Jeff Bond was shelling out upwards of $3,000 a month on one name brand job board to search for just one tech and finding mostly unqualified candidates.

“I decided this was taking up too much of my time and money, and there had to be a better way,” says Bond, who along with a partner run AC Works 365, an HVAC company in Weatherford, Texas. “But I couldn’t find a better way, so I took a huge step outside of my comfort zone and started a tech company.”

The result of Bond’s quest is Trade Jobs (gettradejobs.com), a national online platform that connects employers with skilled workers in the HVAC, electrical and plumbing trades.

“Why doesn’t our industry have its own job board,” he adds.

After months of beta testing, Bond officially launched the platform last November. So far, he says Trade Jobs already has 49,000 candidates looking for new opportunities.

For employers, a job posting at Trade Jobs can cost as little as $250 for one month, Bond says. The site offers packages to post a job or jobs from month to month, as well as an annual membership to post unlimited jobs throughout the year.

For job seekers, the platform is free to use. They can fill out a profile and search job opportunities at will, streamlining the recruiting process and saving time and money for employer and employee.

PHC News: Tell us about yourself and how you got into the trades.

Bond: My entry into the industry is a little different than most. I went to college and majored in agriculture education and began a career teaching at a high school in the Dallas-Fort Worth metro area, which is where I was born and raised. Both my parents worked in the local public school system so it just seemed to me when I growing up that that was the way to go. And I enjoyed teaching. But around six years into it, I just started to feel that this just wasn’t for me. Long story short, I ended going into sales and was later recruited to be the general manager for a family owned HVAC business in 2016.

PHC News: So you had no formal training in the PHC trades?

Bond: I didn’t, but that didn’t deter me either. This was at a small shop that had started in 1997. The owner was having some health issues when I joined, and to make another long story short, after working for a couple of years, I and a partner started a plan with the owner to buy the business, which we began in 2018 and finished in 2019.

My business partner had experience working as a regional manager for a large manufacturer so he had a solid business background. And, me, I’m a talker and a people guy, so we kind of divided and conquered. He took over general management. I took over sales and marketing. We set about modernizing the business taking it from paper tickets to tablets, for example, and built a better internet presence. By then, we rebranded as AC Works 365. We’re a residential and commercial HVAC business with a primary focus on service and replacement. 

And while I’m busy now with running Trade Jobs, AC Works 365 is still very much an ongoing business.

PHC News: So tell us about how Trade Jobs came to be.

Bond: No one reading this needs me to tell them how hard it is to hire a tech. But I guess I’d go a step further and add how hard it is to find a qualified tech, at least when it comes to using the national job boards. I don’t think we need to name names because we all know the ones I’m talking about.

We’re a small company and in 2021 we lost a great tech. Now, what typically happens is that the owner gets back in the truck and goes back to making service calls. But for my partner and me, with no trade experience, that just wasn’t an option.

We certainly checked in with industry partners for leads on anyone looking to make a move, and we ran local help wanted ads, too. But we also posted on one name brand job board, and we ended up spending upwards of $3,000 a month. What we’d get was a batch of 20 applicants and most weren’t even qualified. Many weren’t even in the AC business. I think a lot of people during the pandemic were just looking for any kind of work. And I can understand that, but we’re spending money and taking the time to sift through applications, and we really got nothing. And keep in mind, all we really needed was one tech!

We did end up hiring a guy who lived a little out of our service area, but we had to see if it would work. Within 30 days, he totaled a service vehicle and was fired.

PHC News: Back to square one. What did you do then?

Bond: We did end up finally finding someone who’s still with us and doing great. But the whole process was aggravating to say the very least. And we want to grow and to do that we need good people to hire. We all know about contractors who have freshly wrapped trucks and the phones are ringing, but there isn’t anyone to get behind the wheel of that truck and go out make some money. And one day I was driving into work listening to a tech podcast and these guys are just bouncing business ideas off each other and one idea that they came up with was for niche job boards. And it made me think of people I know in the oil and gas industry, for example, and they’re not posting on any national one-for-all-and-all-for-one job board. They’re using very specific job boards tailored just for the oil and gas community.

That’s what I set out to do. One national job board for the skilled trades that was simple to use and also less expensive than the alternatives.

I worked on Trade Jobs and beta tested it here in the Dallas-Fort Worth area. We got plenty of feedback including from business owners, techs and trade schools to make it the best it can be.

PHC News: How does Trade Jobs work?

Bond: Trade Jobs helps companies and potential employers find people with specific credentials for the trade. Companies post open job positions — at a fraction of competitors’ prices – and are matched with job seekers’ profiles that meet the required qualifications and experience level. Job seekers can fill out a profile and search job opportunities at no cost. The combination allows for a streamlined recruiting process that saves time and money.

And it’s not just meant for techs either; we want CSRs and dispatchers to find work, too.

For employers, there are three levels of subscriptions options based on what you might need. 

We have a starter, a professional and a master level. Our starter level lets a business create its company profile. They are able to post as many jobs as they want. They don’t have the ability to search the database. This level is really just a great place for businesses to keep open job posts and always keep something up and going. We encourage a lot of businesses, even if you’re not hiring, to keep a post up there because you’re going to be able to build that candidate bank.

Our professional level is the next level up. Now, they have the ability to search the database. They have the ability to go out, find people, really work the database and see who’s looking and have the ability to reach out to them.

And then we have our master level. That’s the top level. They get all the perks I’ve mentioned, but at that level we also do a personal interview with the company. We go through and see if they’re a master level company to us. What kind of benefits do they offer their team members? Are they offering uniforms? Do they have wrap vehicles? Do they have a website? Do they have a Chamber of Commerce presence? And if you’re considered a master, your profile gets our trade job certified master logo on it so that candidates looking know your top dog and all of your posts are flagged with that star and stay at the top.

Depending on what you want, companies can purchase a monthly subscription or go with a discounted annual rate.

PHC News: Other than job posts, what else does the site offer.

Bond: We have a helpful documents section that includes downloadable information on acing a job interview, mastering employee onboarding and even examples of job posts.

We’re also looking at adding several things such as background check capability. We’re looking at adding some testing features where, say, I want a service technician who’s got X amount of experience, I can actually choose to have them take an online test that they submit with their candidate profile. That’s a great one that we’re looking at. We’re also looking at advertising opportunities, such as partnerships with tool makers and education companies that could offer discounts to Trade Jobs members.

So we’ve got a lot of that stuff in the works. But right now we’re starting with the meat and potatoes.

PHC News: And we know you’re just getting started, but what’s been the reaction to Job Boards up to now?

Bond: You can use Job Boards anywhere in the U.S. and Canada. We have built 49,000 candidate profiles in 49 of the 50 states. I’m looking at you, Rhode Island!