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First Post, Introduction

U

Uhurungus

Registered User
Joined
Jul 13, 2021
Messages
4
Location
Portland, OR
Hello all,

I'm a recent graduate of a Building Inspection Technology program providing me an associates degree. I'm in the process of looking for my first job. I have a 2nd interview with a national company called "SAFEBuilt". I've done some research on them but wanted to ask here if anyone has personal or anecdotal experience with this company or others like it. I never considered going to work for anyone other than a specific jurisdiction so I don't know quite what to make of this. Glassdoor has many reviews on them and they have a decent rating but most of the reviews are from a single city and lots were from years ago.

Any input appreciated and thanks in advance,

Tom
 
Tom, I wish you the best in your new career! I hope you find is a satisfying as I have.

After working in building construction over a span of nearly 30 years, I went back to college to get an A.S. Degree in Building Inspection Technology in 2001. I can honestly say that this is the best career choice for me. I worked wherever the opportunity seemed best, including 2 years for a private (3rd Party) inspection company as Building Official/Plans Examiner/Inspector at 2 smaller jurisdictions. I really enjoyed my job, but I discovered a fundamental difference in values between Privately owned inspection services and Government inspection services: 3rd Party companies work top priority is PROFIT. Governments top priorities is PUBLIC SERVICE. Today, I serve for a small city as Building Official, and I am grateful to say that I get to work with some of the best people for our community.

Tom, there are very good people in both private and public. I hope you get to work with the best and become the best wherever you choose to serve!
 
Inspector Gift said:
Tom, I wish you the best in your new career! I hope you find is a satisfying as I have.

After working in building construction over a span of nearly 30 years, I went back to college to get an A.S. Degree in Building Inspection Technology in 2001. I can honestly say that this is the best career choice for me. I worked wherever the opportunity seemed best, including 2 years for a private (3rd Party) inspection company as Building Official/Plans Examiner/Inspector at 2 smaller jurisdictions. I really enjoyed my job, but I discovered a fundamental difference in values between Privately owned inspection services and Government inspection services: 3rd Party companies work top priority is PROFIT. Governments top priorities is PUBLIC SERVICE. Today, I serve for a small city as Building Official, and I am grateful to say that I get to work with some of the best people for our community.

Tom, there are very good people in both private and public. I hope you get to work with the best and become the best wherever you choose to serve!
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Very encouraging response! Some of the job postings require such qualifications that I think I'm going to be forced to take what I can get. I see lots of 4 year degree requirements. Luckily I have 20 years of various construction and contractor history. I also am in lucky in that my family and I currently live on the west coast and want to relocate in any of 4 states (Tennessee, N. Carolina, Virginia, Kentucky) or closely thereabouts to be closer to the rest of the family. If I had to hold my breath hoping for an opening in my home area it might be much tougher.

I absolutely want to be a public servant and help protect above all else. I feel like I won't truly be able to until I have some experience under my belt. In a perfect world I'd join up with a moderate sized jurisdiction so that I wouldn't be just another number in a large one or forced to take on more than capable in a small one.

My main thing now is learning. I want training for certification via Code Academy or the like and it sounds like SAFEBuilt offers this.

Moving across the country is daunting in this particular situation but such is life. Thank you for your thoughtful reply.
 
Uhurungus said:
Very encouraging response! Some of the job postings require such qualifications that I think I'm going to be forced to take what I can get. I see lots of 4 year degree requirements. Luckily I have 20 years of various construction and contractor history. I also am in lucky in that my family and I currently live on the west coast and want to relocate in any of 4 states (Tennessee, N. Carolina, Virginia, Kentucky) or closely thereabouts to be closer to the rest of the family. If I had to hold my breath hoping for an opening in my home area it might be much tougher.

I absolutely want to be a public servant and help protect above all else. I feel like I won't truly be able to until I have some experience under my belt. In a perfect world I'd join up with a moderate sized jurisdiction so that I wouldn't be just another number in a large one or forced to take on more than capable in a small one.

My main thing now is learning. I want training for certification via Code Academy or the like and it sounds like SAFEBuilt offers this.

Moving across the country is daunting in this particular situation but such is life. Thank you for your thoughtful reply.
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Just saw you're from Sandy. Hello from (crazy) Portland.
 
Welcome to the profession.

You didn’t mention any ICC certifications. Most jurisdictions require at least three certs to get hired and four to be promoted. Some third party companies will hire anyone with a heartbeat.

When I was you I went with a huge jurisdiction and that turned out to be a huge mistake. Large organizations tend to be populated with nonproductive individuals that tend to get in the way. Large organizations reward the ordinary and punish the extraordinary. The trade off is higher pay.

I have found that the level of satisfaction correlates to the commitment put into it. The inspectors found here at this forum are a rarity in that they look at the job as a calling rather than a chore. My jurisdiction has 150 inspectors. I have made many of them aware of this forum. I am the only one of the 150 to come here.

Getting started is key. You will be on your own no matter where you start. If you end up at a jurisdiction you will be fenced in…..third party companies have open range.
 
ICE said:
Welcome to the profession.

You didn’t mention any ICC certifications. Most jurisdictions require at least three certs to get hired and four to be promoted. Some third party companies will hire anyone with a heartbeat.

When I was you I went with a huge jurisdiction and that turned out to be a huge mistake. Large organizations tend to be populated with nonproductive individuals that tend to get in the way. Large organizations reward the ordinary and punish the extraordinary. The trade off is higher pay.

I have found that the level of satisfaction correlates to the commitment put into it. The inspectors found here at this forum are a rarity in that they look at the job as a calling rather than a chore. My jurisdiction has 150 inspectors. I have made many of them aware of this forum. I am the only one of the 150 to come here.

Getting started is key. You will be on your own no matter where you start. If you end up at a jurisdiction you will be fenced in…..third party companies have open range.
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That is so interesting to hear. But that's life. For me, at my age (46) I'm over chasing dollars. I did it too long and that's why I ended up back in school. I want to care about what I do, make some sort of difference and not deal with self employment anymore. I've met a few of the blowhards, I've met a few of what I can assume are the good ones. I very much enjoyed my CWE jurisdiction (which was the absolute low end of the pay scale for my area), the B.O. and the staff and it's unfortunate that didn't lead to a position.

I have a couple certs with a couple more in the pipe. My game plan is Res Struct, mech and plan exam, followed by commercial struct, mech and plan exam followed by fire plans exam. That said, I'm fairly well ignorant still and that very well will change. I have enjoyed very much the degree program and my brain has always been very happy when regularly exercised so I don't see that changing going forward. I assume I could probably waltz in many places with those credentials on my resume. Continuing code education is paramount wherever I go. I'm hoping that's a regular thing that all jurisdictions encourage but I'm not sure yet.

Thank you for your input.
 
"Large organizations reward the ordinary and punish the extraordinary."

Billy N%^&#n said some of that to me in the first of my twenty-four years there. (Friday was my last day) I returned to the office after visiting twenty-eight properties with a notice to expire a permit. Billy laughed and said that I was extraordinary but the County rewards ordinary. By the time that I recognized the punishment, well then it was too late.

Billy N%^&#n had been a manager of a department. It was the rehab dept. Rehab is the trash, junk and debris team. If you have a dead car in the driveway a visit from rehab is in your future. When I met him he had been demoted to inspector. It's a bit fuzzy being twenty-four years ago but as I recall, Billy tried to get the team to shape up and get some work done. A revolt ensued and Billy lost out. He was an irascible, mean spirited inspector. One day he wasn't there and he never returned. I was ambivalent about that. On the one hand I had to pick up the slack and on the other hand he tortured people.

Starting with my first day and all these years later I have witnessed all manner of oddity among coworkers....oh the tales I could tell....at least dozens with a few shining examples of extraordinary tossed in.....ya maybe three.
 
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ICE said:
"Large organizations reward the ordinary and punish the extraordinary."

Billy N%^&#n said some of that to me in the first of my twenty-four years there. (Friday was my last day) That day I had returned to the office after visiting twenty-eight properties with a notice to expire a permit. Billy laughed and said that I was extraordinary but the County rewards ordinary. By the time that I recognized the punishment, well then it was too late.

Billy N%^&#n had been a manager of a department. It was the rehab dept. Rehab is the trash, junk and debris team. If you have a dead car in the driveway a visit from rehab is in your future. When I met him he had been demoted to inspector. It's a bit fuzzy being twenty-four years ago but as I recall, Billy tried to get the team to shape up and get some work done. A revolt ensued and Billy lost out. He was an irascible, mean spirited inspector. One day he wasn't there and he never returned. I was ambivalent about that. On the one hand I had to pick up the slack and on the other hand he tortured people.

Starting with my first day and all these years later I have witnessed all manner of oddity among coworkers....oh the tales I could tell....at least dozens with a few shining examples of extraordinary tossed in.....ya maybe three.
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ICE, did you retire? If so, congratulations. But I hope that it's not the true, because I really look forward to seeing your posts and pictures.
 
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Inspector Gift said:
ICE, did you retire? If so, congratulations. But I hope that it's not the true, because I really look forward to seeing your posts and pictures.
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I quit the job that I had but that's not to say that I have retired. I have been reinvented several times and perhaps I'm not done yet. I still have more to offer and another twenty years to do that. The past iterations involved relocating which seems unlikely however, the internet places me worldwide.

Most of the fun for me here at the forum is pictures. I don't have any new pictures. My participation will wane as I fade into the past....as it should.

There's a bit if irony in that I am telling you this in a new guy's first thread....out with the old, in with the new.
 
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The new guys want to go paperless, digital & visual.

You've at least mastered the way to post your pics and viewing inspections by video.

So your going the way of kilt guy, CD and Brudgers...huh... I can live with it... I guess
 
Uhurungus, welcome to the forum!

ICE, I've always appreciated the pictures. Unfortunately as an architect, our insurance carriers and attorneys now tell us to take as few pictures as possible, keep them composed on the specific use at hand, and delete all others.
Apparently there's been some lawsuits where the plaintiff's subpoenas included all pictures from architect's jobsite visits. If a problem situation shows up in the photo, they can use it as evidence of the architect's inspection and implied approval, even though the architect was not called out to observe that particular issue.

Example that was given to us: Rainwater enters building wall and rots the framing because the building paper was reverse-lapped. Owner sues all deep pockets, including the architect because the architect has E&O insurance. The plans show correct lapping, but the architect's employee took a selfie photo in front of the building and posted it to Instagram, and in the photo background (when enlarged) the contractor is seen reverse-lapping the paper installation.
 
Safebuilt sounds like a service company, they don’t have a tangible product to sell. I wonder if you could get on with them, work remotely, work on getting certs, and move to the east coast. After a couple of years, look for something else, then having job specific experience.
 
"they don’t have a tangible product to sell"

Having watched them grow from a local Colorado firm, they used to be Colorado Inspection Agency (CIA), to a national force for jurisdictions seeking to privatize, Google them, they have a "tangible product"!
 
I got the impression they developed permitting and inspection processes. Provided on-line services.
 
e hilton said:
I got the impression they developed permitting and inspection processes. Provided on-line services.
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Nope, third-part company, plan review, inspections, Building Official, will do the whole building department if you need.
 
Safebuilt sounds like they are similar to a company called IBTS (Institute for Building Technology and Safety)?, Plan review & inspections. Can be your planning and building department for a fee.
 
Very familiar with them. They are a quality company, with unique and individual CBO staff in each AHJ (some are multiple), and just like any different AHJ, they can be different. They are interested in profit, but that is the name of the game, (IMHO, so are governmental AHJ's, they just don't admit it or talk about it in the same terms) and while profit can potentially introduce some ethics questions with the wrong personnel, it can also introduce a level of efficiency not often seen in an AHJ. Being a national company they have the opportunity to offer a little more consistency between their AHJ's, but each AHJ still has their own adopted codes and amendments, so there will always be differences. They offer unique opportunities to move from other areas, and in many instances you could be working for more than one in the same week, which can be a challenge, but not too big a deal.

Also, I believe they did also develop their own permit software. I have not used it but I heard it is pretty good. I think they may pay a little better and have some perks that are better than your average AHJ. Their bread and butter is in very small to mid-size AHJ's so it can be a better start than walking in to a large office. I have worked in both and I like the smaller ones.
 
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