work, so I put in my notice and started in maintenance.
AAMD: Is that still a practice that is in place today? Are you still looking at residents when they move in? Is it still a practice to ask them if they are interested in a job?
Chris: We actually have flyers for resident referrals both for leasing as well as maintenance associates and office associates so yes we definitely reach out to our residents for those positions.
Troy: We do the same thing. We have letters but we get a lot of our people from on site. Guys who know people and we get groundskeepers and then sometimes we get some beginner techs and stuff like that, that we hire from that are residents already.
Jeff: We have cards that we all keep in our wallets or purses just when we are out at a restaurant or wherever. If we see somebody who we think has the personality or might be a good fit, we hand them a card. It says“ You impressed me” and it has our information on it and they can call us.
Lannon: I look everywhere, I don’ t care what kind of work they are doing, I feel if someone has a will to work I’ ll take a chance. No one is going to be good on their first day and as long as they are not afraid to fail, I’ ll give just about anyone a chance. One of my better hires was a bartender at Chili’ s with no maintenance experience. He told me he had a baby on the way and wanted more for his family and four years later he has a great career!
Darrin: I am shameless. If I have a business card on me and I smell a lead, I give them my card. I do a lot of the hiring and use ourselves and we look for attitude and likeminded cultures as much as hands on skills, if that makes sense. So we are recruiting everywhere and anywhere.
Chris: Anybody who isn’ t crazy. It’ s a very tough labor market out there right now.
AAMD: When was the first time that you were into your career that you thought,“ this is my career now, this is it. I love to do this and I am going to pursue this.” At first, you probably thought“ this is just a job and we will see.” Was there a certain experience or time or something that happened that you kind of had an aha moment where a light bulb went off and said this is my career and this is what I am going to do for a much longer time?
Chris: Mine was early on. I realized in this situation and the ebb and flow of the construction industry with the economy and all that doesn’ t apply to maintenance due to the fact that people are always breaking stuff. Apartments are always in the works so there is no time when there is not a need for somebody who is going to continue to work hard.
Troy: I felt like early on with me as well, I have been doing this for almost the last 30 years and I remember feeling as such, satisfaction and being an integral part of the community. I loved a lot of the aspects of being part of a team. I loved working with my hands. I loved knowing my neighbors and knowing that we have a common goal that we are shooting for as a team. So all those aspects really appealed to me and I was really comfortable settling into the maintenance career pretty early as well.
Darrin: That is kind of how I started, early on too. I liked the diversity of maintenance. It was always something different everyday. It kind of changed when you got into the leadership role because then you are kind of doing the same things everyday but being a maintenance guy on site was a lot of fun. You were never doing the same things and I came from construction before that as well. When you are framing the house you are doing the same thing every single day. Putting up walls, veneer, you have to use your mind a lot more in maintenance to try and figure things out.
Jeff: For me, I don’ t know if it was as early on as you guys. When I was on site, I did the team building part. I was on a 500-unit property so I had a fairly large, 10 person staff and I enjoyed that part of it. Building the team and running the day to day stuff and getting to know the residents and all that but I think I was fortunate enough to work for a company that was growing at the time and the need for a director of maintenance came about and I was fortunate enough to be in the right place at the right time. When that happened is when I realized this is probably my career path and this is probably where I will stick. That was probably five years into my career when that happened.
AAMD: You guys were alluding to how the diverse your day in the life is. Think back to your first day on the job when you started. What was that day like?
Chris: First day on the job I fixed my own heat because I had been waiting 6 months.
AAMD: Were you on the clock?
Chris: Yes, I was on the clock it was a zone valve motor, it was in a stairwell. Funny enough, the zone valve motor was actually sitting right there in the box in the stairwell and all I had to do was take off the old one and put on the new one!
20 | TRENDS • MARCH FEBRUARY 2018 2018 www. aamdhq. org