Sharon Cargill – A Private Service Professional

I started my career in the private service area at about age 18, but I didn't really know it at the time: my aunt assisted two seniors at an independent living facility in Portland, Oregon. I filled in for her while she was on vacation for a couple of days. I really enjoyed the company of the seniors and feeling so helpful in the work. I felt like I was making a difference, not just making a dollar. I found my first professional service job through an agency. My first position was as a House Manager for a wonderful family in Portland. I did all of the standard cooking, cleaning, and shopping as well as shuttling the teenage children to school and events, and tutoring the family's daughter who was a sophomore at a private prep school and had Downs Syndrome. Tutoring Karen was one of the most influential jobs in my life. It was amazing the way Karen stuck with it every day, studying about 6 to 8 hours a day without complaint. It made any obstacles I might face in my daily life seem very small, and ingrained in me the notion of keeping my own troubles in perspective.

After that experience, I next built a small cabin by myself on my 27 acre property in the Ozarks, with about a month's help from a blind carpenter (but that's another story!). I enjoyed living in my “little cabin in the woods” for awhile before deciding that the “summers were too hot and humid for this west coast girl” and the low wages in Arkansas were not going to speed me along the road to paying off my bills or getting me to my goal of being able to travel and caretake or housesit around the world. By chance one day, I saw an article in the local newspaper about The Caretaker Gazette. I saved the article for more than six months before ordering a subscription. Just one issue of the Gazette was all it took! When I read about all the great jobs available, I instinctively knew it was the right move for me to get back into private service. Having done this kind of work before, and with so many job possibilities, I thought long and hard about exactly what type of work I wanted and where. I decided on household or estate management somewhere in a rural area, where it wasn't hot, and preferably in the New England states because I'd always wanted to spend some time in that area.”

I contacted several listings in the Gazette and filled out all the appropriate paperwork. After running background and reference checks on me, property owners offered me jobs in Arizona and Florida (“It's still hot there, right?”). However, I was soon contacted about an independent House Manager position on a beautiful hobby farm in southern New Hampshire. The property owner flew me up to see the estate. We had a nice discussion. He needed someone who could work without supervision since he was only there on the weekends. I was in heaven! It was a position in a rural area, where it wasn't hot, and in the New England states.”

I have been at the property for several years. I would describe my boss as detailed - he likes everything kept ship-shape at all times - worldly, interesting, caring, tormenting, and understanding all at the same time! This is a semi-formal household. I am a part of the family, but I am also expected to treat his guests here to detailed, top-notch service. Visitors here always comment on how beautiful the farm is and how everything is so well cared for.

 My assignment on this property has been a perfect match. It keeps me challenged handling the 8,000 square foot main house, a 2,500 square foot guesthouse, and a working greenhouse, all single-handedly. Most all of the household activity is limited to the weekends, so I can work at my own pace and on my own schedule, which I love. When we are busy during the week it is usually the children and grandchildren up for a few days, and everyone pitches in to help. So opposed to being more work, it is really more fun. I enjoy the house alive with activity. But it's awful nice when it gets quiet again too!

Since being at my current position, I have had to develop a whole new skill set running a greenhouse growing over 1,500 plants each season for planting in the estate landscaping. This property is known for its picturesque lawns and beautiful flower beds. I'm very proud that I can grow about 75% of the plants needed to fill these bountiful spaces. I have handled this assignment I found via The Caretaker Gazette so well that I was recently nominated for House Manager of the Year. I was extremely honored to be nominated for House Manager of the Year. I love what I do, but it is always nice for others to notice and say you do good work in such a demanding field. We all need to hear that.