Windy city workforce

This department spotlights a relatively recent addition to the workforce, focusing on the person’s educational or working background, daily responsibilities, challenges, passions, frustrations and outlook for his or her future in the field.

Name: Vince Meno
Age: 27
Company: Midway Moving and Storage, Inc.
Title: Senior Sales Representative
College Path: The Ohio State University

How you ended up here: I heard about the job at Midway Moving through my friend, Josh Terry. I was working in sales for a telecom company downtown, and I was looking for a new job that would match my personality a little better. When I came in for the interview and saw how diverse and easygoing the entire workforce was at Midway, I knew this would be a good place to start a new career path.

How long you’ve been at it: I’ve been at Midway for two years — although, I’ve been in sales for five years.

Who you answer to, if anyone: It’s a smaller office staff, so I basically have two superiors: 1.) My sales manager, Charles Spencer, who is the ideal boss and an ex-pro baseball player. 2.) The president/owner, Jerry Siegel, to whom I speak with on a daily basis.

Hours you expect to be at work: I work typical Monday-Friday hours of 8:30 a.m.-5:30 p.m. I work some Saturdays as well, especially in the busier summer months.

Breakdown of what people anticipate from you: My company expects me to hit or exceed my sales numbers every month and to process accurate paperwork, so that our dispatch office can handle my moves smoothly. My customers expect an honest and reliable estimate for their relocation or document destruction needs and that I will be there as their main point of contact for concerns.

What your friends assume you do all day: Some of my friends think these “guns” come from moving people all day. However, my movers are the all-stars that do all the heavy lifting; I just book the jobs. Most assume I’m talking to people all day about moving, which is 100 percent correct.

Best Perk: The autonomy of my job is the nicest perk. For tangible perks, we have a fully furnished sales lounge with Dish Network and comfortable sofas.

Why do you think moving is as stressful as it is for people? Moving is the least favorite thing about any relocation. It takes so much time out of your life to pack, move and re-settle into a new location. Also, it’s a daunting task to sort through all of one’s accumulated items and decide what stays, what goes and what gets thrown away. For commercial or government relocations, customers have to deal with the loss of productivity that comes with a move and any possible downtime that comes with getting an operating system working properly at a new building.

I know it’s a good day when... I book at least 10 jobs and have zero complaints or outlandish requests from customers.

What is the strangest item you’ve seen moved? Well, I’ve seen a lot of ugly art being moved, but that’s pretty subjective. The most unique thing I’ve had to move was an entire catering/kitchen set that was in the basement of a mansion in Oak Brook Terrace. The customers had a dance floor, reception area and catering kitchen for their personal parties. My little dinner parties never looked the same again after seeing that.

I have trouble dealing with… disrespectful customers. In any service industry, you will always have those people who take the “service” part of our job a little too far. Although we are hired to help with labor, the men are still professionals at their trade.

Is pizza and beer enough payment for any friends who help you move? Pizza and beer is definitely the standard currency I use to repay friends who help me move. Unfortunately, Midway Moving currently does not accept this payment method.

How does a stagnant real estate market affect your business? Residential moving definitely drops, especially in medium-priced homes. However, government, commercial, leased and high-end homes don’t see much change in moving rates. We also do document destruction, which does not get affected by slow real estate markets.

Things can get tense when... it gets to the end of the month in the busier summer period. That is when we are the busiest and the phones are ringing off the hook. Also, it becomes crunch time when trying to hit my sales numbers.

Why you have a smile when you come to work: I have a smile when I come to work because I honestly love my job. Maybe I would love to be a rock star more, but the people I work with are 90 percent of why I like my job. I have a boss that genuinely cares and listens and a president that I can talk and joke with on a daily basis.

What might you change if given the chance? I would try to change the bad reputation that people have of moving companies. Not all of us are shoddy businesses with incompetent staff that prowl for unsuspecting customers. I even had some of these stereotypes before I started working here. Most of our office staff is college educated, and our movers are full-time professionals that get trained by the best.

Where can you go from here? We have a smaller company, so I’m already pretty high up the chain. However, we are growing every year, which just gives me more possibilities for promotion, responsibility and profitability. My sales skill set is constantly getting groomed, so that will help no matter where I may go.

Advice for joining the field: I would say that you need to make sure this fits your personality. I have always been more of a blue-collar kind of guy, and this was a perfect fit for me to use my education and talents in a labor-oriented industry. Pick a good company, because not every moving company is going to have the profitability or professionalism that we have. You also need to possess self-discipline, patience and humbleness. I can easily be lazy and make no money doing zero work if I’m not self-motivated. Patience helps with stressed and difficult customers. Finally, you have to be humble, because you have to be able to give the same respect and treatment to everyone from your lowest-ranked mover to your poorest customer.

Click here for more Windy City Workforce