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I was in the same boat , job interview after job interview for over a year, now im working as a maintenance tech and I get my hands on the hvac equipment and look over parts and get my hands dirty , it wasnt an easy road but u have to start somewhere patients is ur enemy but our time will come.GL

Another suggestion: Get on staff with an apartment complex or commercial property maintenance group. You'll get plenty of exposure to HVAC work, but you may also end up working on appliances, plumbing, and anything else needing done. The pay isn't usually great, but you'll get exposure and have a source of income, and you'll begin to build a knowledge base of problems and how to fix them.

This is good advice.

Another suggestion: Get on staff with an apartment complex or commercial property maintenance group. You'll get plenty of exposure to HVAC work, but you may also end up working on appliances, plumbing, and anything else needing done. The pay isn't usually great, but you'll get exposure and have a source of income, and you'll begin to build a knowledge base of problems and how to fix them.

8-18-13
the problem is most all company's are trying to steal each others technician's and not willing to give new people a chance. but here's the problem. as they keep up this ridiculous act they are ruining there own trade and causing themselves to be forced to pay more for technicians . all because they wanted to save a little money up front. there is a huge shortage of experienced workers all the fault of the owners. not all operate that way and some are now realizing their grave mistake. but it is now too late. the average age of a technician is 53. a few more years and most will be retired or dead. my advise to you looking for work is lie and then lie some more. once your in you will need to learn fast . I went to night school for 6 months every week night for 4 hours a night after working all day. I was fortunate and able to get a refrigeration job at a manufacturer. I built reach-ins. find any pathway in. go to supply houses and speak with everyone anyone. keep at it and you will find a job. consider restaurant work. most techs hate it and they are always busy. restaurants have a lot of refrigeration work as well as food equipment. out of 22 graduates from my class only 2 od us are technicians ,sad. there are people that want to be technicians but they wait for ever . most move on and are lost forever. stay positive and keep looking you will get in.

You gotta start from the bottom. Find someone looking for an install helper. Carry around pipe, ductwork, tools, and anything else the apprentices or journeymen don't want too. Seal ductwork, insulate, whatever it takes.

I worked in transport refrigeration for 5 years with no school, Company folded up and left me standing around kickin rocks. I fumbled around for a year doing odd jobs and helping people for a week or two at a time. Finally a buddy called me up and said he had a job for me at the hvac company he's been at about a year. $10 hr as install helper and job was 2 hours from home, Job should last 3 months. I've got a wife and two children under 4 years old, and a house payment. I needed it that bad so i showed up the next morning at 5am, worked my tail off for 3 months, install supervisor saw I was hungry and decided to start paying me a decent wage and keep me on board. Now I've been with the company for a year, got a van and making service tech pay. When they hired me my buddy didn't tell them I was a refer tech previously, or that I was EPA certified. I knew I just needed a foot in the door to show them what I was worth, I have been taking as many classes as possible and just focusing on getting better and learning. They can hire anybody, you gotta really show them your character, be the first guy there and the last one to leave, NEVER refuse one minute of work they offer and ask for more. I've worked 85 hour weeks, 24 hours straight, Saturday and Sunday, travel out of town. The biggest thing is get your foot in the door. If you gotta make minimum wage, DO IT!! be the hardest working SOB they have ever seen, and worst case scenario if you work there 6 months and they don't monetarily show you appreciation at least you have 6 months experience to take with you.

kfred
i don't think i can mention contractor names here..get in contact with me, i'll see what my old company can do about getting you in..are you looking to do more service or more install?

you're in the Rochester area of new York?

find out who's the respected company in your area. go there and tell them you'll work for minimum wage as a helper, toilet cleaner, parts runner.
show up on time every day. keep a good attitude. shut your mouth and open your ears. spend two hours every night reading everything you can find about hvac.
read the trade magazines. join RSES and get their training materials. focus on the fundamentals, like boyles law, charles' law.

welcome to the jungle!

i've lived in rochester NY for essentially my entire life. There were always companies looking for trainable techs so long as they showed mechanical potential and a willingness to be better. I moved to ohio a couple months ago and started on the sales side of HVAC and from what i see, EVERYONE is looking for help on the contractor side. With the push for a college degree not many people are going into the trades (it seems as if it's becoming a dying art/breed/life). My suggestion is get a couple really good references from school or previous employers. If you're in the ohio area i can give you a list of contractors that are more than happy to give guys a shot

Get into maintenance, you can get your hands on some equipment there, and work with contractors which adds some experience and networking, just gotta ask questions and work hard. Do you physically go to these places and talk to them face to face? Calling and internet stuff has little to no value when looking for work.

I would like to reply to this thread with some thoughts from the other side. First a disclaimer:
1) I am a consumer of HVAC equipment and services. I run a rental house management company that owns and also manages rental houses.
2) Many folks will not like what I'm going to say, but as a consumer that the licensing board works so "diligently" to protect I feel as though it's my right to share my thoughts on this.

Now then, I live in Georgia, so I will use that as my example. You might live in Alaska where the laws are different, but I only really know about Georgia laws so that's what I'll speak on. In my opinion, the reason that jobs for inexperience techs are so hard to come by is 1) a supply issue because there are too many techs in the market from the the construction boom (this will fix itself when housing picks up again), 2) the licensing board is designed first and foremost to PREVENT young workers like yourself to enter the market and start a career.

Allow me to explain point #2. In the state of Georgia, in order to be ELIGIBLE to take the conditioned air exam, you have to have 5 years of experience. 5 years. You can substitute 2 years of school for work. In addition to conditioned air licenses, there are also licenses to practice medicine. In general, it takes 4 years of medical school and then a number of years of residency where you work under another doctor. Just to be clear, you can start cutting on someone after medical school and a minimum of 1 year of residency. That's 5 years in case you're counting.

Now many experienced, licensed contractors will jump in here and say "but consumer, we are WORRIED about your home, we CARE about the safety of your family, that's why we make it SOOOO difficult to obtain a conditioned air license (arguably as difficult as a license to cut me open)." To this I would reply, Ok then, that's great, I'm really glad to have a licensed, experienced contractor who will come to my homes and service my units. So I call the company and request service. Who do they send out? An EMPLOYEE, that could have 1 minute of experience. There are absolutely no laws protecting me or preventing this. Again, someone will say but yes that employee with his brand new set of wal-mart tools is under the guidance of the experience licensed contractor. Really? How many employees can one shop have under one licensee or one manager? UNLIMITED. A million. As many employees as you could ever hire from the front of Home Depot. So you expect me to believe that you really care about what's going on in my houses?

I'm the one who's responsible for the safety of my family and the family of my residents. Countless times I've had to correct technicians that work under the blessed guidance of the State licensed appointee.

All that being said, you will see from a consumer's perspective that indeed the state licensing board is not setup to protect me and my family but rather to maintain in economics what we like to call a cartel. Similar to OPEC or any other government protected organization expect we operate under the guise of safety and consumer protection.

Now at this point, you're probably wondering what this has to do with your employment situation. Well here goes, as has been discussed many times here, Owners of companies are concerned that young technicians out of school have a flaw. This flaw is called ambition. You went to HVAC school for a reason, and it was probably because you want independence. If you're fresh out of school, the state prohibits you from operating on your own. You can't even change a capacitor for someone legally. IF you don't have that 4-5 years experience, the shop owner thinks that you're just trying to get it and then will leave him high and dry. That way you can start your own state protected cartel and do the same thing to others. Why do you think people get laid off in the winter so quickly in addition to the obvious? It breaks the continuous experience loop.

So now I've said my piece, and if you've made it this long congratulations. If you're wondering, in addition to the rental stuff, I'm also a regular college engineer as well, but I think it's just as important to be good with your hands as it is your head. The reason the licensing requirements bother me personally is because I don't believe it makes any sense that a licensed individual can send me a tech with no experience to change a capacitor that I know is broken, but I can't change it myself. Again, you could say, well I don't have the experience to notice if something else might be wrong that could cause a safety issue. Maybe. Neither does Mr. Home Depot that just got sent out after being hired 5 minutes ago.

Ok. I am sure some people will frown upon this, but I had to do what I had to do. I went to school (full time with 5 kids btw) for HVAC and have grown to love the field. I also have been working a full time night job (Manufacturing plant) the 2 years in school. How did I get experience? I worked for friends.... I know I know not the greatest idea, but I am already proficient in industrial electrical and have my EPA card... so.... I worked. My night job pays twice what I could expect to start at in HVAC.

Thankfully I have picked up a commercial contract where I can work legally under their License and Insurance. I can't tell you how many times I have been on jobs alone and fixed something for the first time! It may sound stupid, but times I have been stumped and ready to throw in the towel and BING the answer hits me like a ton of bricks. I also have relied heavily on this site.

Now I am months away from being fully, independantly legal and I can't wait.

Ok. I am sure some people will frown upon this, but I had to do what I had to do. I went to school (full time with 5 kids btw) for HVAC and have grown to love the field. I also have been working a full time night job (Manufacturing plant) the 2 years in school. How did I get experience? I worked for friends.... I know I know not the greatest idea, but I am already proficient in industrial electrical and have my EPA card... so.... I worked. My night job pays twice what I could expect to start at in HVAC.

Thankfully I have picked up a commercial contract where I can work legally under their License and Insurance. I can't tell you how many times I have been on jobs alone and fixed something for the first time! It may sound stupid, but times I have been stumped and ready to throw in the towel and BING the answer hits me like a ton of bricks. I also have relied heavily on this site.

Now I am months away from being fully, independantly legal and I can't wait.

I'm in the same boat man. It's tough being a newbie and no one wants to give you a chance.

Originally Posted by Carbent

Fake it til u make it.

Sent from my LS670 using Tapatalk 2

That's how most of us got to where we are at....


There are people who live and learn, while others are just livin'. Don't be the latter.

Fake it til u make it.

Sent from my LS670 using Tapatalk 2

I will try and answer this from an Owner's perspective. We are all squawking about not having enough qualified technicians, but we aren't willing to train. It is a Catch 22. The reason for this really is the economy.

Those of you that were around when times were good, may remember coming out of trade school, then getting a job as an apprentice or a helper for a year, then slowly gaining more responsibility. Those days are gone.

While the market is improving, we are all operating at ridiculously low margins. That means that the error range between making money and losing money is so thin, that we have our top techs doing stuff that only a few years ago, a helper would have done. A simple mistake could cost us the entire profit on a job. Add to that the litigious nature of today's society and honestly, I am scared to have a new guy do anything.

It sucks for someone like yourself, just trying to break in, but facts are facts. We are not in this for our health. Most of us have a substantial amount of our life savings tied up in these companies and one screw up and it is all gone.

Having said all that, there are still opportunities. Some of the blame for this current job market for newbies falls back on you guys. Personally, the last few guys that I have hired out of trade school have pretty much sucked. They spend too much time on the phone, they walk in the door expecting the keys to a van and twice what they are worth. Then when we get them on the job, the stuff they are being taught in school is inadequate.

I have taken the Intern Approach too lately, and have had better luck with it. I look for high school kids with mid 3.0 GPAs and strong science and math skills. We bring them in for the summer and see how they do. After their senior year of high school, if they worked out, we offer them a spot. We are seeing much better results from this than from the Votech schools. They are making money right out of the gate with no college debt. It isn't the answer for all of them, but we have been surprised by a few that have accepted.

I would suggest finding a small one or two man shop that is busy. Offer to take the job for helper pay and then work your tail off. The smaller shops can't usually afford a top tech and you will be learning it straight from the source. The other option is as the guys stated. Find a shop that is always looking for help. There is a reason that they are always hiring.

Good Luck to you.

I remember those days. Graduated school and thought finding a job would be a breeze. Six months later took a job for half of what I thought I would be making and driving my own truck to work every day after stalking the service manager for weeks. He later told me the only reason he hired me was because I stayed after him so hard. It was either hire me or kill me and he had consider the latter! Stay after it and try to find a shop that covers residential and commercial/industrial work. Good luck. My company has for the last couple of years been doing internships and if they work out ok they offer them a position full time. If anybody in your area does that look into it. Good luck.

If you don't work for a jerk, you'll have to pretty much bs your way into it and hope you can swim and not sink. This is about the same situation I was in and had to relocate to get things rolling. If you're serious, that might be an option on your table.


There are people who live and learn, while others are just livin'. Don't be the latter.

Yeah, that's the sad part of today's world, everyone is focusing on next quarter.

I'm in the same boat, and just trying to learn as much as I can, in any way, shape or form, makes not much difference if you are trained on the job or learn the process and watch other people do it.

Originally Posted by jmsmars1

I went to a shop that has a reputation of the owner treating the employees poorly. As a result he is almost always looking for help. It didn't deter me because I have already worked for some of the biggest a-holes on the planet. I do my job well and the guy actually treats me pretty good. I have been there a year now and probably making more than I would almost anywhere else around here at the 1 year mark. Good luck.

Had to smile upon reading this. Took a similar route. Still there two plus years down the road and stood up to everything they could throw at me. Had to practically live on this site to do it, however...

So...work for a jerk. I guess...