Jim Lembesis: Creating a Career Without Limits-Lessons from 46 years in the Trade

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Intro:
In a world of rapidly changing technology, some professions remain timeless – and today, we’re diving into the fascinating world of elevator mechanics with a true industry veteran. Meet Jim Lembesis, a professional who’s spent 46 years mastering vertical transportation, from working alongside sports legends at the United Center to installing elevators in Chicago’s iconic Trump Tower. With a career spanning construction, maintenance, and modernization, Jim’s journey is a testament to passion, continuous learning, and the incredible opportunities hidden in skilled trades. Get ready for an inspiring conversation about innovation, mentorship, and why some professionals never want to retire.

Summary:
Jim Lembesis, an elevator mechanic with 46 years of experience, discusses his career in the vertical transportation industry. He highlights the trade’s global opportunities, mentions working on iconic projects like the United Center and Trump Tower, and emphasizes the importance of continuous learning and adapting to new technologies. Jim shares his progression from apprentice to foreman and modernization adjuster, and the rewarding experience of mentoring younger technicians. He underscores the excitement and challenges of the trade, including the necessity of mastering both mechanical and electrical aspects. Jim’s passion for the industry and his willingness to stay active despite his age serve as an inspiration for aspiring elevator mechanics.

Transcript:
Jim Lembesis 0:00
If you want an exciting career, if you want a chance to advance yourself, if you if you want a chance to travel, there’s, there’s so many different aspects to this trade. I know guys that worked in Australia, Singapore, all over all over the world, all over the globe. And if that’s what you want, it’s there for the taking. All you have to do is apply yourself, right? Yeah. And, and there’s not many jobs that I know of that offer that, right?

Matthew Allred 0:38
Hello and welcome to the Elevator Careers Podcast sponsored by the Allred group. I am your host, Matt Allred in this podcast, we talk to the people whose lives and careers are dedicated to the vertical transportation industry to inform and share lessons learned, building upon the foundation of those who have gone before to inspire the next generation of elevator careers

Matthew Allred 1:01
When talent is mission critical. Call the Allred group with industry expertise, top talent and exceptional customer service you need the Allred group on your side, your priority is their priority. Call now, 404-890-0445

Matthew Allred 1:20
In a world of rapidly changing technology, some professions remain timeless, and today we’re diving into the fascinating world of elevator mechanics with a true industry veteran. Meet Jim Lembesis, a professional who spent 46 years mastering vertical transportation from working alongside sports legends at the United Center. To installing elevators in Chicago’s iconic Trump Tower, with a career spanning construction, maintenance and modernization, Jim’s journey is a testament to passion, continuous learning and the incredible opportunities hidden in skilled trades. Get ready for an inspiring conversation about innovation, mentorship and why some professionals never want to retire.

Matthew Allred 2:03
Jim, welcome to the show.

Jim Lembesis 2:05
Thanks for having me, Matt, glad to be here.

Matthew Allred 2:08
Thank you. I’m excited. It’s always, it’s always a pleasure to talk to you, and I’m excited to have you on the show today.

Jim Lembesis 2:14
Thank you. Looking forward to this.

Matthew Allred 2:18
Thank you. Thank you. And especially after, a hard work, yeah, a hard day of work, right? I mean, you’ve been at it

Jim Lembesis 2:24
Yes, absolutely

Matthew Allred 2:26
Probably started super early in the morning, right?

Jim Lembesis 2:28
My day starts at 3am

Matthew Allred 2:30
Oh my, oh my

Matthew Allred 2:34
yeah, wow

Jim Lembesis 2:35
no complaints,

Matthew Allred 2:36
yeah, yeah, well, and you said, you said, You’ve been at this 46 years

Jim Lembesis 2:40
going on 46 years. Yes

Matthew Allred 2:43
that’s, that’s a little while. So how did you get started in the first place?

Jim Lembesis 2:47
My father was an elevator mechanic, and I followed in his footsteps getting into the trade.

Matthew Allred 2:53
Did you ever say to yourself, heck no, there’s no way I’m going to be doing what my dad did.

Jim Lembesis 2:59
No, not really, as a as a little kid, I, you know, you heard all the stories and and when you would get together with other elevator guys, you know, it’s, I kind of knew that’s what I wanted to do.

Matthew Allred 2:59
Cool. Very cool. Yeah, so from an early age, did he get to take you to work sometimes, or did you

Jim Lembesis 3:17
my older brothers, not me as much

Matthew Allred 3:19
Okay, yeah, but you had enough exposure that you’re like, all right

Jim Lembesis 3:24
oh yeah, absolutely, absolutely.

Matthew Allred 3:26
How old were you when you actually got in?

Jim Lembesis 3:29
That was 18 years old, right out of high school

Matthew Allred 3:31
Right on, right on. Never looked back. You’ve never said, Man, I wish I’d have done something else.

Jim Lembesis 3:37
No, no, to be honest with you, I had a a scholarship to be an engineer, and I, and I bypassed that to do this, okay, but this is what I wanted to do. And, you know, yeah, no, no, no regrets.

Matthew Allred 3:51
Well, in a way, you, you’re an engineer, right? You’re, I mean, you’re engineering vertical transportation

Jim Lembesis 3:55
absolutely every, every single day, every single day, we have to make the elevator fit in an existing building. And that’s not easy.

Matthew Allred 4:03
Yeah, even after you started, I’m sure there were hard days, and, you know, especially as an apprentice, or, you know, did you ever wonder what you gotten into?

Jim Lembesis 4:14
a little bit at first, you know, because it was overwhelming. Oh sure, walking in overwhelming and you know your tall buildings, and you’re wondering if you were ever able, going to be able to succeed in it, right, right? And the more I the more I worked at it, and the more I learned that just erased out of my mind

Matthew Allred 4:41
what was it that first really clicked, that you were like, oh yeah, oh yeah, this is it.

Jim Lembesis 4:46
Well, I knew tools and stuff like that before I got in the trade, so that part was easy for me. It was being able to take direction and follow through, because that’s the biggest thing as a young constructor, yeah, is to be able to follow through. And somebody tells you to do something, and they can put their they can put their, I can’t think of the word when they know that you can perform the duty that they’ve asked you to do. And then you follow through, and it’s like you didn’t get many pats on the on the back with the old timers, but when they gave you one, it felt good. You know what I mean?

Matthew Allred 5:28
yeah, and I’m sure that that, especially as they give you that nod, like, alright, Hey, you. You came through for me. You did what I needed to do. I mean, that’s gotta be huge, right? And just building your confidence. That ok ok

Jim Lembesis 5:35
absolutely Exactly, exactly,

Matthew Allred 5:44
very cool. Who are some of your you know, your mentors, maybe your mechanic that just you felt like really believed in you and really helped you get to where you needed to be?

Jim Lembesis 5:53
There was a gentleman by the name of Ed Rudac. He’s been doing this 63 years. He’s still active. Oh, wow. He’s 83 years old, and he’s still an elevator mechanic. But that was probably my first guy and and he ended up he was actually my father’s apprentice back in the in the 50s. So so that was my, my first mentor, you know, and he was, like, the the top guy back in the back in the day, and he took me in. He showed me things, and I was able to keep up with what he was teaching me, yeah, and it just blossomed from there.

Matthew Allred 6:46
That’s awesome. That’s amazing. What were some of your maybe hard lessons were there? Were there some things that were, like, difficult to learn, or maybe, you know, painful in the process?

Jim Lembesis 6:59
Electrical, the electrical part was hard for me, because I didn’t have no background whatsoever on that, right? But building, the building, the components and stuff like that, I was able to perform pretty easily, not easily. I don’t want to make that sound arrogant or nothing, but I was able to, maybe, yeah, I was able to grasp it and perform that. That part of it, the electrical, took more, more time for me to get comfortable.

Matthew Allred 7:27
Yeah, it was, in a way, it’s kind of kind of invisible, right? And if you, if you get it just wrong, it’s gonna light you up. I mean, yeah, there’s some hidden danger there. And make that contact

Jim Lembesis 7:38
Yes, yes. And it’s not so much that it’s just making, making all the apparatuses work electrically, you know, yeah, build it. You got to build it, and then electrically you got to get it to work. You know what I’m saying?

Matthew Allred 7:51
Well, yeah. And if you go frying a controller board or something, I mean, that’s, that’s a big deal. Yes, yes, yeah. So what was your What was your progression through? I mean, I think you told me you’re you’re tell me about the project. Your Well, I’m jumping ahead of myself. What was like your progression through the through the trade?

Jim Lembesis 8:12
My progression through the trade was, I was an apprentice back then. We called them helpers. They weren’t called the apprentices. And I was a helper for the minimum of four years, which was the standard back then.And then I was on a big project, and they needed guys to know how to get that were certified welders. So I was very good at that part. And so they put you on the temporary mechanic. Temporary mechanic gets, gets the payable mechanic. He performs all the duties of mechanic. But I was just there to strictly weld, so Okay, walking beams and welding brackets and things to that nature. And right from right from that, I did that for a year, and I went as a, as a foreman, installing my own, my own jobs, and I was a, a big project Foreman at the age of 22 years old, 23 years old, That’s big. Yeah, yeah, it was an opportunity, and my boss put some faith into me, and I did good. The job. Did good. The install went pretty well on time, and I got another project and another project, and I did that for, I was a forum about 11 years, and then I went into the maintenance part of it.

Matthew Allred 9:45
Okay, cool, cool. So, so obviously, a lot of construction upfront, and then you moved to maintenance and did that for a while. Is that right?

Jim Lembesis 9:55
Yeah, I did that for 21 years, and then I went into the modernization part of it, where I was in a modernization adjuster, okay, and I’ve been doing that for probably the last 11 years or so.

Matthew Allred 10:10
Okay, so it’s still in that net mod adjuster role. You really kind of done everything.

Jim Lembesis 10:15
Yes, yes, I’ve hit all the bases.

Matthew Allred 10:20
Yep. Tell me what. What would you say is, is one of the most exciting projects you’ve ever worked on.

Jim Lembesis 10:29
I had the United Center in Chicago, where the Chicago Blackhawks and the Chicago Bulls play, so it was exciting, like when the Blackhawks went to the Stanley Cup against the Boston Bruins. I was at every home game. Oh, wow. They had because in case something went wrong

Matthew Allred 10:46
You were getting paid to be there, right? It’s like, somebody’s gotta be here.

Jim Lembesis 10:51
We had Comiskey Park Chicago, White Sox baseball team, and we were there a lot during games and stuff that was kind of neat. I was part of a lot of big office building projects, the Trump Tower in Chicago. That was a, that was the first 100 story building that was built in Chicago since the Sears Tower. Oh, wow. Okay, yeah. So that was, that was huge. That was, I went in there as a maintenance man, though, right after the right after the installation, I took all control of that buildings.

Matthew Allred 11:26
Very cool. Well, in a lot of ways, you, you kind of got a backstage pass, right? You get to see everything that’s going on. I mean, oh yeah, there’s kind of no place you can’t go in there because you got to make sure that it’s, it’s gonna do it’ thing

Jim Lembesis 11:40
Yeah, absolutely. Sometimes you’re rubbing elbows with movie stars and music performers that you’d never you know think about before you know.

Matthew Allred 11:51
Hey everyone, thank you for listening. This is Matt with a brief message from our sponsor, the Allred group, has been recruiting elevator industry talent for over 14 years. If you were looking to grow your business and hire great people, contact the Allred group at Allred group.com that’s A, L, L, R, E, D, G, R, O U, P.com, and talk with Matt and his team about how they can assist you. And now back to the show.

Jim Lembesis 12:15
So you told me a little bit about, you know, being in the United Center, rubbing shoulders with with sports heroes. And what was that like?

Jim Lembesis 12:24
That was a blast. I mean, like, I, like, I was telling you, Michael Jordan scored 35 points in a game, and the next, the next morning, we’re razzing him as he’s going in for practice at the United Center. Then he couldn’t score more than 35 but he was a good sport. He was very good sport about it. You know, we’re, we would go back and forth. Put it that way.

Matthew Allred 12:47
No, that’s awesome. I mean, just just you had that opportunity, absolutely, you know, that you were there and could, yeah, could get to know a little bit

Jim Lembesis 12:55
And especially parking my little service van next to their $150,000 vehicle. Oh, sure. And I always say, Don’t scratch my truck

Matthew Allred 13:07
Right, right, right? That’s amazing. Yeah, it’s just, that’s something I hadn’t really thought of. Is, yeah, you know that again, back to the backstage pass, right? You You’re gonna, you’re gonna be there when no one else is probably, you know, working on it. And right get to know, the team gets in, you know?

Jim Lembesis 13:07
Well, they they see your face, and once they see your face, over and over again, that the small talk starts, you know what I mean, like the morning and stuff like that. And then next thing, you’re, you’re, you’re having a conversation. And that’s kind of neat, you know?

Matthew Allred 13:38
Yeah, yeah, it’s not an experience I’ve ever had. And people will probably get, yeah, right, because you’re, you’re in, in those important, important places, and it’s like,

Jim Lembesis 13:50
And they know that, you know, and they they know you’re important, you’re part of the building, you know what? I mean? Yep. So it’s really neat

Matthew Allred 13:59
Yeah, yeah. Well, if you know, the elevator acts up, he’d probably razz you a little bit about it too.

Jim Lembesis 14:07
My elevators don’t act up

Matthew Allred 14:09
Exactly. Yeah, no, it’s good. That’s good. Sure you’re on it. What? What would you say? I mean, you talked about, you know, the gentleman that’s in his 80s, still doing this work. What is it that drives elevator mechanics, not all of them, right, but a lot of them to stay and do the work. I know a guy in his 90s. I asked him if he’s ever gonna retire. He’s like, I don’t want to retire. What is that? That from what you’re from what you see?

Jim Lembesis 14:35
It’s just the love of being around the guys, the being good at what you do. You know, once you get good at what you do, and nobody’s ever great, but everybody you can be good at what you do, and then you’re teaching younger guys, and everybody kind of looks up to you for the knowledge. You know what I mean. I think that kind of keeps you going, you know, like, Hey, I’m having a crown, can you help me fix it? Either it’s on the telephone or you go to that job site and help that person in person that kind of keeps you going, you know what I mean?

Matthew Allred 15:11
Yeah, well, and I mean, in 46 years, you’ve probably seen a few problems that you’re like, you know what? I can help you with that? Because Absolutely, I’ve worked on that. Yeah. And honestly, there aren’t that many people throughout the world that they could call except people like you. They’re like, hey, you know you’ve been on this I need your help.

Jim Lembesis 15:32
Absolutely, I have people from different parts of the country that call me. They see my profile on LinkedIn. Let me give this guy a try.

Matthew Allred 15:40
I’m trying to work on an elevator here in Mobile, Alabama, and I looked you up

Jim Lembesis 15:45
It happens. It happens. And it’s a guy from Miami, you know, and it’s, I had a guy in the Bahamas call me, and the company was thrown out of a hotel that was under construction, just getting up in a resort, and I helped them through the whole process of getting those cars ready to for public use. Yeah, and I had a standing invitation to go to that hotel whenever I wanted. I never took them up on it, but it was funny, you know? I said, No, we’re just here to help each other. You know what I’m saying?

Matthew Allred 15:49
No, it’s amazing. I mean, even if you did take them up on it, build the build the relationship. It’s like, sure, you know, sure, come look me up when you’re in Chicago.

Jim Lembesis 15:50
He’s called me after that running into problems and stuff. So it’s good, it’s good. It makes you feel good when you can help somebody, right? Yeah, yeah, somebody that’s struggling and trying to find the answer

Matthew Allred 16:24
I think, I think that has to be part of what makes it so rewarding. And honestly, that’s part of what drives my my interest and my desire in talking to people like you, that they get so excited and love what you do, to be able to say you love what you do after that many years. Yeah, a lot of people that can’t say that.

Jim Lembesis 17:02
I have coworkers that look at me cross eyed when I say that.

Matthew Allred 17:07
Maybe they, they just haven’t, maybe, maybe gone over that hump yet, where they

Jim Lembesis 17:11
It might not have clicked yet. Yeah, yeah, absolutely.

Matthew Allred 17:14
The confidence and the the years of experience and the opportunity to give and to, you know, just the the interaction. I mean, it’s, it’s a special community and, and I’m wondering, you know, just in my own mind, like I’m wondering if other industries could learn something from this, from the elevator industry, right? To have employees that are happy to go to work, that are willing to get up at 3am that are willing to, you know, you probably could have retired a few years ago, and here you are

Jim Lembesis 17:44
When it’s time I will, but I don’t know when that time is going to be, you know?

Matthew Allred 17:49
Yeah, no, hurry, right, right, right. So what do you what would you say you love the most? I mean, you brought up a few people, sorry, a few things. What? What do you love the most about the work?

Jim Lembesis 18:01
The most I love about the elevator industry is the constant changing of technology, and it forces you to either learn or fall back, right? So if you don’t, if you say, I’ve learned is all I’m going to learn, you’re going to fall back. And other people, other people are going to get ahead of you. Not, not as far, like it’s a race or anything, but they’re going to get the big projects. And if you want to be the the guy that they lean on to solve problems, you’re going to want that, knowledge, right? So you’re going to keep changing with the times. And when I started, it was all relay logic, the microprocessor part of it wasn’t invented yet, right? It wasn’t out there for us. And then when that came on board, I said, Oh, I think I could do this, you know? And I learned my my way around it. And so the knowledge thing is, to me, is number one, you know, I’m always looking to learn something new. And learning something new is exciting

Matthew Allred 19:11
Yeah, tell me a little bit about how you how do you, I guess, apply yourself, you know, what is it that you do to kind of push into new knowledge? And, you know, is it about books? Is it about hands on? Is it a combination? Do you take classes and what’s it look like?

Jim Lembesis 19:25
It’s absolutely, it’s absolutely a combination of everything you just said. It’s sometimes they have, they send us to school. I was just at school six months ago for something that we were working on. It wasn’t a long class. It was just, you know, introduction, and then we take it from there, right? Your common sense can pretty much solve the rest of it. It’s just different, different processes, different terminology, and you just got to you sometimes you need a little help. Grasping in that part of it. And then once you get it, once you know how it works on one thing you could pretty much solve going down the line. It’s just symbols are different, or, like, um, languages, like, languages are different, right? Yeah, so you go to you go to a different country, you have to learn how to communicate in a different language, right? That’s basically what it is with different different companies and processes, you know for sure, yeah. So that’s, that’s a big part of it

Matthew Allred 20:34
Yeah, yeah. So do you, it sounds like you, you know when, when there’s a new class opportunity, you’re one of the first to raise your hand and say, hey, sign me up.

Jim Lembesis 20:42
Absolutely. I always have been. Always have been.

Matthew Allred 20:43
Yeah, I think that’s awesome that you’re, you’re hungry for that knowledge. Because I, I do know people that sometimes it’s like, oh my gosh, if I have to learn one more thing, why can’t I just stick with the old way? Why can’t I just stay with what I know? And isn’t that good enough? And then it’s easy to fall behind, right?

Jim Lembesis 21:00
Exactly? And that’s exactly what I was saying. You do fall behind, and if you fall behind, it makes it that much harder to get back up there, right? Oh, so if as long as, as long as you try to keep up with the stuff that’s that’s happening around you, that’s changing, I mean, the rest is gravy, right?

Matthew Allred 21:18
Right, right, well, and I mean, technology is changing constantly, right? So even Absolutely, doesn’t take long to fall behind.

Jim Lembesis 21:26
No, no, no. So if you were a switchboard operator and you didn’t want to go into the new way today, they did it. You saw you never caught up, right?

Matthew Allred 21:36
You got laid off a long time ago, right? Game over.

Matthew Allred 21:40
For sure, for sure. So how often do you do you go to classes? I mean, is this like every six months? Is it every three months? Is it once? Twice a year?

Jim Lembesis 21:51
It depends when, like, if the company has a new product they’re rolling out, okay, they’ll send certain individuals to training to make you aware of of all the changes that that the new product is going to have, and and then they, they rely on us to spread that training to the field technicians. And we kind of, we bring it out to them in real life, right? And on job sites, right, to help them jump into that new stuff.

Matthew Allred 21:51
Cool, cool. So you, you, and I don’t know how much you can say about this, maybe it’s totally confidential, but you talked about working on some new equipment that you’ve never you’ve never seen. It’s pretty different.

Jim Lembesis 22:20
Well, it’s not confidential. It’s my company. Was bought by a major company. I was an I was working for an independent company and Schindler elevator. And my background, I’ve never had a background of working on Schindler elevator equipment. So now I’m, I’m tasked with installing it and then commissioning it to turn over to the public.

Matthew Allred 23:04
Gotcha. Gotcha. Okay, yeah, it’s just, just a different flavor of equipment does the same thing, essentially, but absolutely, never touched it, if you’ve never

Jim Lembesis 23:12
Right. And the technical part of it is the part that I’m learning, and I’m having a blast, right? I had an engineer on my job site last week, and he taught me so many things, I probably forgot half of them, but the things he was teaching me was, was exciting, right? It was, it was, it was neat, learning how somebody else does something, right? I could do it somebody else’s equipment, the stuff I already knew, but to learn it in a whole different set of eyes, right? Yeah, how, how they’re doing it. I thought it was cool. I thought it was really neat.

Matthew Allred 23:50
That’s awesome. So, like, a field engineer, Sue, you know, I don’t know if he designed it. It’s probably his job to go out and teach everybody, Hey, this is how this works.

Jim Lembesis 23:59
Exactly. He goes job to job all over the country. Yeah. So it was neat. It was, it was, it was very educational

Matthew Allred 24:07
Yeah, well, and then it’s up to you to, like you said, to adjust to hand it off to, I mean, you’re ultimately responsible you and your your team, to make sure that this is done right

Jim Lembesis 24:17
Absolutely, and I’m passing that down to the to the to the people on my job that are working with me, you know?

Matthew Allred 24:24
Yeah, yeah, that’s awesome, yeah. So I’m just curious how many, how many different like apprentices, have you trained over the years? Any, any guess?

Jim Lembesis 24:40
In the hundreds, in the hundreds, when, a when a when a guy that’s that’s been with you and you tried to teach him everything that you think you know, and he gets, he’s successful later on, that’s really rewarding, right? Yeah, because, yeah, because you had a little hand in that. And then every time you see him, he thanks you, or shakes your hand, you know. And it’s like, that’s awesome. You know what I mean?

Matthew Allred 25:07
That’s cool. Because how, how much do you, I mean, are you able to keep up with or, you know, do they reach out a lot? The ones that you’ve kind of

Jim Lembesis 25:14
Absolutely, absolutely, they want to see how you’re doing, you know? And they still want to bounce questions,

Matthew Allred 25:20
I’m sure, I’m sure, in some ways, you know, it’s almost like a parent child thing, like I raised that person

Jim Lembesis 25:26
yeah, absolutely, absolutely, I remember you when you’re a young kid, you know?

Matthew Allred 25:32
Oh yeah, yeah. Like 20-30, years later, right?

Jim Lembesis 25:35
Oh, my gosh. There’s guys that helped me and are already retiring.

Matthew Allred 25:39
Oh, wow. Yeah. Well, and honestly, you know, just talking about kind of new people coming in and the new generation, that’s part of the reason, you know, I wanted to have this conversation with you, is just that sure, you know, it seems like, from my perspective, you know, there’s a sometimes it’s hard to attract the right, the right talent. I think, I think there are a lot of super sharp, smart, you know, people coming up, but they may not always know that. Oh, there’s an amazing career there. They neverwould have gussed right? Just getting that message out, that the fact that you’ve been at it, that you still love it, that you love learning, that you’re constantly learning, I think, is, is a message that certainly a lot of the youth coming up would would benefit to hear.

Jim Lembesis 26:27
Sure, sure, like for me myself, I had a little bit of a disconnect with the younger people coming in, and now that I’m working with them again, and all these young, young bodies, right? It’s kind of, it’s kind of cool, because they have a different spin on, on what they grew up knowing, right? Computers And stuff. I mean, that’s all second nature to them, and to show them how it applies to elevator work is, it’s kind of, it’s kind of neat, you know?

Matthew Allred 27:00
That is neat. And it’s probably like, yeah, they can. They can teach you how to use some app on their phone, and you can teach them how to, you know how to apply that knowledge elsewhere.

Jim Lembesis 27:11
I had my phone fixed today, matter of fact.

Matthew Allred 27:13
Well, I, yeah, I have to, have to go to my 16 year old to get help with my phone all the time, right?

Jim Lembesis 27:19
Exactly, exactly. It’s just, it’s just a whole different breed of guys or technicians coming in, you know? And itand they got the, they got them the computer part down, and now I’m trying to teach them the mechanical part, right? Sure. They’ll catch on to the computer part without a problem, for sure, but they still have to know how the gears mesh. You know what I’m saying?

Matthew Allred 27:49
Well, and the safety, right? Maybe, maybe they haven’t been exposed to some of the risks of of whatever highcharge points, you know, enclosed spaces. I mean, I’m sure that’s a whole, whole new world for them.

Jim Lembesis 28:03
Yeah, exactly, exactly. And that’s, that’s how you got to, you know, reel them in a little bit, and so they don’t get too far ahead, and they learn that part, first, first and foremost

Matthew Allred 28:16
Absolutely, absolutely. Well, Jim, we’re getting kind of close, you know, to on our time here. But last question I want to ask you is, you know, kind of talking about the the new generation coming in. What advice would you give to somebody who’s maybe thinking about the industry, or maybe they’re just starting out? What would you say to them?

Jim Lembesis 28:34
If you want an exciting career, if you want a chance to advance yourself, if you if you want a chance to travel, there’s, there’s so many different aspects to this trade. I know guys that worked in Australia, Singapore, all over the all over the world, all over the globe. And if that’s what you want, it’s there for the taking. All you have to do is apply yourself, right? Yeah, and there’s not many jobs that I know of that offer that, right?

Matthew Allred 29:13
Absolutely, yeah. And I’ve talked to people kind of the same way, right? Once you learn your trade, yeah, you can write your tickets so many different directions

Jim Lembesis 29:22
Absolutely. And that’s, that’s the point I was trying to make. You know to me, that’s, you can’t pay for something like that, you know what? I mean, yeah, yeah, yeah. That’s, that’s, that’s the, that’s the thing that keeps the job interesting.

Matthew Allred 29:40
Perfect. Jim, thank you for being with me today. I’ve enjoyed every minute

Jim Lembesis 29:44
Thank you. I enjoyed it as well. Thank you.

Matthew Allred 29:46
You bet Good luck to you and stay safe out there

Jim Lembesis 29:49
You as well. Thanks, buddy.

Matthew Allred 29:50
Thanks. Thank you for listening to the elevator careers podcast, sponsored by the Allred group, a leader in elevator industry recruiting. Please visit our YouTube channel at Elevator Careers, or check us out online at elevatorcareers.net. Please like and subscribe and until next time, stay safe.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai