Below are some questions we each asked a family member or friend about meaningful work:
How many years have you been at your current job?
I have been in my current job since 1988. Timco Construction has employed me since 1977 in various roles. (Tim McKee)
I have been at my job for 5 years. (Brandon Moses)
I have been in the Guilford County School system for about 13 years (Mrs. Baldwin)
I have run Robert K. Daw Real Estate for 24 years. My father, also Robert, started the company and though I did not take over the company right out of college, it was something I wanted to do all along. (Robert Daw)
What is your current job title?
I am the President and Chief Executive Officer of Timco Construction, Inc. a national provider of specialized construction services for the healthcare industry. I started with the company in 1982
I am an Insurance representative.
School social worker
What industry are you in?
We are in the construction and real estate development business, specializing primarily in the healthcare industry. We build healthcare projects in all over the United States, especially in the upper Midwest and southwest regions.
Medical insurance
Public education
I am in Residential and Commercial Real Estate. Most of my business comes from the residential sector, usually medium size to medium-large homes, but I also do a fair amount of work in the commercial sector, such as renting office space. I also work closely with builders that plan and construct homes or neighborhoods who then give me the rights to sell the properties. The real estate market was hit hard a few years ago, obviously, but luckily my business was not as the only thing changed for me was people were buying more smaller homes.
What is your favorite part of your job?
The favorite part of my job is watching projects come together. I love seeing buildings go up, watching the brickwork and the walls get built. It’s very exciting. What makes you want to come to work every day? Without question, it’s the people I work with that make me want to come to work every day. I have an incredible team of employees that I could not do without. They are an awesome group!!
What makes you want to come to work every day? I love the people I work with (and the paycheck!)
My favorite part of my job is that I have right much autonomy to take the actions I feel are necessary. I like that my supervisor trusts my judgment and doesn’t look over my shoulder very much.
My favorite part of the job is helping younger couples buy their first homes. Because of recent economic struggles, as well as a disturbing trend which shows younger buyers strapped with enormous college or graduate school debt, it is often hard for younger couples to buy homes. I enjoy helping them sift through ways to pay less and I love driving around with them to show homes because though they are often somewhat clueless as to the process, they are always very excited. For me, there is nothing better than selling a house to a young couple and checking up on them after they have gotten all settled in. Also, it does not hurt that if I do a good job and they are satisfied, I may have earned a customer for life.
Do you think your life is better because of the job you have?
My life is unmistakably better due to my job. You need to love what you do in order to be fulfilled. It’s a challenging, highly competitive business but a very rewarding one at the same time. I look forward to work each day. When I am on vacation, I start getting antsy to get back at the office before I return home!!
I think it is somewhat better.
I really like the people I work with . . . both students and co-workers. . . and I think they like me. I believe that now and again I make a difference in someone’s life. I believe that I have been instrumental in helping some (not every student, but some) of our students get their high school diploma and I think a high school education is critically important. A high school diploma can literally change a person’s life and the effect can “trickle down” for generations.
I do. I really enjoy working with people and meeting different types of people; I am afforded this unique opportunity every day. Also, I get to work out of my home and keep a pretty flexible schedule, so I have always been able to make it to family events or my kids’ games with minimal strain. Being a real estate agent breeds as “Eat what you kill” mentality, which I like. I know that if I put the work in a do a great job, I can have a great year financially while meeting a lot of valuable contacts along the way; many of my good friends I met because I sold their home. Finally, as I alluded to before, I enjoy being a real estate agent because buying a home is a major decision for many people; if I help make this process easier and achieve good value for them, I get a great satisfaction out of it.
What is one thing you would change about your job?
I suppose the one drawback to my job is the long hours that I put in. I regularly work 60-70 hours per week. Sometimes that gets to be a grind. If I could keep it to around 50 hours per week, I could enjoy more recreational activities.
I would make it a 3 day work week
Well, everybody wants to make more money, but salaries in education are different from state to state and for the state I live in, my salary is about what it should be. . . . there’s no use to be greedy. I guess I’d like for the profession of social work to get more respect. I think in the media social workers are presented as people who aren’t very smart, who are unable to see the big picture and who want to take people’s children away from them, which is not at all representative of the profession.
I learned the business growing up from my father, also Robert K. Daw. He taught me that you may be able to charge someone more a get a few extra bucks out of a deal, but you cannot sustain this in the long run. If you treat every client them same and always treat them with fairness and respect, you will have many more repeat customers and this source of revenue will far outweigh skimping some clients by charging a higher rate or not striving to get the most value for them when buying or selling a house. What I see in the industry now is real estate agents that are not so concerned with their image, they are concerned only about getting theirs, which is not positively conducive to building long-term relationships or the reputation of us brokers as a whole. I cannot tell you how many times I have heard something along the lines of “last time I worked with a broker from X Company I thought I was getting a great deal, but I got screwed!” Too many agents are too young a will do anything to distinguish themselves at the bigger companies, which distorts the service we provide. If I could, I would change that about my job and the industry as a whole.
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