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Have Trowel Will Travel

Part 8: Suggestion from an Employer

By , About.com Guide

Have Trowel, Will Travel, The Series

Joe Joseph, who started out as a field technician and is now the president of New South Associates, wrote me recently and asked if he could add some suggestions for field techs. I was happy to provide space for his very useful ideas.

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  1. Call around to companies you have worked with or would like to work with to let them know you're available or soon to be available. A company like ours has more than 100 resumes on file––very often CRM archaeology projects have short start-up fuses so there is a real rush to hire.

    We keep a call-in list for folks with resumes on file to let us know when they're available, and that's very useful for rush projects. If your resume came in 6 months ago, there have probably been dozens in since, so it will take some digging before a field director gets to your qualifications. If he or she knows you called a week ago looking for work, you'll be in the first set of resumes reviewed. Also, update your resume at least annually and better every 6 months, so you can show recent experience as well as all the experience you have gained.

  2. Take any project over no project, even if its a short-term lackluster job. A lot of times techs like to wait for the really good project, the several month data recovery, which is great if you can find it. But most companies will use techs who are already working for them on their new assignments. And companies will often call other companies to see if they have folks in the field that they are letting go when trying to staff a new project. We've had techs who were hired for a two week road survey end up working nearly a year in the field because they were on staff when that big data recovery came in and were the first to be hired. Don't be too choosey––any project is better than no project at all. If you're waiting for a known data recovery and don't want to miss an offer, call the company you're waiting to hear from to let them know you're thinking about taking a two week survey for Company X but are still interested in their project and can be reached at the such and such hotel if they start hiring for the data recovery while you're in the field. Companies like it when techs do some of the leg work for them––you're likely to be one of the ones hired if you make an effort to communicate.

  3. Network. One of your best sources for information is the other techs you work with. As you meet people on crews whose work you respect, get their phone numbers and email addresses and stay in touch. If you're in a dry spell give them a call to see what they're hearing about. If you get a job, make sure to recommend them to the person hiring you if you know they're available. The best source of information out there is the grapevine––make sure you're connected and that you use if to your advantage.

  4. Make an impression with your effort and ability. There are a lot of jobs out there, and some techs may feel that they can coast along––after all, the project's short term, so there's no real commitment between them and the employer, right? Wrong. We have a very real commitment to the techs who work for us, and the one's who work well will get a call from us every project that comes up. And if a colleague calls looking for crew, we'll pass those names along if we don't have work. The ones who don't make an effort won't hear from us again. While this may not make a difference in the short term, in the long term it is critical. A lackluster tech may work for a dozen companies over a year and half and find jobs harder and harder to find with no increase in pay. A committed and hardworking tech has narrowed his/her work to a few firms whose commitment he/she respects, has worked continuously at increasingly higher levels of responsibility and pay, and has possibly even received a full time offer. If you can make a name for yourself for your effort, knowledge, and commitment, you can pick and chose the projects you work on and the companies you work with.

I came up in the business as a tech, and these are all techniques I used. Tech work can be fairly steady and year-round, if you're good and use all the tools.

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