How Did You Get Your Start In HVAC?

[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).

[Paul Bee]

At the age of 10 I started tinkering around with tape recorders, intercoms, walkie-talkies,etc. repairing my bicycle and helping my older brother build hot rods. My father worked with Cryogenics at Hughes Aircraft in Malibu, California and he took me down to the Lab on a saturday and showed me the Cryostat that he operated and froze a flower in liquid nitrogen and shattered it. Still I was mainly interested in electronics, so in the 11th grade I signed up for a Skills Center class in electronics. That class was full, my alternate choice was Refrigeration Service. My Instructor had been a fighter pilot in the Cuban Air Force (his name was Al Gomez) and when Fidel Castro came to power Al defected, flew his Jet to Florida and somehow wound up on the West Coast teaching this refrigeration class to high school kids. Al took a shine to me and suggested I take the advanced class in summer school, so I did. I was really impressed with Al Gomez and his desire to help high school kids find a good career, I think that inspired me to have a career in this field and also to help train young technicians. We were troubleshooting and repairing domestic refrigerators, freezers and window air conditioners. I was just 17 when I replaced my first compressor in that class. Halfway through the summer course I had to take a week off to Drive up to Oregon with my Dad. He had a new job 1000 miles away in Clackamas, Oregon. Finished school with excellent grades and 2 Certificates of Proficiency in Refrigeration Service, It took until the Holidays to sell the house in L.A. and took me until March to find an Apprentice job at a small mom & pop shop in Gresham,Oregon. So at 18 I was working as a service tech. Within a year I was running service calls and was paid on commision just like the journeymen there. Several years later I was at SEARS SERVICE learning Oil Heating Systems and Heat Pumps. In 1999 I switched to Commercial Hvac and I have always enjoyed my job. The first shop I worked at, I saw an ad in the paper, that guy interviewed me 3 times, hired me and let me go 2 months later. My next job I listened to my Fathers advice and walked in off the street, asked to talk to the boss, and asked him if he needed an apprentice. He said to me "How do you figure wattage". I said "Amps times Volts". He said come back here in the shop and talk to my partner. I worked there 4 years and everyone in the company came to my wedding, It was like a second family.

[John Markl]

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).

Spot On...

And don't oversell yourself. Be honest. If you sell low, and perform high, you'll be a winner....If you sell high, and perform low, you'll be out looking again soon enough.

[valdelocc]

Spot On...

If you sell low, and perform high, you'll be a winner....

let me re-phrase that " if you sell low and perform high the business owner is the winner"

[John Markl]

let me re-phrase that " if you sell low and perform high the business owner is the winner"

Whatever, fella. Since you have all the answers, why don't you open your own shop, and report back your findings after a couple of years....

From the sound of it, you're well on your way to being one of those perpetual malcontents who change companies every two years....

[valdelocc]

Whatever, fella. Since you have all the answers, why don't you open your own shop, and report back your findings after a couple of years....

From the sound of it, you're well on your way to being one of those perpetual malcontents who change companies every two years....

unlike you I know my limitations and have no desire to be in business, as far as being malcontent, you are partially right, I'm not happy about whats going on in the trade, the market is saturated with low ballers and dreamers looking for cheap help, demanding all sort of qualifications but only willing to pay couple of bucks more than burger king.

[John Markl]

unlike you I know my limitations and have no desire to be in business, as far as being malcontent, you are partially right, I'm not happy about whats going on in the trade, the market is saturated with low ballers and dreamers looking for cheap help, demanding all sort of qualifications but only willing to pay couple of bucks more than burger king.

The guys who "sell low, and perform high" are typically the "keepers", who get raises, are respected, and are around for a good long while.

The guys who "sell high, and perform low" never live up to expectations, rarely get raises, and aren't around very long.

If someone's getting paid "Burger King money", then they obviously aren't bringing much to the table to begin with.......maybe a "Whopper" attitude...

[kamersoutdoor]

let me re-phrase that " if you sell low and perform high the business owner is the winner"

I have to agree with that. I'm the type that would walk rather than "BEG" for a raise. Sell low and they'll keep you low.
Guess it would depend on how much experience you can build on with a CO that would make me stay if said CO didn't offer raises. But those are the CO's that show up on Mon with a van in the parking lot because the tech got sick of the **it and pulled a John Markl

[Peztoy]

I cashed my last unemployment cheque. Went to the unemployment office and told the nice lady at the desk I needed a new job. She told me if I went to trade school the government would pay for my schooling and continue to pay me my unemployment cheques for another year. I said sign me up. I didn't even know what refrigeration was until my first day in class.

[Trehak01]

I sent my current boos a thank you letter after the interview for a start up position, he called me and asked me to start in service the following week. I guess he was impressed. I was straight out of school with less than a year of xp in installs.

[FL.HVAC]

I got my start as a swinging attic monkey. Started dating my soon to be fiance at 15 (she dosen't know yet) and her dad had his own a/c company and he took a liking to me and said i could earn some extra cash and learn something. I figured what the hell. So I would help on installs being the mastic man and the tool getter. Worked my way up began tearing apart the old units we would bring back to the shop to figure them out. Put myself through tech school at 18. Gradyamacated at the top of my class. Went to a commercial contractor straight out of that school. Then to a pharmaceutical plant where I got my break to work on chillers. Now at the ripe age of 24 I got my state contractors license and own a hvac company. Not too shabby if I do say so myself. Can't wait to see what I do my next 40 years!

[Tech it out]

Was 1 week from graduating tech school and pulled up to a red light beside an appliance company truck. Asked the guys in the truck if they were hiring and the driver told me to come by the shop and apply. Worked for them for about 6 months and got a job with a school system as there only a/c mechanic. That was in 1982. Just retired from there in Dec. and the system had 6 techs.

The guy that was driving the appliance truck was one of the best appliance technicians I have ever known.

[Tech Rob]

Spot On...

And don't oversell yourself. Be honest. If you sell low, and perform high, you'll be a winner....If you sell high, and perform low, you'll be out looking again soon enough.

John, I have a similar saying I like to pass on to the new guys. "Under-promise and over-deliver". That is what I have always done, or at least I think so, anyway... Notice I didn't say anything about "selling low", though...

[Tech Rob]

To answer the OP's question; I needed a job. Could have just as easily been selling useless widgets at the kiosk at the local shopping mall.

[ACFIXR]

As somebody who went to a trade school and can't seem to find a company who will hire me without experience, I'm really curious to hear how you guys got your start in HVAC. Some stories should help inspire us trying to enter the field that it can be done as a newbie. Did you go to school for it or start out as a helper or installer or something? How did you hear about the job opening? It's almost like you have to be a family member to get your foot in the door the way I feel right now. So tell us your stories...How did you get your foot in the door?

The best way to get started is to "Know somebody".

Or you can get started like I did. In building maintenance.Doing menial tasks such as changing filters, oiling motors- we used to do that back in the day.Cleaning coils, flushing condensate lines, replacing motors the real tech 86'd,draining the water out of the compressor tank, adjusting the belts in air handlers,and doing the job that no self respecting tech would be caught dead doing...............servicing the evaporative coolers. There is a property out there somewhere that needs somebody to fix their stuff. The fastest track to becoming a tech is lots of work.