A basic primer for starting a career in the facilities maintenance field

Ok so you’re new to the facilities maintenance field, or hope to be, and you have stumbled across this article and hope that it can help you land that position in the maintenance field. It can if you are brutality honest about your abilities and willingness to learn. You will need to address several areas of concern. The first being why should the company pick you for its maintenance position from the thousands of applications? What makes you stand out from the crowd? Even if you had the special facility maintenance skills the employer was looking for how will you be noticed for further consideration? Well? If the answer isn’t all ready spewing forth from your lips you have some practice and training to do. Getting your application noticed You should appreciate two things here. The first being the word application, the second being the word noticed. If you’re just entering the field (hopefully you will be soon) you won’t have a resume yet. This may even be you’re very first job. If you follow this advice your application will be noticed and selected for review. If you have ANY experience working with anything mechanical put it down on your application. It could be anything from helping to restore that old car to doing projects around the house, painting , sawing wood, landscaping work etc The point here is that you have some experience with hand tools and are able to follow directions to get a job done. List references that the facility maintenance manager can check. Be sure to include phone numbers. Let the references that you have listed know what facility job you have applied for so that they will be prepared to let the maintenance manager know that how your skills fit the position they are trying to fill. Sounds easy? Not so fast! You have more preparation to do. What is the employer looking for? Read the ad very carefully and make sure that you are well versed on what the employer is looking for. Did the ad mention painting? What do you know about painting? You need to be prepared and do your home work for that interview that is coming up. Look up painting on the internet. Find out about the basic types of paint, example; oil based, latex, acrylic etc. Find out about basic painting preparations such as set up, taping off, rolling, types of rollers, clean up etc. You get the point. The first job I obtained was with a new hotel as a facility maintenance worker at a large hotel . The ad stated that the hotel was looking for a facility maintenance engineer with experience in swimming pools among other skills. Did I have any experience in swimming pools? No I didn’t but I prepared my self for the interview that I knew I would get a shot at. I prepared. I looked up swimming pools filters and memorized the different types and the basics on swimming pool care. I looked up information about the hotel, how many rooms, what kind of facilities it offered. You need to do your research so you will be comfortable and appear knowledable about the duties the employer is asking you to fulfill. Persistence. Be persistent. After you have submitted your application wait a couple of days and call back. Ask if they are in receipt of your application. Ask if there is any thing else that they need to know or if you can help in any way. Ask to speak with the maintenance hiring manager if your application went to the Human Resource department. If the department manager is unavailable leave a message. Be sure to include a telephone number and a time you can be reached. If you haven’t heard back in several days call again. Managers are very busy and hiring is among the least pleasant of their duties. Next in our series of Articles: I got the call, now what? Facilities Maintenance Service News