“He said they were hiring for maintenance technicians, you don't need any experience, and they'll train you on the job,” Lilland said. “I thought that sounded interesting, so I figured I'd give it a shot.”

It worked out pretty well for Lilland. Though he’s only been with the company (and in the industry) for two years, every day he manages a crew of 10 service and maintenance technicians, providing them with training, technical support, and helps with customer needs.

“We commonly hire people from outside the HVAC industry, so Jordan is key to training them and helping them develop their career,” said Corey Hickman, president at Comfort Matters. “Jordan has shown an amazing ability to adapt to change and he has grown his management skills at a rapid pace. His time spent in the United State Marine Corps has given him a natural skill for managing his team, and he has gained their respect quickly.”

Lilland is known as somebody who likes fixing things — something like a motorcycle, or really anything with an engine — and that’s helped him learn the tricks of the trade.

“Coming from outside of the industry, he has had a tremendous amount of technical skills to learn,” Hickman said.

But Lilland has picked it up pretty quickly.

“A lot of the basic technical parts, especially just running maintenance calls, it's pretty easy to pick up, especially because most technicians are hands-on learners,” Lilland said. “So if you teach them on the job, they learn pretty quickly, including myself.”

Lilland’s favorite part of the work is all the different problems he gets to solve.

“Especially something like going out in the middle of winter, where a customer doesn't have heat, and getting the furnace up and running again, and figuring out an issue,” Lilland said. Or getting the customer on the same page as he is in regard to what’s wrong with the equipment and what type of maintenance is required to fix it. Lilland aims to communicate with the customer not as if they were another technician, but as who they most likely actually are: someone without the technical background he himself has.

“Jordan is very good at handling stress, and I credit that time he spent as military police (MP) [in the Marine Corps],” Hickman said. “Stressful situations or excited customers don't get him rattled, and he can find a way to communicate effectively to them.”

As Comfort Matters has grown, it’s needed additional support. As a result, Lilland helped create a plan to develop a “Team Leader” position.

“Working with technicians and interviewing, he has now graduated his first technician to ‘Team Leader’ position and given him the ability to grow his career,” Hickman said.

Advice to Young Techs

When it comes to those considering joining the HVAC industry, Lilland said school may not be the strong suit of a lot of people who enter the trades, which might lead those who don’t know about the extensive training offered by contracting companies to think they can’t do something like HVAC. But that’s just not true.

“There are lots of companies, including Comfort Matters, where they offer on-the-job training, or training programs, and it’s a lot of hands-on training, which is usually how we learn best,” Lilland said. “You can get a really good job, go through an internal training program, and make a really good living on after only a few years.”