I was in my mid teens.  Did that so I could service
>the refrigeration systems in my parents grocery store.  That doesn't seem
>to directly relate to the industry, but all those electrical skills
>certainly came in handy over the years.
>
> When we built a 50 X 60 addition to the store in my late teens I was in
> the thick of it framing, wiring, drywalling, helping plan lighting and a
> multiple compressor air conditioning system.  It was a steel building with
> framed inner walls, and wood frame offices and areas inside.  Lots of
> great experience there.  Except for some simple alarm stuff and some video
> cable planning there wasn't much related to the industry, except golly.  I
> can easily visualize the structure of a building when planning an alarm
> system. Knowing how things are constructed sure makes it easier to do a
> retrofit alarm.
>
> I spent some time going to college studying computer information system.
> Gee that doesn't seem to have anything directly related to the industry
> either.  Well, I suppose that my systems analysis and design classes might
> helped me to follow a logical decision making process that assists in
> alarm system design.  It certainly helped to give me some computer skills
> that help on the business side of it.
>
> Then I got a job for a small telephone service provider.  Worked on
> digital carrier systems, underground cable, and central office switching
> equipment (the old mechanical stuff).  I had to be able to aim a microwave
> dish antenna and install phone jacks in a persons home.
>
> I got tired of the small business politics with the phone company and we
> parted company.  I suppose it was mutual except that when I stopped by the
> main office to settle my final stuff the president of the company came out
> to talk to me as I was leaving to ask if I would be interested in staying
> if we could work out the issues.  I said no.
>
> Golly, still no major alarm experience.
>
> I went back to college and took a bunch more computer related classes and
> some more business classes.  I enjoyed the heck out of myself and hit my
> stride for college.  Picked up enough credits for a degree in business and
> a degree in computer information systems.  Just never could bring myself
> to finish the humanities classes to be able to actually get the paper.
> Art appreciation, music appreciation, and underwater basket weaving just
> didn't interest me.  Psychology was fun and business law was very
> educational.
>
> A friend called me and said the outfit he was working for could use some
> help with some underground telephone cable tie down, and I could work
> around my class schedule.  Cool.  I did that.  Piece of cake stuff.  Then
> they asked me to do an alarm system in a court center.  Wild.  I got some
> general info on what was needed and then they left me there to work on my
> own. "WHAT ?!?  I don't know enough about alarms to do this by myself."
> Took me a couple weeks between classes to get it all wired up.  My boss
> arrived one day when I was sitting on the lawn under a tree.
>
> He asked if I had given up.  I replied, "Nope.  All finished up with the
> install.  I'm just trying to make head or tails of these manuals to
> program it.  They don't make sense."
>
> Finally some alarm experience.  LOL.
>
> At the same time I had two jobs on campus.  Working in the computer labs
> helping lazy idiots learn to learn, and telling self important little
> people that I would be glad to teach them how to do their assignments, but
> they would have to do the work themselves.  My other job on campus was
> tutoring economics.  That was fun.  Those students all seemed to actually
> want to learn.
>
> I worked for the sound / alarm company off and on for a couple years.  Got
> a little alarm experience, but we worked on so many different systems its
> hard to really say that was an alarm job.  I pulled network cable,
> installed commercial sound systems, and had to learn to troubleshoot all
> kinds of esoteric specialty systems.  Often not knowing what they were
> supposed to do or how they were supposed to be hooked up.  My first drive
> through intercom was quite an experience.  Fought with the darn thing for
> a full day, and finally had to order in a new module that controlled the
> system.  I got it replaced, and the next day they managed to spill a milk
> shake in it. Pzzzzzt!
>
> When they slowed down I started looking for another job.
>
> Boy oh boy.  I got a job as a salesman for a California based alarm
> company that was contracting in Arizona.  When we parted company my
> business card said regional salesmanager.  I actually quit them twice.
> The first time I quit because I could never get any support material.
> They asked me to stay. The second time was after I discovered they didn't
> have an Arizona contractor's license.  Oh, boy!  THAT was some alarm
> experience.
>
> I actually didn't want anything to do with the alarm industry after that.
> I started a home based computer service business and I was doing a small
> traffic in that on the evenings and between times.  At the same time I
> worked days doing shipping and receiving at a tool company and I delivered
> pizzas during the peak hours for a local startup pizza company.  I have to
> say the pizzas made on an old style stone plate oven are much better than
> those made on a conveyor.  But alas that still didn't have anything to do
> with the alarm industry.
>
> In December 1993 I did my first ever alarm system.  A client I had sold an
> alarm system for that other company called me.  Actually he called me to
> service one of his computers, and while I was there talking to him he told
> me that they had totally screwed up a contract I had already had him sign
> when I worked for them.  They cut out equipment he had asked for and did
> all kinds of weird stuff.  Basically they invalidated the contract and
> asked him to sign a new contract.  To be honest I think it was an attempt
> to cut me out of the commissions they still owed me.  I told him I could
> do it, but he had to understand he was hiring an unlicensed contractor.
> He said, "I can't deal with this stuff.  I want you to do it."  I figured
> one alarm system, and back to my computer service business.  I didn't even
> have a truck then. Just my motorcycle, and the little beater car I used
> for pizza delivery.  I hired a friend with a truck to help with that one
> job.
>
> Things went back to normal for a while.  I shipped and received during the
> day, delivered pizzas in the evening, and serviced people's computers in
> between.  Then people started calling me.  I had to open an office in
> early 1994 and in June I drove up to Phoenix and spent a week doing an
> intensive crash study course and take my license exams.  I couldn't
> believe they were so easy.  I could have saved the time I spent on the
> crash course.  In fact I finished all my exams before most people there
> finished their first one. Then I had to go find something to do for the
> rest of the day before I could come back and get my scores.  I was
> officially in the alarm business.  If you count my first alarm system I
> have been in the business since December 1993.  That is when the business
> started.
>
> So how many years have I been in the business?  Just the years as a
> business owner?  A couple  years as a sales man?  A couple years as an
> installer for the sound company?  A couple years as a service rep for the
> phone company? An undetermined number of years growing up fixing and
> building as needed? Does any of my experience teaching idiots to use
> computers in college count? What about the business I had servicing
> computers?
>
> Hey Rob Blair, how long have I been in the business now?  Screw you.  I
> still won't buy Optex if there is another product that will do the job.

I forgot.  In my teens as soon as I could drive my dad had me out installing
satellite dishes.  I did that off and on until I was about 18 when I started
managing his hardware store.  Did I mention I hate retail.


>
>
> --
> Bob La Londe
> http://www.YumaBassMan.com
>
>
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>