 Hi, my name is Sharon Nelson, HR manager responsible for talent acquisition for the City of Columbia. Talent in the City is our effort to highlight and showcase the departments with the City of Columbia, the department's impact players, as well as the talent who make the City run every single day. These impact players and departments oftentimes don't get the spotlight that they deserve, but without them, the City of Columbia would not run as a beautifully oiled machine that it is. As the city electrician, I'm responsible for all of the building maintenance throughout the entire city, whether it be changing lights, repairing receptacles, adding up-fit offices or what have you. I was here for 16 years before I left and I was gone for four months and decided to come back. This department is like a family. I mean, it's a swell place to work. I enjoy giving my talents back to our community as our capital city. So, besides benefits for my family, that's got to be the top two reasons. A really good friend of mine got me involved in the trade and I just took a natural liking to it and just stuck with it. One support service is I consider us the backbone of the City of Columbia. You know, we do building maintenance. We do parking garage maintenance. The best way I explain it is my team is responsible for the roof to the concrete and everything in between. You know, we manage, we got an electrician on staff. We have a HVAC tech on staff. We have a HVAC helper on staff. I got a position. He's over contracts. He managed all my janitorial, my pass control. You know, we got a construction team. I have a two-man construction team. They do all the smaller renovation projects we have in the City of Columbia. And then I got like eight guys that maintain the facilities. Each guy has about eight buildings that he's responsible for. You know, I consider myself a hermit because I don't like the way I'm like. You know, I'm intentional about trying to be behind the scenes. I'm intentional about pushing my team forward. You know, in this position I think I get a lot of credit, but it's not me. It's my team. You know, if I go up I want them to come with me and that's very important to me. So to me it's easy to explain my journey. My journey is pretty simple. You know, after graduating high school I attended Midlands Technical College. You know, just being honest about it, you know, I went there for electronics. You know, it was a little difficult, so electrical became easier. So I did that. I worked for a company for 16 years and they taught me a lot. I mean, it was a great company. You know, they instilled in me work. They instilled in me a good trade. And then after 16 years I decided to start my own electrical company. You know, I became an electrical contractor. Still am an electrical contractor. To this day, you know, if you ask me who I am, you know, I always say I'm an electrician. You know, that's who I am to my core. But what I do now is, you know, I'm the administrator of the City of Columbia. And I love it. You know, I think the City of Columbia is the perfect spot to move up. You know, if you want to come in at an entry-level position, they afford you the opportunity to move up. You could, I'm just going to speak on myself. You know, I came in as the electrician and look at me now, you know. And with my group we have entry-level positions. You know, we have HVAC helpers. We have building aids. And everyone who normally comes here, they stay here. And they tend to move up step by step. But, you know, I started with the City of Columbia. I asked the electrician, did that for a few years. I'm going to say probably four years. And the assistant administrator position came available. So, you know, they promoted me from within. And then I kept, you know, I'm going to call it digging. You know, kept working, kept trying. And then the administrative position came available. And I was getting that opportunity too. So, I feel like I've been in the right spot every time when it was a chance, an opportunity to get promoted. You know, I was in the right spot. You know, it's worked out for me. The responsibility of being the electrician for the City of Columbia building maintenance is, it's a pretty special privilege. And like I said before, I feel very honored to give my talents back to the City, our capital city. I started out 25 years ago in the field for a private contractor. Worked there for seven or eight years. Came to the City at the Traffic Engineering Division and wanted to get out of the elements a bit more. So, this opportunity came open here at Support Services and here we are. For more information about this position and its department, please visit www.columbiasc.gov.