 Hey everyone, my name is Hannah Inscott and I'm one of the Alabama 4-H state ambassadors from Limestone County. Today, I'm going to be having a career interview with my father. His name is Noah Inscott, and why don't you tell us what you do? I'm a custodian at Liberty Middle School in Madison, Alabama. Okay, so I got a couple questions for you today. Let me pull them up real quick. Okay, so my first question is what is your favorite thing about your job? The interaction with the kids, the fact that I get to that's behind a desk, keep moving, work in my mind, my body, learn the troubleshoot, and just really the whole all-around experience is actually pretty enjoyable other than some of the obvious rough stuff that kids leave us. What is one of your favorite stories with one of your kids? Well, I think one of my favorites was last year when I was at a different school. A child, a sixth grader came up to me and he was all disgruntled and he was coming out of the gym throwing a fed, and I said, oh, what's going on? And he was explaining about how bad, you know, his friends don't do this, that they think he's weird. And I said, son, you're a sixth grader. It's the hardest time in the world. And in all honesty, this is the middle part of your life where you get to be interesting. You deal with those hard times and that makes you interested. Guys who have everything perfect, they grew up to be boring 40 years from now. They'll be talking about what they did in high school. This will give you a chance to grow, become a better person, and actually be a man. Awesome. So that was probably my favorite story for last year or so. What school did you work to prior to Liberty? I worked at Morrovia Middle School in Madison County. Okay. My next question is what interested you in blue collar work? Well, I've been working since I was 14 and I really kind of enjoyed making money. And I learned when you work blue collar, instead of taking all these courses that may not apply to what you're doing, you learn a trade. And you can make money faster and put away to your features. So I actually enjoyed the aspect of learning the skill that I enjoyed. I've learned how to work hazmat. I've learned serve safe. I've learned a lot of things. I never was one that did well working towards quote-unquote academics. I learned better work with my hands, my mind and just kind of focusing on what I'm doing at the moment as opposed to I want to be a doctor, but I got to learn Shakespeare. I'd rather learn. I want to be a pipe fitter and learn how to weld, learn how to work angles, learn how to do geometry without necessarily the fancy proofs. But what angle works? What is drain? What is area? And how do I maintain materials? How do I get the most for what I'm working with and be the most profitable? Yeah, I like that. Okay, and this is kind of like the other side of it. So there's a lot of stigmatism against people who work in blue collar jobs. So what exactly would you say to someone who looks down on blue collar workers? Well, have you ever put a puzzle together? It takes a lot of pieces to make a puzzle work. And we're just important as any other piece of the puzzle. You have to realize what we do to make everything run. Yeah, we may be considered the bottom of the barrel, but for you to achieve, you need us. You may be able to build something, but do you know how to work it? Do you know how to make it functional? Do you know how to tweak it where it'll work at the best rate it can to build the product you need? So yeah, I think we may be looked down upon, but I can lay my head down at night and sleep going, I've done something to make the world a better place. I love that. Okay, what advice would you give a youth interested in your job? Look for the long game. You may not make as much as a doctor or a lawyer, but if you look at what you've paid for your education, the skill you've learned that is a necessity. In the long run, if you manage your money right, if you're a good steward to what God's given you, you can actually almost be on par with what they make at the end of the day, and all it is is the sweat of your brow, the thoughts in your head, and your ability to work with your hands. It's from different people. It may be a God said form. Find what you enjoy and work that task, and you never work a day in your life. I like that. I know you did attend college, some of the college. Can you talk about the restaurants and stuff like that that we used to own and have you got from there to? Well, the blue collar mentality is you never ask somebody to do anything that you're not willing to do. When you're in business for yourself, you have to micromanage every penny. That means you might have to learn a skill of plumbing, electrical, air conditioning, coolants to save the money on the bottom line to make sure your employees are paid. We were always paid last. Everybody was paid first, and in a day, you had to figure out how to make that the money coming in last long enough for you to get your check. I enjoyed working in the restaurants. It was phenomenal. Learned some skills, obviously feeding multiple children. You, well aware, was a skill that we're doing that. But in the day, the economy turned. We got out of the restaurant business, and it's been a God sin for us on this end, because there was no way for me to work 60, 80 hours a week to make that bottom line work. So where I'm at now, probably don't make as much, but I make more spend the time with you all. But the restaurants, yes, you do have to have a blue collar mentality. You have to have a work ethic to make them work. And when I went to college, you're going to laugh. I didn't have a major, but my goal was to be a fine artist. And I realized that every fine artist that had that goal were teaching people how to be fine artists. So I decided to make it more of a social tapestry where you learn people and you make your impression on them, as opposed to making a beautiful painting. And every once in a while, I'll draw and paint or build something. I think it's a neat sculpture. Yeah. So you were talking about how you had to like manage like plumbing and stuff like that at the restaurant. Would you say that that has helped you with your current job? It has. And you've met your grandfather. He was blue comp three generations in and you figure out how to make it work. And if you can't, then you hire somebody out. You never throw the money out first. It's just the mentality that goes with it. It's a good mentality because the money you save goes in your bank and later on you can take a kid to a beach or do something fun or a rock concert. And I'm well aware of your blue collar lineage because I remember you getting me up at like eight o'clock on a Saturday to show me how to fix a toilet so I could never have to call somebody. So I guess that's... You may marry a man that actually made it as an artist, not have that skill. I believe a woman should know everything a man knows and a man should know everything a woman knows because we all have to work as a family together to achieve that goal. So yes you learn it was something a trade I could teach you doing laundry. It's a trade I'm teaching your brothers. To me it's just what you got to do to make it. Exactly. Never. My last question is what is a day like in your job? My day can generally change on a dime. So most days I'm trying to make it look pretty and presentable because some kids all they have is school. That's their good environment and I want them to have something to be proud of with the coronavirus and everything going on. We've got to switch gears to more sanitary, get everything ready. And all honesty it's kind of nice to have that feeling that if I do my job right I might have stopped three or four kids from catching this disease. And again I can lay my head on a pillow. Oh you're on mute. Unmute yourself. Oh there you go. Okay well that's all I have for questions. Thank you so much for coming. I really appreciate it. Thank you so much for interviewing me. I hope I was a good example because I'm your father too.