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[jbhenergy]

I’ll also add, I think the difference between a good teacher and a great teacher, is the motivation for taking the job. If it’s only for a paycheck you’ll probably be good but not great. If you do it because you have a love of the subject and want to ensure the continuation of the subject, you’ll be great.

I almost had the chance to teach a few months fill in while the school got someone permanently. Timing didn’t work out with all the paperwork and background checks that would be needed and the north of my first, but I was super excited to do. I was bummed to find out it would be a 6-8 week process to get all my paperwork through and background check back from fbi. By the time it all came back my kid would be around 4 weeks later.

I still think one day I will get to be able to teach. Have to start first with my own two.


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[Jim1959]

I'm on here a lot and am not a professional member so I realize maybe I need to say something. I took HVAC in 1997 and got my Freon card but quit after that. My instructor could answer any question you could ask him! I've never worked in the field but just can't get away from the idea.

[WAYNE3298]

We'll be looking forward to your story VTP99.

BBeerme you guys should always be able to call the engineer. Exponentially is a good point.

A couple of you mentioned being bored in school. I think that is a big problem for a lot of kids. The school system has done a poor job of recognizing when a kid is bored and finding a way to get them interested.

One reason I like this site is I think there are several gifted people on here. I had a journeyman working for me and an engineer called me questioning his knowledge and ask if I had full confidence in the guy. When I said yes he said why and I said because he knows things he's not supposed to know and to get that far he has to know his stuff. A lot here are like him and know things they aren't supposed to know.

[WAYNE3298]

I was privileged to mentor several young engineers jbhenergy and that was the most satisfying and rewarding part of my career. It was a pleasure watching the youngsters go a lot further in their career than I did.

BBeerme add all the details you want because even if nobody else likes this thread I love it.

[ehsx]

Bored with school, but mom made sure I went to summer school every year till after I was 16. Took welding, wood shop, basic electricity, & electronic communications till graduated in '72. Job market was good then, 3 interviews, 3 offers. Took job as a millwright apprentice with a nuclear power turbine crew, I had asked what's a millwright? .."got to know a little of everything and not a lot of anything" sounded good. Worked with some sharp guys, asked lots of questions. Crew drug up and went to a chemical plant so I went with them. Next thing I know I told I was transferring to another chemical plant as a journeyman after two years as an apprentice. Took additional welding classes and instrumentation classes at night. First air compressor worked on was 20,000 hp multi stages, first chillers 8,000 hp 2 stage, installed, set-up, rebuilt, etc. Lots of overtime.
York offered a job, first real introduction to ac&r, primarily did rebuilds & retubes. Spent a lot of nights on the phone and in books figuring out & planning the next days work as I learned refrigeration systems. At that time mostly just industrial and large commercial equipment . Trouble jobs to 12,000 hp. Tech to area manager, 12 years. Plenty of overtime first 8 years and too much travel.
Five years service, consulting & installation business owner. Major learning experience.
Service consultant for residential, light commercial couple of years. Left because no longer challenging, great guys, so-so compensation.
Training manager for commercial/industrial chiller company. First full time training job. Learned fast to teach authoritively you have to have "been there, done that".
National service manager for specialty HAVCR company.
Also taught at tech center, hs & adults. Beginner to intermediate students. Fun job, first time ever having much time off.
Application engineer, warranty manager, technical support/manager, & training for 20 years at last job.

Best advice: try to work for the best companies & people that you have the most respect for. Ask questions until you fully understand. Establish full understanding of causes & effects. Ask why, many can't answer. Don't stop when your find a problem, look for other potential issues. Use log sheets to review operations. Honesty goes a long way with customers. Don't call the gm a lying sack of s---, insult the boss, or tell engineers the complete truth about their design (some don't want honesty) . At any new job find out who the experts are in each field and establish communications/relations.

Have worked with some great engineers who would spend as long as you wanted (sometimes longer) discussing design & principles.

[Zamoramax]

Started when I was 18. Waiting for school to start took a job as my BIL gopher. Boss loved me and offered me 4/hr raise to stay. 12 years later I left to shorten my commute and be able to spend time with my kids. 5½ years I've been the #2 with this company. Contemplating starting my own thing or forcing my family to move.. either way its a rough road ahead.

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I went from a gopher to apprentice helping on everything from a wall furnace to 7 story T/I build out. After about 2 years I was on my own doing resi installs. That lasted for 18 months or so then came the VRF world for us. My BIL and I paired back up and learned together on a few good size jobs roughly 2 years. Then I was head resi installer and floated back and forth for commercial work and the relief service tech(our other "techs" didn't know how to trouble shoot a furnace they just installed). This lasted about 4 years. Then we blew up on the VRF scene and needed 2 full time crews running big jobs. The next 2½-3 years were spent on office buildings and hotels doing all heat recovery systems. Hope thats enough background. We did/do everything from service, install of new equipment to cap flashing, fry wriglet, custom built ductwork, standing seam roofs, class 1 hoods....

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[WAYNE3298]

Lots of good stuff there ehsx. Glad to see you joined this site.

Thanks for the additions Zamoramax. You guys all have good stories and any young guys that read these threads will get good advice from your stories.

[R600a]

My story is basically just beginning.
As with many of us here I hated school.
Growing up we were off grid and used a generator with an inverter and batteries to run our house and a water tower to provide our water.
All of my friends were at least 50 or older and I never understood people my own age so I learned a ton from listening to old-timers tell stories. I also was a book worm so I learned a lot from the encyclopedia and every other technical book I could get my hands on.
I thought central heat and air was stupid and unnecessary and was usually only uncomfortable in a building if it was conditioned.
After i turned 18 I followed a girl to Oklahoma and worked various jobs until a friend told me he needed help moving some equipment on a job so I said sure.
Well he was actually just trying to get me into ac and it totally worked.
By the end of the first summer he had me running service alone and by the next spring I was going on the trouble calls that he was stumped on and often was able to figure them out.
I had no formal training I just rode with him asking him an endless stream of questions between service calls and reading manuals. Sometime that first year I found HVAC talk and started reading on here before joining and being deleted in one of the crashes I eventually rejoined and I have learned so much on here.
I have been able to attend the Copeland scroll compressor technology day which really made the superheat and subcooling make sense instead of just being these random 10° numbers i was supposed to charge to.
At 24 i am 4 years in and I am supposed to take the journeyman test soon, when i pass that my boss will retire and just be our license qualifier until i can get my license.
This quickly became a passion instead of a job and I will be in it for life. My experience has been in residential mostly working on rentals which gave me a lot of real world diagnostic experience in a short time.
I love the work and I wish I had started earlier. I now want to venture out into restaurant refrigeration because I see so much cool equipment on here.
Sorry I have a bad habit of rambling.

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[thmoops]

Started as a summer job in 1997.

Was planning on going to college for Mech Eng but decided to do an apprenticeship after a few weeks on the job. Liked been somewhere different everyday and the thought of going into the same office everyday didn't sound good.

Started off installing small splits and cold rooms, then progressed to servicing chillers, VRVs, rack systems.

Probably would've been better off going to college, but done alright in the end. Have a good job now and the work is always interesting.

[jbhenergy]

So only a few posters in I’m seeing a trend of hating school. But yet we are all on an educational site after hours to learn more. But we hated school..... think there is a research project here.

Can we find a phd student that needs a research project?

Can we make a poll and see how many people like school vs didn’t?

Funny the guys here didn’t like school but I would venture to say most here are top 25% in their field, some probably being top 5% or 1. We all know the sales techs are not on here honing their skills.


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[Zamoramax]

I think its a requirement to hate school to be a tech. I graduated with a 2.9GPA and did zero homework or studying. I bs'ed in class but aced all tests. Spent as much time as I could in auto shop. I used to get the assignments as I walked into class. Figure it out before roll call was done and turn in the work before the lecture was over. Then "can I go to auto now?" Shop teacher let me build 2 cars, paint his truck, and make parts runs when we were supposed to be in other classes.
I was for sure a hoodlum but he never gave up and always pushed me. I married my high school sweetie and he constantly told her to leave this looser. Had lunch with him last year. He was pretty proud. Not to many of us made something of ourselves. Heck a good 15 or so of his students were killed in school or within a couple years of getting out just from my class(04).

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[GREGHVACGUY]

Like most I did not like school. I did not what to go to collage. When I was in High school and when I graduated. I was working at MCD's as a manager. I had to make a change and did not know what. The group of MCDS I worked for had a Maintness guy that would come in and fix the grill, cooler and HVAC. I would alway watch him and help when I could. One day he had to change the air filter. He ask me to help get filter to roof. That is when I started talking with him. After that day I heard a HVAC school advertise on the radio. I called them made a visit to the school. My parents did not think it was a good idea. So I started school. It was a 12 month program. After 6 I landed a job at a HVAC company doing furnace cleaning. That company had some very good service guys. Any free time I would help them. From that company I worked for few company lasting around 2-3 years each. Then I switch to a place that did managed over a million sq feet of facilities. After about 3 years I got tiered working on the same stuff all the time. That is when I found a refrigeration and commercial HVAC. This was great company to work for. I got 40+ hour year around. I was not looking for a change. Till I seen a post on HVAC talk to work for a manufacture. Well I looked into it and landed the job. With them being the manufacture I knew I could relocate with them. so I took the job.The great part was after two years I wanted to relocate from IL to FL. Well it happen and I have been in FL for 3 years and loving it. I will be working here till its time for me to hang my volt meeter up at 62ish+.

[jbhenergy]

I think its a requirement to hate school to be a tech. I graduated with a 2.9GPA and did zero homework or studying. I bs'ed in class but aced all tests. Spent as much time as I could in auto shop. I used to get the assignments as I walked into class. Figure it out before roll call was done and turn in the work before the lecture was over. Then "can I go to auto now?" Shop teacher let me build 2 cars, paint his truck, and make parts runs when we were supposed to be in other classes.
I was for sure a hoodlum but he never gave up and always pushed me. I married my high school sweetie and he constantly told her to leave this looser. Had lunch with him last year. He was pretty proud. Not to many of us made something of ourselves. Heck a good 15 or so of his students were killed in school or within a couple years of getting out just from my class(04).

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Only class I did good in was cad classes, wood shop, and the 30+ gym classes I took lol.

I take that back. I did okay in most classes but I only ever took test. Never did my homework. Passed with b or c. One math class I sat in the back corner and slept every class. Took the midterm and got highest grade. The smart kids in the front row got chewed out. Teacher was trying to figure out if he was a failure or what had happened.


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[Chev5372]

Never did in HS mostly Cs. Graduated 1976. Floundered around around at some jobs. Went to work for a friend’s dad as a courier in a medical lab. One of the lab technicians husband taught HVAC at a trade school. We had talked a couple of times at parties and he thought I should come in and take the entrance exam. I did and scored high. I guess all that time spent with dad in the garage beating on the family cars paid off.
Got out of school towards top of class. Worked for a guy that did domestic refrigerators. It was ok. Got accused of rape on a call by the young girl from across the street of the customer I was at. Thankfully the customer said it never happened I was never out of her sight. The young girl was home from the local psychiatric ward for a visit. I quit and went back to my old courier job. Family and friends talked me in to going into business for myself which I did but having fun got in the way. Ended up getting a job at a plumbing company that wanted to get into the A/C repair business which where I meet George. What a man to be a helper to. He had knowledge and patients to work with a smart-ass kid. We both left the plumbing outfit. George went to work for a local shop that did commercial service and install, Carrier equipment mostly. I went back trying to run my business. Ran into George at a supply house a year later and wanted to come be a tradesman where he was at. So went down the next day and got hired and got into the UA. At this shop got to work with Darrell , another over the top tech. George and I stayed for about 5 years until the owner spent to much time hanging out with Bobby and Al Unser and let the business slip. George went to York , Darrell stayed as he was a partner. I went to Carrier for a few years until the manager we had flew in on Thursday morning from Dallas and went home on Friday morning, was a Otis elevator manager. At the time UT owed both Otis and Carrier. Ran into George again he said come to York . Went in the Carrier office to quit and Otis boy threw the UA contract across the table at me and said you can’t quit. Why not I asked because we will give you more money. That’s not the point I said this place is to disorganized. When my wife came to get me that evening from the Carrier shop Otis boy came and tried to get my wife to tell me not to quit. Have been with York since 1994. George left to do his own business and doing really good. Darrell retired lucky stiff.
In all of this was the people I was around and got to work with . Reading everything I could get my hands on. Asking questions and taking that answer and thinking about it long and hard. Sometimes the answer just makes no sense what the guy told you , but that makes you think of the right solution. Hope that made sense.
This career is way more then just a job. I have seen more guys come thru the three shops I have been at that are just there for a paycheck. Seems like a waste of time , this is one job that is so varied and diverse from anything else in the trades.
The places you get to go the stuff you work on , new to old. Makes a guy want to go to work everyday.


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[Zamoramax]

I got the lectures all the time. Don't waste your life... problem was I knew all the campus security guards family. They would threaten me and like a little turd I would ask hows this person. They would stop and leave me alone. Or one had her daughter in the same school so we became playful friends... oh I worked angles to make sure I didn't get into legal trouble but man was I known and untouchable. Quite the little s**t I was.

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[R600a]

So only a few posters in I’m seeing a trend of hating school. But yet we are all on an educational site after hours to learn more. But we hated school..... think there is a research project here.

Can we find a phd student that needs a research project?

Can we make a poll and see how many people like school vs didn’t?

Funny the guys here didn’t like school but I would venture to say most here are top 25% in their field, some probably being top 5% or 1. We all know the sales techs are not on here honing their skills.


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My hatred for school started in kindergarten with the teacher from the black lagoon. She was pure evil. I am pretty sure she kept teaching just for the joy of making kids cry. I was not a crying kid i just developed a burning hatred for her. I swore i would never read again after kindergarten but then i realized books were too interesting and eventually i read so much that it got hard to find new books because I had read them all.
I went back and forth between public and homeschool and by 10th grade i just sat there reading a book or the school book in class and refused to do any school work or homework but the teachers didn't bother me because I was respectful and quiet. I learned much more from the books i read in class than they ever taught in class.
Public school is i severely broken program.

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[Chev5372]

So only a few posters in I’m seeing a trend of hating school. But yet we are all on an educational site after hours to learn more. But we hated school..... think there is a research project here.

Can we find a phd student that needs a research project?

Can we make a poll and see how many people like school vs didn’t?

Funny the guys here didn’t like school but I would venture to say most here are top 25% in their field, some probably being top 5% or 1. We all know the sales techs are not on here honing their skills.


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I think more a dislike of the traditional teaching. Teacher standing up front talking. A lot of the guys here like taking something apart and put it back together and then see it work afterwards.
Had a history teacher 9th grade world history. He would stand at the front of the class and talk , you had to write notes as he talked . His test would be your notes if your notes suck you failed. It was how he taught.
My parents were teachers. Mom was 1-5 didn’t like the older kids as they were starting to become a-holes. Dad taught physics and AP physics and head of science dept. He was a clown in the front of class. Blew stuff up. Made a air gun to shoot a stuffed monkey falling from the lights. The students had the figure out the angle of the gun and timing when to fire. But you were learning hard lessons you just didn’t know it.
On Christmas break I would help him move all the desks and tables out of his class room and set up a S gauge train set on the floor. Kids that had graduated ,if home for break , would come and play trains all night.
It’s all about the teacher on what you learn and retain.



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[dieseldude]

I guess I should start by saying I struggled in school from the beginning all the way to high school.
I started my journey at a hospital, I was hired as a maintenance worker. No schooling for any trade, but slowly learning electrical, plumbing and mechanical systems. The hospital also had 20+ doctor offices around the site, these offices had a mix of RTU, gas split systems and heat pumps ( carrier r-500).
The maint. Boss asked me to start changing filters and belts on these system to save money, by not using local hvac companies. That led to troubleshooting and shadowing real hvac techs.
Over the 5 years there I miswired, broke, Overcharged freezon and let the magic smoke out of every system at least once. Best part was the Boss didn't mind, I could fix the same issue 3-4 times and still not cost as much as real tech.
As I learned more, I realized the real techs I was shadowing, were giving me bad/wrong info about system issues, this made the learning process difficult, but it didn't stop me , I was fascinated by the refrigeration process.
I eventually got to work on the large RTU's, AHU's, pneumatic system, boilers, chillers, refers and freezers. Worked residential for 10 years and moved to commercial for the last 20.

My early learning process was derailed several times by (real) techs. giving bad info to protect their jobs:dunno: I promised myself, that if anyone asked me a question about hvac I would share all my knowledge with them. That is the reason I am at this site.

[R600a]

I think more a dislike of the traditional teaching. Teacher standing up front talking. A lot of the guys here like taking something apart and put it back together and then see it work afterwards.
Had a history teacher 9th grade world history. He would stand at the front of the class and talk , you had to write notes as he talked . His test would be your notes if your notes suck you failed. It was how he taught.
My parents were teachers. Mom was 1-5 didn’t like the older kids as they were starting to become a-holes. Dad taught physics and AP physics and head of science dept. He was a clown in the front of class. Blew stuff up. Made a air gun to shoot a stuffed monkey falling from the lights. The students had the figure out the angle of the gun and timing when to fire. But you were learning hard lessons you just didn’t know it.
On Christmas break I would help him move all the desks and tables out of his class room and set up a S gauge train set on the floor. Kids that had graduated ,if home for break , would come and play trains all night.
It’s all about the teacher on what you learn and retain.



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I dislike the tyranny of forced generic education for everyone.
I often think if I hadn't spent my childhood miserably imprisoned by the school system I may have become an engineer because that field has always interested me but but instead my time was wasted with the vile redundant thing that is public "education".
I better stop now for my blood pressure. I really hate the school system.

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[R600a]

It is really cool seeing how so many people just sorta fell into the trade.

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