Spring semester, 1982. Vermont Technical College, Randolph Center, Vermont. Associate’s Degree in Electrical and Electronics Engineering Technology — two years of physics, math, and electronics theory almost behind me. I answered a newspaper ad.

Simplex Time Recorder Company, Branch 106, Burlington, Vermont. I didn’t know much about Simplex. My father was an IBEW union electrician who had worked alongside their crews on fire alarm jobs. That was the full extent of my knowledge going into the interview.

Two interviews. A written test covering basic electronics theory — the same material I had spent two years studying. Physics and math were always my strongest subjects. The test wasn’t difficult. They offered me the job before graduation.

Commencement was a sunny Saturday afternoon in May 1982 in Randolph Center. Most of my classmates celebrated through the weekend. Monday morning, I reported for my first day.

I didn’t think much of it at the time. The job was there, so you showed up. Looking back, that Monday morning decision set the trajectory for everything that followed — field technician, branch service manager, federal specialist, NFPA committee member, and everything in between.

Ten years as a field technician

The state of Vermont is small. I worked all of it — north to south, east to west. Mom and pop stores. Daycares. Hotels. Medical centers. Hospitals. Fire departments. Every type of building, every type of system, every type of problem a technician encounters when theory meets the real world.

Simplex Time Recorder eventually became just Simplex — the Time Recorder part of the name quietly disappeared. The work didn’t change. A trouble condition in a Burlington hotel at 11pm doesn’t care what name is on the company truck.

Those ten years built something no classroom produces: the instinct that comes from standing in front of a panel that’s misbehaving, with a building full of people depending on the answer, and having to figure it out.

Then came NICET

Simplex pushed hard for certification — and attached raises to each level to make the push worth taking seriously. A dollar an hour for one level, fifty cents for the next. It added up. More importantly, the credential mattered.

I missed Level II by one element the first time I sat for the exam.

Went back. Missed Level III by one element.

I kept scheduling the next test.

Level IV took strategy. The exam allowed you to attempt elements across levels in a single sitting. I front-loaded with Level IV elements while securing Level III — banking as many of the harder elements as possible before locking in the lower level. The following test, I finished what remained.

The project requirement came together while working alongside an engineering firm on three district schools in Jamestown, New York — fire alarm, room phones, media distribution systems, all Simplex throughout. I brought the engineering team to Gardner, Massachusetts to meet with Simplex system engineers and work through the project in detail. Credential number 46679. Issued 1994.

Simplex drove the credential through incentivization. The company invested in the people doing the work, and the people doing the work remembered it. That kind of institutional investment doesn’t happen as often as it should in this industry. When it does, it shapes careers.

From Burlington to Jamestown and back

After the Jamestown project, the branch service manager position opened back in Burlington — the same office where ten years had been spent as a technician. Coming back to run that branch for five years before the Simplex chapter closed felt like the right ending to that part of the story.

Sixteen years total. Field technician to service manager. The foundation everything else is built on.

The field has changed considerably since 1982. The fundamentals have not.

A smoke detector still has to be in the right place. A panel still has to be programmed correctly. A system still has to work when the building needs it to.

Monday morning. First day. That’s where it started. More in the weeks ahead.