Marcellus Shale

Natural Gas is the Reason I Was Able to Stay Close to Home

Matt Schyndler
Associate Consultant, Crosshair Consultants, LLC

My name is Matt Schyndler and I am an associate consultant for Crosshair Consultants LLC. Crosshair is a vehicle fleet consultancy firm that prides itself on the thorough application of compliance strategies meeting the requirements established by the U.S. Department of Transportation (USDOT), as well as North American Out of Service criteria. I originally did not plan on a career in this field, but I am happy that I am here even if it was never in my plans.  Natural gas has made it possible.

My story is simple, I grew up in Greene, New York and graduated from Greene High School in 2006.  After graduating, I decided to attend Broome Community College. I stayed there for two years and then transferred to The College at Brockport, where I graduated in May 2011 with a Bachelor’s of Science in Recreation Management. As I was graduating, I was set on finding a job in either campus recreation or municipal recreation.

I was working at Genegantslet Golf Club throughout the summer after graduation and applied to many jobs located in different areas throughout the country. I didn’t even focus my search on the surrounding area because I was all too familiar with the Southern Tier’s economic status and figured there was no chance of finding a good paying job that I would enjoy in the Southern Tier.  They simply were not here.

It got to be the middle of November and I had been laid off from the golf club. I hadn’t heard anything from any of my interviews and applications, which by this time had been a hand full of interviews from nearly  40 applications or resumes that I sent out for consideration.

At this point I accepted a job at Cleaner’s Supply in Conklin, New York to basically collect a paycheck. I knew I was not going to be there long term and my bosses knew this as well.  I continued applying to jobs in my field, and also in insurance, but still had no luck.

However, my luck changed substantially when I ran into Neil Guiles (also speaks in video following). As background, I had known Neil for a few years and sent my resume to him in case he had any openings.  A couple weeks after that, I ran into Rod Reid and he said I should contact Neil again to  see if he had any openings for me.  I did just that and then went in for an interview with Crosshair and was offered a job about a week later. Since then I have been working extremely hard to get up to speed and now I have a good grasp on our company and our work environment.

Of course, mine is a nice story but why I am putting it here?  Well, its simple, really.  I never thought I would have an opportunity to stay in the area that I call home. I was actually very open to the idea of moving to any place that offered me a job as I thought it was likely impossible to find work here- close to my family- given the economic situation of our area. On the top of my list of places to was Phoenix, Arizona because I have family out there as well, plus there seemed to be plenty of opportunities for career growth.

I never expected to be able to stay in my hometown, with my family and friends, and have a great opportunity to grow as a professional and start a career that is fast-paced, exciting, and expanding. Turns out I have never been happier to be wrong and I feel that Crosshair Consultants is the perfect fit for me.  Of course, Crosshair wouldn’t likely be hiring if there wasn’t a need to do so.  A need which was brought here thanks to the safe and responsible development of natural gas.

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