When I heard about the financial effects of my decisions on my community, I quit my job and joined a residential HVAC company
When I started my HVAC career, I’m not proud to say that I followed the money. My uncle was the union leader for the local HVAC workers, and he was always telling me the ins and outs of the air quality control business. He said, things really haven’t changed too much since he got in the game. If you wanted to make a lot of money, the key was to specialize in commercial HVAC repair instead of wasting your time with the residential service jobs and smaller HVAC systems. He told me, simply, larger HVAC equipment means larger repair bills. If I wanted to work the least number of hours for the maximum financial benefit, get into commercial HVAC early on in your career. So, that’s what I did. I went to a trade school and enrolled in a program that specialized in commercial heating, cooling, and ventilation solutions. I graduated at the top of my class with several commercial internships under my belt. And I was able to easily find a commercial HVAC technician position with one of the largest providers in the county shortly after I got my certification. I was making bank, and I was happy with my HVAC decisions. And then, I started hearing about how much it cost for local residents to get their HVAC systems repaired. Apparently, there was a real shortage of HVAC technicians dedicated to residential systems in our town. Now, people were paying twice as much for routine services. When I heard about the financial effects of my decisions on my community, I quit my job and joined a residential HVAC company. Several of my coworkers saw the light and followed along. Now, residential HVAC technician numbers are up and emergency HVAC repairs are down. Our prices have declined significantly, and our town is happy again.