Advice for aspiring roofers
Over the past decade, there has been a renewed interest in the trades e.g., roofing, plumbing, HVAC. That makes sense – we’ll always need these skillsets – no matter how the technological landscape evolves over time. A second favorable trend for the trade is that more contractors are also professionalizing and growing out of family businesses into well-organized, scaled enterprises. As these businesses professionalize, opportunities will expand beyond the field (sales, quality control, laborers) to the office in areas such as customer service, accounting, marketing, and operations.
Whether you are looking to work in the field, the office, or somewhere in between, the trades can be a great career. Skilled trade professionals are in high demand as discussed earlier. Additionally, many skills can be learned on the job or through apprenticeship without a college degree. The Wall Street Journal wrote an excellent article about the factors driving renewed interest among GenZ in the trades. You can read it here: https://www.wsj.com/lifestyle/careers/gen-z-trades-jobs-plumbing-welding-a76b5e43.
At A&E, we do what we can to cultivate talent and drive the industry toward greater professionalization. Several of our senior leaders started out as roofing laborers and were promoted into office leadership roles. We also only promote qualified field staff into sales and quality control roles because we believe that nothing serves as a substitute for the experience of spending time on a roof when it comes to helping customers make informed decisions and holding our field teams to the highest quality control standards.
But there’s a lot that happens behind the scenes at A&E Brothers Roofing that does not require experience on a roof. We are interested first and foremost in thoughtful, kind people looking to expand their horizons. There are plenty of opportunities available in the trades to build a steady, meaningful, and long-lasting career without having worked directly in the trade.
Never roofed but want to be in roofing?
There are plenty of opportunities available and many companies, including A&E Brothers Roofing, offer robust training programs.
Here are a few career options:
- Permitting – if your goal is to grow in construction, permitting is one of the best ways and a highly sought after position among employers. You’ll gain exposure to the full roofing process. This includes detailed understanding of roofing systems and materials. Permitting requires a high attention to detail, strong customer service skills, patience when dealing with the cities, and a strong desire to understand the more technical aspects of roofing.
- Bookkeeping and accounting – As roofing companies become more professionalized, the finance function is a major growth area. People who understand billing, invoicing, payables and the overall finances of a contractor have a highly valuable skillset. Accounting professionals need to be quanititatively-oriented, have good people skills, and know how to work cross-functionally with other departments to get their job done.
- Administration – More than you think happens in a roofing company’s office. That’s where we schedule inspections, ensure estimators are assigned to the right opportunities, and coordinate production and logistics. Administrators must use their discretion to ensure that these processes run seamlessly. Administrative professionals need to have strong attention to detail and the ability to work with a variety of people. A good administrator should take the perspective that no task is too big or too small when it comes to keeping a roofing company running smoothly.
- Customer service – In larger roofing companies, customer service is its own department. Customer service often entails being an advocate for the customer and ensuring that projects are being done on time with good communication both internally and externally. Being a customer-first organization is what often what helps a company rise above their competition. A strong customer service representative will take this mission to heart and be committed to ensuring happy outcomes.
A&E Brothers Roofing posts on all the regular job boards regularly, so keep your eyes open. We’re also planning on having a career day to help people learn how they can get into the roofing industry at local educational institutes.
Sources:
Journal, T.-P. C. | P. by P. C. for T. W. S. (n.d.). How Gen Z Is Becoming the Toolbelt Generation. WSJ. https://www.wsj.com/lifestyle/careers/gen-z-trades-jobs-plumbing-welding-a76b5e43