Hi! I am a self-employed construction contractor in the New Orleans area. I started as a carpenter's helper and mobile installer in 1994. I left my employer in 1996 and have been working for myself ever since. Anyway, I am looking to get out of construction and mobile electronics completely and just doing Custom home installations. I have a pretty well established business now but I am spread too thin. Of all the different types of work I do this is what I truly love. I would prefer to work for someone else because I am not very business savvy. What I mean is, I live from job to job, with no retirement plan, and pay a lot of late fees on my bills. I strive to be the best in everything I do, but because I love this work so much I spend a lot of time giving people more of my time than they actually pay for. Back to my question (sorry about the long-drawn-out story) to business owners. How can I convince someone to give me a chance when they see I have not worked for anyone other than myself since '96.

Offer to work a day or 2 for free. Promote yourself. Better yet, go to the interview with your personal remote in hand to demonstrate your remote control programming capabilities. Show 'cool stuff' . Show something unique and different - not just plain vanilla. If your prospective employer seems interested, offer him/her to see the truely custom/professional/expert installation on your own system. Simply asking for a job just ain't going to cut it.

Kevin

I would prefer in most cases to hire someone who has been self-employed.
They know what it is like to make the ends meet.

There is a down side to hiring a formerly self-employed installer, one I've run into a couple of times. Sorry for the negative tilt to what I'm about to say; I don't know you at all and you really sound quite sincere.....

I've interviewed a number of independents looking to work for my company. I can't help but wonder why they are coming to me looking for work, and I think to myself "regular paycheck". Then, I wonder what will happen the next time on of their big former clients calls them at home and offers them a new project or a referral to a friend's big project. I feel like my company is a convienient resting place between stints of being self-employed.

If you were interviewing with my company you would need to be ready to convincingly answer the question "Why would you not go back to working on your own?". Hiring an employee is expensive; they are not immediately productive and profitable. Losing an employee is expensive; someone else needs to step in and pick up the slack. Having someone around for the long term pays the bills for the company.

That being said, I've hired people who used to work on their own, with varying results. I would suggest that when you interview you downplay the "I could never make a positive cash flow happen" and play up the "I love the integration part of the work, and want to grow in that area".

I think that all of us in this part of the industry had to start somewhere, and I would say if you could take some vendor training (which is usually free, or low cost), it might add some value to your resume. I got started doing "hook up's" after work, while I was in college working at Circuit City (I know guys, go ahead, laugh, I do too looking back) and it turned out I was making just as much on the side as I was as a sales person, and from that point, that's all she wrote. So if you have a chance to get a part time job in the electronics world, take some vendor training, get any type of certification (CEDIA certification especially) that relates to the A/V world (or Telcom/Data world for that matter) you can show some value and prove that this is the direction you want to take your career in. I would pay close attention to what Theaterworks had to say, because you will find his comments to be the norm, not the exception.

Good luck

Trey