We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Mohamed Hauter. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Mohamed below.

Hi Mohamed, thanks for joining us today. Can you talk to us about growing your team – how did you recruit the first few people, what was the process like, how’d you go about training and if you were to start over today would you have done anything differently?

Building an effective and strong team is the main pillar in the success of any project or company. The most important part in finding the desired team members is setting the priorities of what is needed and expected from the new hires. Most companies and recruiters focus on technical questioning and on-the-spot proof of ability. I disagree with this approach. Do not get me wrong, some technical questioning to gauge the applicant’s knowledge is needed, but should be limited to 30 percent or less of the interview time. You’ll ask why! when I get an applicant who is a recent college graduate, I rely on the school records, the applicant’s GPA and transcripts to deduce the technical ability. The applicant has gone through four or more years of continuous testing, homework, and project work. This to me is enough of a technical test of ability. My technical interview questions should be limited to gauge the applicant’s technical knowledge related to the expected line of work. The vast majority of the interview should be to examine the applicants attitude and ability to become an effective team player and contributor. Many smart and capable hires were let go due to laziness, bad attitude, inability to assimilate, etc. Businesses do not get paid for the brain power of the employees and owners, businesses get paid for applied knowledge in the form of products. Best training is by doing the actual tasks with supervision until the employee is capable of performing the job without additional help. However, this does not mean that continuous monitoring is to be underestimated.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

I was born and raised in Sana’a ,Yemen. A tough and competitive environment. I moved to the United States in 2002. Went Fresno State university and earned a Bachelor’s degree in Hardware Computer Engineering in 2007. I started working for Lockheed Martin in 2008. While working, I pursued and earned a Master’s Degree in Network Engineering from the University of California, Santa Cruz in 2011. My job was predominantly in Software Engineering. Between work and school, I acquired quite an experience in hardware and software engineering. In 2012, I started learning about photovoltaics and solar energy until I got my California License (C-46) in 2016, which enabled me to start Elements Solar LLC while maintaining my job as an engineer. The purpose of the company was to provide top-notch customized solar solutions at competitive rates to enable as many San Diegans to be energy independent. Many companies have developed a cookie-cutter design and ruled the market harming the smaller businesses while providing sub-optimal services and products. Unfortunately, such companies have monopolized the trade and are hard to compete with. If nothing else, I enjoyed educating the public about solar energy and made them aware of the pros and cons of the different types of products and solar solutions.

What do you think helped you build your reputation within your market?

Honesty. People will always appreciate honesty. In a world where honesty is not associated with salesmen, I strongly believe that honesty should be the main trait of any businessman/salesman. Customers remember and appreciate not being lied to. Many of us have continued to use a mechanic who told us that a service we asked for is not needed and saved us money. How often does that happen nowadays? Not much, unfortunately. In many occasions, we lost a customer to bigger company with thousands of 4+ start ratings (legitimate or not) and later received emails from the same customers expressing regret for not choosing us and appreciation for an honest assessment or energy needs.

Where do you think you get most of your clients from?

The best source of new clients is word-of-mouth. Customer referrals are a testimony to a good work ethic and excellence. It means the world when a customer is satisfied enough to recommend our services to their friends and family. No advertisements needed!