After I finished with HVAC technical school, it was hard for me to find a job.
There were a lot of places hiring close to home, but I wanted to move to a different city with my new girlfriend. She didn’t want to stay in our little hometown where there wasn’t anything fun to do on the weekends. We moved a little bit closer to the city and the rent was higher than we anticipated. It took a long time for me to find a job too. I applied for a position with a lot of different heating and AC companies. Unfortunately, most of those places wanted the candidate to have at least one or two years of on the job experience and I didn’t have any at all. I had to work in a restaurant as a waiter until I found a full-time position. The job qualifications for that place included 2 years of training as well, but they let me start and put me on a 90-day probationary period. I had to ride around with someone else and basically do all of the grunt work. I had to start somewhere, so I couldn’t complain after I got a position. I did learn a lot during those 90 days and it felt like I didn’t know anything from the classroom when I thought that I knew everything. I can absolutely understand why so many of the HVAC businesses only wanted a qualified candidate with more than one year of HVAC on the job training. I am now a full-time HVAC technician and I regularly get overtime at work. The boss trusts me and knows that I am going to get everything done the right way without complaining.