I got into this business in 1999, installing old hardwired alarm panels for an ADT sub-dealer. I was about eighteen — too young to go to the bar with the boys after work. Everything was hardwired back then, and I learned the trade from the ground up, one panel at a time.
From there I worked my way through the industry. I was the security manager for Krazy Kiley's while helping Sasktel Securtek with their home manager service. I did a stint with ADT in Winnipeg, spent a number of years with RMD Security, and ran the service department at Elite Security as their service manager.
Then I stepped out of the trade for a while and became an electrician — a four-year apprenticeship, a Red Seal journeyman license, and years on the tools. I got good at it. I also got sick of getting laid off. So when I heard ADT was hiring again, I went back.
I landed at ADT right around the time Telus bought them. I worked as a field technician — installs and service calls, the work I'd always done. Then Telus offered me a different kind of job: senior learning specialist, creating and delivering training programs for technicians across Canada. I loved it — getting to pass on everything I'd learned, all the knowledge and skills that made me a good technician and installer over the years, to the next generation of techs across the country. I did that for a couple of years, until Telus laid me off.
Their field operations team found out I was a free agent and asked me to come back as a subcontractor. So I did — a lot of work for Telus customers over the years, the same high-quality service I'd always provided.
Then this summer, Telus decided they didn't want local subcontractors anymore. They signed one big national provider and let all of us go.