22 years and counting: Building a career on the roof

By Emma Peterson.

Find your future in the roofing industry through hard work and dedication.

When Adam Cook graduated from high school, he wasn’t planning on one day working on roofs. Instead, he was working in a tire shop. Collecting paystubs at the shop, he came upon the salary number of one of the shop’s long-time employees. This discovery was a revelation. Adam explained, “I noticed he was getting paid the same amount I was. And I had no roofing experience whatsoever, but I wanted to take my shot, to go further.” That decision led him to his first job in the industry as a field tech for Tremco.

In his job with Tremco, Adam was lucky enough to travel the country, learning more with every roof that he stepped foot on. In reflection on that time of his life, he shared, “I kind of just worked my way through the company, starting out as a field tech. We were considered the travel team, so we got to be the lucky ones to travel all around the country. About a 12 years into that I became a supervisor.” Just a couple years after he made the transition into the supervisor position, Tremco began implementing a new field management system for the guys on the roof.  

Adam wasn’t incredibly tech-savvy at the time, but he jumped into learning about this new program with the same determination he had when he took his shot with the roofing industry. And it paid off yet again. He explained, “I guess when they were doing the training, someone noticed that. He kind of spotted me and was like, ‘Wow, okay. You're picked up on it quickly. Listen, why don't you come around and help me train the other people on it?’” Now, 22 years later, Adam is still working for Tremco and manages all the new systems and relevant trainings.

This new management system is called FSM Build Service. Adam elaborated, “This tracks the guys’ time, their equipment and materials. It covers pretty much everything happening in the field and prints out a nice, beautiful little report that we can give to our reps. They share with their customers, so they know what they're getting for the money that they're paying.”

Training people on this program is one of Adam’s favorite parts of his job. He explained, “Our FSM system has been deployed for about a year now. We're still having guys kind of struggling, so we got to convince them to use it and then show that it's not as hard as they think it is. When we're out doing that training, just seeing the light bulbs pop up when we actually go through it and show them that it's not hard, that's really fun.”

Looking into the future, Adam sees himself spending more time with Tremco. He emphasized this decision, sharing, “It is a roofing company. But there's more to it if you want to make more. I love the field, but there's also office jobs that need to be done. If you like technology, training, safety or something else, there's so many different aspects to it...What really gets me is the future in this industry that I was looking for at 20 years old. It was a long road, but, just like anything else if you work at it, you're going to move up.”

Find your path and future in the roofing industry with Tremco!