How Did You Get Your Start In HVAC?

[2sac]

At 30 years old, had surgery on my ankle and went to trade school because I couldn't work. Grajeeated top of my class and got a job at half my "pre hvac" wages at a union shop changing filters in a corn processing plant. Took 2 weeks to change filters on all the equiptment, then I'd start over again. 11 months later the shop lost the account at the plant, they had no more work for me and we parted ways. Was hired by a refrigeration/light commercial shop 2 days later and was thrown out to the wolves. I've been playing with the wolves for 12 years. It doesn't hurt as much when they bite nowadays.

[RoBoTeq]

I was a petty thief, High School dropout who broke into a van that had a bunch of sheet metal tools. Since they weren't worth anything at the pawn shops, I started using them.

[supertek65]

i adopted my girlfriend who owned an air conditioning company?????????????

[keeplearnin]

i was finishing cement in Georgia when I got out of the ARMY!
we were doing a runway and it was like 108 degrees out.

foreman yells out "ANYBODY KNOW HOW TO DRIVE A 13 SPEED ALLISON TRANSMISSION?"

Ofcourse I never had but it was hot!
I said " I DO!"

he took me to the batch plant gave me a hard hat and siad get in!
20 yard cement truck! OOH BIG TRUCK!!!!!!!!!!

he gets in, I start it figure out the parking/air brakes. Back it under the batch plant, get loaded up and put her in first gear, hit the clutch to go to second gear and he says "STOP!"
"YOU HAVE NEVER DRIVEN A 13 SPEED BEFORE HAVE YOU?"
"no,i lied!"
"if you can figure it out by the time we get back to the batch plant? you can have the job!"

Sweet- did you get it? It's a little different than your moms station wagon

[supertek65]

Yes I did!!!!!!!!!!!
he knew right away cus you do NOT use the clutch for anything but being stopped!

when you got like 60 tons of concrete you better not forget what gear you are in!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

after a couple days I forgot where the clutch was!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Sweet- did you get it? It's a little different than your moms station wagon

[keeplearnin]

Yes I did!!!!!!!!!!!
he knew right away cus you do NOT use the clutch for anything but being stopped!

when you got like 60 tons of concrete you better not forget what gear you are in!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

after a couple days I forgot where the clutch was!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

good job

[supertek65]

Thanx

good job

[sweat hog]

Thats easy!. The hot tar roofing job fell through. At least that hasn't happened since.

[blitz]

paying a bill for my dad at his contractor's office and his helper had quit. he needed one right away and I start on monday...

[Jigjoe]

I'm actually in the process of trying to figure out how I plan on getting my foot back into the door

[navyhydronics]

Read Modern Refrigeration and Air Conditioning......and after reading it for 15 years i decided that when i retired from the navy i would get a job as a HVACR tech and thats what i did.

[StallionTech]

Hello all, my name is Leo. Ive been interested in HVAC for a quite some times but finally i have decided to start school on Feb 20. Ive read a lot about HVAC and i deeply feel thats a trade i can see myself doing for the rest of my life. I wouldnt be on this site if i wasnt serious. I dont know much but i am a quick learner and im determine to make it to the top like you guys on here. Any Info will be greatly appreciated...

[timebuilder]

Edited for brevity: (leaving out the Academy, college courses, the summer plumbing and electrical contractor jobs, real estate, etc)

When I was a kid, only rich people had multiple AC units. There was no central AC in a residence that I visited. Anyway, my grandfather had left my grandma pretty well off, and one year, she bought us an Amana widow shaker. 220 volts, yet. Had the electrician come in to run a circuit for it.

We are talking the 1950's now. It was WAY hotter in the summer than it is now, and WAY colder in the winter. 20 inches of snow was not uncommon for suburban Philly. Al Gore hadn't invented global warming or the internet yet.

I was fascinated that this box that ran on electricity could made the dining room cold.

A few years later, when we moved to the farm, I was reading Boy's Life (my cub scout magazine) and they always had ads in the back. One was for what was then called a "correspondence school." At the end of the course, they said you would have a working refrigeration unit. Looking back, it was a condensing unit for a reach-in cooler. My mom nixed the whole thing, since grandma was sending me to private school already, and they had visions of me being a CEO someday. I guess I effed up that part. So, I never got to take the lessons or build the condensing unit. Like a lot of other skills I have now, I would have to teach myself most of it.

10 years later, I was building hot rods, choppers (hence the nickname that Frank mentions) and I had a working knowledge of just about anything. I'd fix AC for friends, I worked as a professional mechanic (33 ASE certs, four master certs) and flew part 135 jet charter in the Lear 35 and 55 series aircraft. Nights and weekends I was on the radio in the #5 market in the country. In college, I was heard on over 500 NBC radio network stations.


I hated the environment in the auto and truck service bays, the schedule of flying was erratic and difficult for good sleeping (pilot lounge chairs) and radio was dying because of the internet.

So, I made a call and resurrected my AC skills, which frankly, allows me to use most of what I know about electricity, electronics, mechanics, and even some aerodynamics.

And like Frank, I learned to flat shift a RoadRanger tranny along the way!

The answer to the OP's question is: I searched on the internet, found a nearby outfit that expressed some values I agreed with, and I called the owner. He was having trouble finding smart guys, and we met for breakfast one day, and he hired me.

The steps can be seen as:

1) Interest in the science of how things work, and a demonstrated ability to diagnose and repair (for some, this can be doing well enough in school that you have a personal recommendation letter from a teacher)

2) Good communication skills to interact during the interview

3) A good, professional visual presentation. Not over the top, but clean, no visible tatts, looking like someone that a person will let into their home. In my case, into the back of their store (commercial AC).