Skit: Interviewing Trent the Technician

Hey Charles, it’s really great to meet you. I am Slee and I’m going to be interviewing you today and this is Danny, he’s going to be taking some notes. » Nice to meet you guys. » We’re going to be making some apps for you guys and I’d love to hear from you about your job and about what it’s like. » What kind of apps? » Well I’m not exactly sure yet but we’re still on the beginning stages of this. But definitely hearing from you is going to help us out. » Okay. » Can you tell me a little bit about being an HVAC technician? » What part of the job? » Well how’d you get it?

So after high school I took a couple of years off and. » So school wasn’t all your thing then? » Well, I wouldn’t say that. I really enjoyed school. [LAUGH] I spent a lot of time reading about biology and I had a cousin up in Alaska doing all kinds of research. We’d always talk and he even offered me a research position. And I thought that would be a really good decision because college is expensive, so, I took it. » That’s really awesome. Can you tell me more? » Yeah, I mean, it was way more than I hoped and I met my girlfriend who’s now my wife.

And the two of them, my cousin and her were doing all kinds of research together, having all kinds of fun. And she wanted to keep doing school, but both of us couldn’t do school, so I had to get a job. And that’s where I found the six-month program for HVAC, and I’ve been there ever since. » That’s really great. What do you most like about your job? » It’s problem solving, I love fixing things like putting my hands on stuff and really getting in there. » What do you like least? » Probably the busy work and angry customers. Working with dispatch sometimes can be difficult, just like communicating with them back and forth. » Tell me more about their communication.

Yeah, so this one time I was working a job at this new office building, and our customer is the building owner. But I had to deal with the tenants. And it was the fall. So it was really cold. And they had a whole floor out that didn’t have heat. So they were trying to talk to me to get it done and dispatch was trying to get information out of me while I was trying to work on the job and it was just really difficult with all these people talking in my ear. So I end up, asking dispatch for certain part and they send me the wrong part.

And frankly, it just took me a while to figure out that it was the wrong part. So I had to go back and get another part and there’s just so much going on, honestly, I don’t want to refute that day. » Man. How do you think that the dispatch on finding should be done then? » I don’t necessarily have the solution. I’m out here, they’re in there, customers are all over the place. Communication could be better but frankly, there’s I don’t have the right answer. » Okay. That’s fair. Would you think it’s doing it right? » Well, I get some buddies in the business and they’re running their own company and they pick their own hours.

They get their own pay and they really do what they want to do but it’s really busy like they don’t have free time. The one thing I like about my job It’s like when I’m done with work I’m done with work. No phone calls no emails. Like that’s great. » Do you still keep in touch? » Yeah. They’re great buddies. We talk about their kids. We’re chatting on Facebook. We go out for drinks but again they’re just really busy people so I don’t see them that often. » Okay. Well, what motivates you for your job? » From my job, I mention fixing stuff, but also working with customers you really appreciate the work that I do.

Like getting a pin in the back from them, and feeling that I help them out of a tight situation like that makes me feel good. » That is really really great. Can you tell me a little bit about the specifics of your job like how many hours do you work a week? » I’d say about 30 hours, maybe, that are billable, and 50 total. If there’s a big install, I’ll have maybe about ten jobs to do. » And what equipment do you need for those jobs? » You guys know about the stuff in my truck, right? » Yeah. » Okay. Well, I use my phone sometimes. [LAUGH] » You use your phone instead of a handheld computer?

Yeah, it’s a lot more convenient. I mean, I use the computer to punch hours, but frankly, my phone is just way more useful. » What do you use your phone for? » Look up manuals for parts. » Okay. » I mean, on the job I need to figure out stuff, so, just real quick. Real convenient. » Okay. Tell me a little bit more about the process of getting to a new job.

Well, okay so essentially I’ll get an assignment from dispatch and then I’ll figure out all the parts and stuff and I’ll go and I’ll put that in my truck and then I’ll end up sitting in my in traffic for like I don’t know an hour just ago, a couple of miles. And, and sometimes that’s frustrating because I’ll found out that the real buddy of mine like maybe an hour away that’s also working and that could just called him. So maybe, you know better communication there would be better. » Yeah, What would you want to do better in your job, besides communication?

There isn’t too much I want to do better. I learn something new every day. I really like that. » Mm-hm. » That’s exciting. I think getting a raise would be awesome. [LAUGH] » [LAUGH] » But no, I’m really satisfied with what I do, and I enjoy it. » That’s really great. Thank you so much for sharing all of this. » Yeah. » I do have one little, quick question about maybe something that you could help us with the app for, which is finding documentation hard? » [LAUGH] No, no, not at all.

So what I do with my phone is I’ll just type in the part number on Google and comes up, look at that, first result like it’s really easy. » [LAUGH] That sound really easy. Thank you so much. Can we follow up with you later on this? » Yeah, sure. » All right, thank you so much.