As a teenager and throughout college, I worked for a construction and real estate development company in a rural area of Northern California. I worked in the office and ran errands, and it wasn’t uncommon to see me pounding nails and pouring cement with the rest of the crew. Although I had an unconventional job for a teenage girl, I proudly held my own and gained invaluable experience that I’m still drawing on.

Now a homeowner myself, I have the opportunity to be on the opposite end of the table from the local contractors. In tackling our own remodel, my previous experience helped me to choose which contractors I wanted working on my home. Probably the most important value I learned through my work experience is the importance of maintaining a strong reputation.

Not only is the quality of your work important, but so is your customer service, your follow-up, and your follow-through. In a small area, if you failed in one of these areas, the word spread quickly. Even something as small as your crew neglecting to be polite to someone walking by could negatively affect the company’s reputation. Prices and timelines were equally important. If you overcharged a client or significantly underestimated the timeline for the project, it would come back to bite you.

Often involved in site clean-up, I remember how the general contractor stressed over the cleanliness of the job site. Not only was it important to safety, but it also reflected on the quality of the company’s workmanship.  

As a homeowner, it was important to me to find these same values in my contractors. When selecting who was to complete each aspect of my project, I remembered the high standard our company maintained, and compared each potential contractor to that standard. A contractor that maintains a tight ship will be more inclined to apply that same meticulous precision to your project that someone who doesn’t have it together.  

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