How Many Years Have You Been in the Industry?

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

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.


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


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