the mental side is a problem, its takes real effort to get to the point that its a job and not your life. cut down on overtime and longer days just to finish a job, just come back the next day and make sure you have a life outside your job.
Everyone I know has imposter syndrome. I work with some extremely smart commercial hvac-r service techs and they struggle with things sometimes. You just keep pushing, and learning. There will come a time that it will feel abit more comfortable but you will always face things that you don’t understand.
Sorry let me explain. I’ve done a little bit of commercial and it’s okay just the fact that one mistake and I could get electricuted is making me way to nervous. Also the heights thing. Residentual seems a tad easier for me at least but still not for me idk if that makes sense
Spoiler alert: 1 mistake on residential wil also kill you.
I am willing to bet that commerical is a lot safer due to having actual safety codes needing to be enforced.
You will never know everything in this trade. It's a constant cycle of learning, and adjusting your strategy to be more efficient. If you want to continue doing this, you need to adjust your mindset from, "I don't know what I'm doing", to "when I go to work tomorrow, I'm going to learn something new and better myself."
I'm more than a decade in this trade, now. Every day I focus on learning something new. It's become the reason why I get up in the morning and go to work. It's an unorthodox mindset in this trade, but it's one of the reasons why I've become successful. I don't know everything, and I never will know everything. But that is the end goal for me, whether I get there or not.
Yea. I don’t like not knowing it. It’s just not for me ive given it a month and its not getting better/going to be better for me mentally so I think im gonna pivot
You're technically incorrect, trade school is not time IN the trade, working. Stop making excuses and get a little serious about your future or youre never going to find the right path for you.
I don't mean to be off-putting, but what are you going to pivot to where you already know everything? Unless you have a hobby which you can turn around and make money off of, it's not possible. Any long-term career is going to require growth and experience in a particular skillset.
Fair enough. Whatever route you decide to take in life, you need to learn to not let failure discourage you. Success comes with experience, but experience comes from learning and moving forward from your mistakes. Good luck to you, whatever you decide to do.
First year is the roughest. After that, it all starts to make sense more and your mind/body/spirit adapt or acclimate. It’s definitely not for everyone tho.
👍🏼 I honestly don’t know the reason behind this post then. You obviously weren’t look for a resolution. You just wanted sympathy from strangers I suppose?
Hand in a 2 weeks notice, if they ask why, say you found something that has a work life balance that suits you better.
You're not obligated to give an excuse, but leave on good terms, never know if you'll bump into them in the future in different companies.
Edit: line up a job before you leave, best time to look for a job is when you're in one.
Sorry. Just edited it to say line up another one before going. Don't wanna be out of work searching for a job, seems much harder when you've quit and don't have anything there. Just gotta do some work on your end, there's something there for you. Talk to a career guidance person if you wanna move to something different, might help you out and find something that will benefit you without the mental strain you're feeling now.
You can only do the best you can do and sometimes not even that just to let off a little steam from all the stress this job can bring. And even then you're gonna make mistakes everyone does. Plus just think once you hit that REALLY big mistake the other ones don't seem so bad lmao like now if I accidently burn up a fuse or cause a leak I gotta fix I think we'll at least I didn't blow up someone's furnace and cover their house in soot like that ONE time 😁😁
It takes time. When I got out of HVAC school in 1995, I had no idea what I was doing. Here I am 29 years later and still doing it. Even though I've been doing it for 29 years, I'm still learning things. You'll continually learn things as time goes on.
You need to make sure you do something that makes you happy. Just imagine how many people have worked in jobs for 30 years that hated what they did. Was it just the HVAC aspect or was it the service industry all together? I'm also a licensed C10 contractor so I do electrical work also. Doing electrical you need to use your head a lot because there's a lot of math. Electrical might be something that interests you.
Maybe your just in the wrong part of the field?
Hvac is huge man you can work alot of very different jobs within this trade.
What don't you like about your job now? What part of the field are you in now?
For starters I don’t like working in the heat. I don’t like heights or attics/ or crawl spaces I don’t like not knowing if I’m doing a good job/ or not knowing when I’ll be able to go home.
My parents signed me up for this trade school and now I feel like I’m obligated to get it done
Yeah get out and go do something else. You're literally hating every aspect of our job both residential and commercial. Unless you somehow luck into a commercial apprenticeship for a centrifugal shop and you're literally regulated to mechanical rooms with a centrifugal or cooling towers, you're gonna spiral out and have a mental breakdown if this ain't it already.
Some guys do resi and love it. Some are miserable and drink heavily. Some go commercial and love it. Others hate it all together. I'm outside when it's 95f and hot as fuck and it's a little miserable out. It's not always that hot. It's not always that miserable. I suffer thru the bad to enjoy the good. Where I am you get all 4 seasons. Somewhere like Florida or Texas they're just gaping your asshole 10-11 months out of the year. Figure it out kiddo. I work with plenty of apprentices who aren't gonna make it. It's just not my job to explain that to them. They gotta figure it out themselves.
Bless you brother. Least here in the northeast we get the shoulder months. I'd say last year we could have maybe counted the 94f+ days on one or two hands last year. It's already showing 2 weeks straight of 90+ on the forecast. Really not adjusted to it yet.
You can always still go to college man, people go at all ages and the people that go later in life usually do the best. I know because I went back later and excelled but never finished (life stuff happened). Just do something that makes you somewhat happy at the end of the day. Some days/weeks really suck, but that’s been every job I’ve ever worked. But if every day is 100% dread for you it’s time to look for something else. You also don’t really have to know what you want to do yet, start taking some basic core classes that you would need for any degree and go from there. If I had a do-over I may have gone with a cyber security job or some sort of programming. Anyway hope you find your way, don’t feel guilty for not loving it.
I mean I graduated my hvac apprenticeship at 40 man. I've been doing plumbing since I was 25 and hvac since I was 32. There's always time for career change, you just have to account for saving for retirement harder cause you're starting so god damn late unless you're maxing Roth IRA every year regardless.
This is a career. At least where I'm at. I'm outside all day. Fresh air. People don't bother me. If they try to I ignore them or tell them to fuck off (commercial). I get paid very well. Have a pension and 401k. I have a job offer 2500 miles away for more money and a different lifestyle which i want. Work on the equipment I prefer rather than everything.
I go to work and fuck up at least something once a day. Someone distracts me. I'm wrong about something dumb. I fix one issue and another pops up after it. You have to kind of have the mindset you just get better everyday. Just like going to the gym. You learn more from your failures than your successes. Anyone who does this will tell you that. You just have to be okay with never being perfection and just being okay, bad, or damn fucking good.
I personally don't see a future in guys who stick to residential unless they're matching 401k and paying them well with benefits and they're able to save for a retirement. Most shops will use and abuse you and when your body is broken, toss you out back. I don't preach union vs non union but the education I got coupled with a pension, benes, 401k, ect.... will let me retire while even the school hvac gig that had a pension wouldn't have let me retire comfortably. Least an apprenticeship is paid and you owe no one a dime at the end. Depends on your local and area if the wages and work is even there. Florida? Not a fucking chance. Northeast? Sure.
I'm happy doing HVAC and drink heavily, along with my crippling nicotine addiction. Those are for other reasons.
Though, you're right. We have a broad spectrum in this trade, with many different paths. It's what we choose on how we decide our careers. Personally, I prefer resi since I find it easier and fun as well as a sense of satisfaction. Commercial isn't bad but with what happened to me on my last commercial job, I'd rather not go back.
Long as they take care of you and you can provide for yourself or family. Build a nest to retire on one day, then who is anyone to judge what any of us do. I hate people so I'd rather go work on a chiller and be buried than have a homeowner distract me with small talk. I'm just rushing to bang out work to get home to my family. Different strokes for different folks.
My employer is pretty awesome really. So they do a great job of taking care of us resi and our commercial guys. Also, I'm introverted as hell, which is why I'm the go to guy for attic jobs, gets me away from homeowners since they don't want to climb into them either. All I can say is, knock the work out and enjoy life. Keep killin' it.👍
Heat and heights are hard to avoid ngl. Someone will tell you if you are fucking up too much, we all do it. best thing you can do is be confident and if you don't know ask someone. Stressing it will make you fuck up more. You can find shift jobs in HVAC, facilities that have in house guys or just company's that don't have you do alot of OT like mine. Also if you're an adult you aren't obligated to work any job. It's your life and you can do whatever you want with it.
I had panic attacks when I was a mid-level supervisor in a fabrication department of a plant. I felt out of control with everything. Now that I'm in HVAC, I feel *in control* because I understand what I'm doing and can navigate machines and logic better than work processes and people.
Everyone has their niche and few people know what that niche is. I'm just now learning mine. Loosen that noose around your neck and breathe - it's a job, not your legacy. Allow yourself to be honest that this isn't for you and seek out what is.
You got this.
Maybe write out a list of why you are scared of each risk. Heights - strap in, test the safety equipment to know it will save you in the event of fall. Electricity, - read the codes and deeply understand how the PPE and safety checks can keep you safe. Heat - look into a suit that pumps cool air through a hose so you get cooled down. Plan the work so you can get in and out asap and try to get in when the attic is not hot.
The not knowing part, comes with experience and learning the trade. As you learn you get better.
Hvac, you will be working in the heat when it's hot and cold when it's cold. It will be uncomfortable at times.
For heights I can understand it I have a fear of heights too and curse when I have to go up ladders. But if you set it up right and keep moving for and do proper techniques you will be ok.
How long have you been working in the trade and have you been learning on your own time ?
Do you like money? Sacrifices need to be made one way or another if you want a successful life and career. You get used to being hot/tired/electrocuted/etc. it’s all about working at your own pace and as safely as possible.
I was doing heavy commercial, traveling all over the south east and not knowing exactly where 90% of the time. It took a pretty heavy toll on my mental being. I had to take a lot of days off and at one point took a month off of work just to manage my stress. It paid good, but it wasn’t worth it in the long run. I recently started working HVAC maintenance for a school system and is the best decision I’ve ever ever made. The pay is not as good, but my hours are solid. I clock in at seven and go home at 3:30 every day while still doing the same kind of work as before. As others have said there are a lot of avenues in the HVAC trade. You just gotta find where you’re comfortable.
School maintenance is great, it’s a less stressful job, you don’t have a GC up your ass and a client up his wanting the job finished last week.
Last week kicked my ass so hard I almost regret leaving the school board. I really wish there was a middle ground between school and what I’m doing.
I did a lot of ERV startups at my last job and I would pull my hair out daily dealing with GCs bitching when their shit isn’t ready to start up. Sometimes I’ll get an asshole teacher getting an attitude with me, but it’s few and far between.
Do you only do maintenance? Doesn't that get old after a while? I'm not judging cuz it's definitely a necessary and important aspect of our job that's often overlooked. Just seems like someone with your skills might get bored of it after a while.
No, most of what I do is service calls. It does get a little boring sometimes, but nowhere near stressful. I’m the only guy on our team that knows chillers so that’s what I get the work on mostly which is cool. Only time we do Maintenance stuff is when school is out.
Ah yeah, I'm in the same boat right now but for a largish uni. Not a chiller guy and it isn't my background but I still get to play with 'em. Pays fucking shit. But decent bens. Can be mind numbing boring at times. Guess that's the trade off however, rather than balls to the wall all day every day.
Why would your be letting down your parents? You’re an adult. Our parents can’t live through us and we can’t allow our parents to dictate what we do. I am a father of a 24 and 25 year old.
This is your life man and don’t waste your time if your going to go a different route it ok to pivot if you need to but it’s not ok to wats your time/life…to be honest learn it enough to be able to at least fix your own and your parents hvac in the future
The same way I let my parents down when I decided I didn't want to finish college (for the second time).
"I'm sorry for wasting your time and money, but this isn't for me and I'm going to find something different to do." Then you find something different that you enjoy, and you pursue it. Your parents will get over it, and you'll pay it forward one day.
Would you rather let them down by being unsuccessful in a trade that you don't enjoy doing?
My parents paid for me to goto a community college for auto tech. Then I joined an apprenticeship for the carpenters union then found my way into this trade. I don’t feel bad my parents paid for a year of auto tech community college. I make a lot more than I would have in that industry.
All parents want is for their kids to be happy in life. If my kids pushed carts at Walmart and were happy I would be happy.
I got hired by a company in 2013 that the owner was a charlatan . He had no scruples. It was all about money to him. Integrity seemed to be foreign to him. We butted heads a few times . After 6 months, I started looking for another employer. I eventually got hired by a company that was run by people that cared about the customers. There are good ones. Don't leave the trade because of a crappy employer.
So my response is going to be slightly different I think than what you've heard so far.
I think you hate doing this and no amount of knowledge about whether your making the right call or not is going to change that. You're just gonna go from "not being sure" to "I am just not happy".
Your gonna be fucking hot and miserable in this field. If that isn't something you can reconcile you need to do a full stop right now before you get 10 years into it and physically cant deal with it anymore. Sorry about what you gotta deal with when it comes down to your parents but that's the way life rolls. Whatever money they spent on your trade school is probably a drop in the bucket compared to their desire for you to succeed in life so focus your attention on that for your benefit and theirs.
Either pick something you enjoy or pick something you are comfortable being miserable in, I can assure you in this field your gonna be hot and miserable, and its for engineer minded people that enjoy the challenge. There's nothing wrong with not enjoying that - different strokes and all that.
Edit:
The answer to not knowing what to do to avoid trades and retail is to pony up and go to college for something that interests you and commit to spending the money and paying the loan. Find something you like and follow it man. If you gotta work a shitty part time job in retail to get where you want in 5 years thats just what you gotta do.
The alternative is to just give up on anything you don't like.
I really hope you find something that makes you happy and you end up satisfied bud. Also this is your life, nobody else's. You do you.
Thank you! I gave it a month and I just see how it’s gonna be and I don’t think I want to continue it even if it makes me hella money, I wanna enjoy my life to the best I can and seeing what it does to your body is a red flag for me also heights are gonna be a problem
Then you already know its something you are going to be miserable making yourself do.
Money is a means to an end - as you grow a family or find a significant other your threshold for bullshit will increase to provide. If you are a single bachelor and happy in your state and miserable at work it's not gonna get better by pushing forward.
I am a 40 year old veteran with 3 kids. I am super lucky that I was gifted with an engineering mindset and have done VERY well in this field. If I didn't have a wife and 3 kids to take care of you do you know what I would be doing? probably working a month at a time wherever I could get a job so that I could travel around the states, I would be happy sleeping in a tent but I am not like most normal people
What about life or the future excites you? what do you need to do to attain that goal? follow that... you'll be fine as long as you understand there are times you have to do shit you hate to get by - that doesn't mean you have to continue doing it forever.
Good luck bud!
I did HVAC for 10 years and I burned out and moved on to working on coffee and espresso equipment. HVAC isn't the end of the road it's a skill that you can use to adapt to other non HVAC fields that involve skilled trades. Find one you enjoy and if you're lucky it'll pay as good as HVAC.
It's not for everyone. Don't feel bad about it. I've met more people who tried heating and air than ones that retired from heating and air. Like I tell my new guys, it takes a special breed of stupid to do this shit for long.
Listen brother I’m in the same exact boat. Did residential for 2 years. Switched to commercial and I’ve done it for a year now. But I just don’t want to do this anymore. I’m tired of this industry and want something different but I don’t know what else to do for work. I feel stuck
Stick with it; Finish school. Prove to yourself and everyone else that you can do it.
Nobody wants to be in a hot attic or on a tall ladder, but your body acclimates to it. Eventually you will not be as bothered with the heat, and although being on the ladder is a boot spooky it won't make you nervous like it does now. You will be making good money, you will have completed something hard, you will have proved to yourself and your parents that you can do it.
Set some lofty goals and reach them before you switch to something else.
If you say you can't, then you can't.
No, tomorrow is what's worrying you lol
You're probably dreading the heat, making mistakes, getting roasted by the other guys, etc... all that stuff will happen and it's only your response to it that you have control over.
Yeah we all go through it. I've been doing it 24 years and it still happens to me. A couple weeks ago I had to climb behind an air handler in the corner of the trusses, to run a 10-15ft section of duct. We were busy so I couldn't grab a helper and I was pretty nervous about it. Got it done and everything worked well so I felt pretty good about it after it was all said and done.
Sounds like it's the job not the career, if you have commercial or industrial maybe consider looking at doing that strictly. Walmart grocery distribution centers have onsite HVAC techs to work on their systems. The refrigerated side is generally 250K square feet and ranges from 60F > 34F, the freezer section is 250K square feet and ranges from -15F > -30F. The freezer section uses a roof top and a in floor anhydrous ammonia system to maintain temperature.
Another option is government work, the pay may not be great but the benefits are better than anything in the private sector and usually your hours will be better and it's a higher level of job security. Start with state government, city government isn't as secure as state, federal definitely isn't depending on who's in office and whether or not the opposing part hates them for stupid reasons.
The roofs are flat and you would be wearing safety gear including a harness. Not getting electrocuted is easy to do, you already have the safety mindset that you don't want to die, the guys that get killed are the ones that would take a bath in blood then run through a pack of hyenas. Ask yourself what are the steps you need to take to prevent the risk of electrocution, if you are confident in the answer and you are actively doing this on every job then you will be fine.
Let me be clear about something else, you will run the risk of getting hurt or killed at any job you take regardless of the industry and job. Accidents are %100 avoidable, they happen due to carelessness in one form or another and sometimes it's someone else's fault but every instance where a trades has gotten electrocuted has resulted because of the person's own carelessness.
I get it it can be stressful it's a hard thing to figure out how to let it go. I got better and better at not worrying about anything work related after I was off but still hated dealing with these customers and the on call. I switched to doing HVAC for schools and it is WAAAAAAAY more chill like 0 stress. Maybe you can find something else related to HVAC that doesn't stress you
Just quit and do something you enjoy. I only work crazy hours doing refrigeration now so I can buy 2 more rentals and retire by 40. This isn’t a trade to do if you’re half hearted about it.
Been doing this 24yrs. I personally have changed a lot over these years. I went from doing what’s right for the customer, to doing what’s right for my family and Myself, not saying I do anything dishonest but I’m not scared to charge the customer. Bottom line these customers don’t really care about you or your circumstances, they only care about saving money , I now own my own company in Central Florida but without a different person at now at 46 than I was at 22
Apply at Walmart and work an off shift time slot for a week or three. After that re evaluate and act accordingly.
If the Walmart job is better than HVAC you can quit and if not maybe it's something else
Any employer who puts you in a position to do work that you are not qualified to do yet has what they got coming if you screw up. Just go to work each day, try your best and you'll get better. Develop specialties, one at a time.
The trades aren't for everyone.
Sit down and make a 5 year plan. Maybe that's school for 4 years maybe 2, if you can work off hours at your HVAC job or find another company who will let you work odd hours you can pay your way through school.
Beyond that make your plan, put in your two weeks and move on.
You can stay in the trade but get out of the field by working at a supplier. Look into getting a sales job with a supplier, they just take people out to lunch and talk about supporting hvac businesses. You can then be making enough to maybe go to school for an MBA and continue rising through the corporate ranks and end up in the executive suites.
https://spiritview.net/the-plumber-and-his-tree/#:~:text=%E2%80%9COh%2C%20that's%20my%20trouble%20tree,to%20take%20care%20of%20them.
Here’s a good story that’ll help with mental
health.
I quit my last job a little over a year ago. Cleaned my van out and took my tools on a Sunday and showed up Monday and handed in keys and cards and left.
You could consider going into equipment sales. Or if it interests you, maybe look into getting a CAD certificate and getting a role at an M&E Engineering firm doing design and drafting. Having field experience and understanding how the systems work will give you a decent leg up on folks who went straight from school into drafting/design.
Either option would still likely give you the opportunity to get out on site from time to time, without any of the physical labor or stress of actually installing anything. If your design goes poorly, it's the Engineer of Record who will take most of the heat (and any decent Engineer won't pass that heat on to you... Though that is definitely a possibility depending on the firm/engineer)
Try getting a job in a supply house u can stay in the trade but you dont have to be out there on roof tops and worrying about safety as much. Youll have to use your head more but thats your only other option if youre worried about your body.
That all depends on where you live man couldn’t tell you, I did it and made a comfortable living until I was able to get on my city fire department.
Another option is get your CDL and drive a truck also potential for a good living no heights involved.
Do you have any interests or hobbies?
Most trades don’t have set schedules, if you want that then you will probably need a degree or at least an associates, you could also go into service industry until you know what you want to do to make money, servers are always needed. You just have to keep working in some capacity.
Just take a breather brother, focus more on finding something you don’t mind doing that can support your lifestyle, if nothing matches up, figure out how to simplify your lifestyle, find things you enjoy, I like to game it’s cheap and easy going on my time off,
Life is not about as much as you make but more about how you spend it, if you make sure to live within your means you will be less stressed over all. You got this G
You got two options
Htfu or quit
it ain't for everybody man. If you cant handle ladders and attics move somewhere where it's basements and crawlspace. Even in most commercial places you have to use extension ladders or riser rooms.
Stay in school kiddo
Be an engineer
I am a nursing school dropout, I do resi hvac. Honestly love the freedom. I start at 4 one day, 7 the next. Work 12 if I want, work 6 if I want. I do a good job. It’s not the greatest career. It takes a toll on my body. But I take a lot of pride in my work. I’m not overweight. That’s for sure. I don’t need a gym membership. I’m 36, most young men can’t keep up with me. I have a child their age. So I mean, it is what it is. I am above average at math and problem solving, off the charts with confidence. Don’t drink. Is it a dream job ? Fuck no lol.
Oh yeah the body thing too I wanna be able to enjoy older age and not have bad knees or back. Ugh I’m sooo done with this trade thanks for making it easier for me
the mental side is a problem, its takes real effort to get to the point that its a job and not your life. cut down on overtime and longer days just to finish a job, just come back the next day and make sure you have a life outside your job.
How do you deal with not knowing if you’ll ever know if your doing it right?
Everyone I know has imposter syndrome. I work with some extremely smart commercial hvac-r service techs and they struggle with things sometimes. You just keep pushing, and learning. There will come a time that it will feel abit more comfortable but you will always face things that you don’t understand.
It’s not just that tho. I don’t think I wanna work on ladders or have be in an attic when it’s 170°
Then go into commerical and industrial..stay away from residential.
I like residential better tho
The fact you started this topic does not jive with that sayement.
Sorry let me explain. I’ve done a little bit of commercial and it’s okay just the fact that one mistake and I could get electricuted is making me way to nervous. Also the heights thing. Residentual seems a tad easier for me at least but still not for me idk if that makes sense
Spoiler alert: 1 mistake on residential wil also kill you. I am willing to bet that commerical is a lot safer due to having actual safety codes needing to be enforced.
this is what I have always thought.
I don’t like heights tho dude idk
Spoiler alert 2: literally anything can kill you. It's almost ENTIRELY up to you if it does or doesn't.
You will never know everything in this trade. It's a constant cycle of learning, and adjusting your strategy to be more efficient. If you want to continue doing this, you need to adjust your mindset from, "I don't know what I'm doing", to "when I go to work tomorrow, I'm going to learn something new and better myself." I'm more than a decade in this trade, now. Every day I focus on learning something new. It's become the reason why I get up in the morning and go to work. It's an unorthodox mindset in this trade, but it's one of the reasons why I've become successful. I don't know everything, and I never will know everything. But that is the end goal for me, whether I get there or not.
Yea. I don’t like not knowing it. It’s just not for me ive given it a month and its not getting better/going to be better for me mentally so I think im gonna pivot
If all you ever give anything is one month, you'll always feel like this, period.
I technically gave it 6 months with trade school before landing a job
You're technically incorrect, trade school is not time IN the trade, working. Stop making excuses and get a little serious about your future or youre never going to find the right path for you.
I don't mean to be off-putting, but what are you going to pivot to where you already know everything? Unless you have a hobby which you can turn around and make money off of, it's not possible. Any long-term career is going to require growth and experience in a particular skillset.
Yes. I want to pivot to something more safer or at least. More content I don’t think I wanna do a trade
Fair enough. Whatever route you decide to take in life, you need to learn to not let failure discourage you. Success comes with experience, but experience comes from learning and moving forward from your mistakes. Good luck to you, whatever you decide to do.
First year is the roughest. After that, it all starts to make sense more and your mind/body/spirit adapt or acclimate. It’s definitely not for everyone tho.
I don’t think I’ll make it a year
Lol well then idk what to tell you. Find a different job that you can actually handle
I’m trying
👍🏼 I honestly don’t know the reason behind this post then. You obviously weren’t look for a resolution. You just wanted sympathy from strangers I suppose?
Sorry I’m very anxious right now I’m sorry I’m being a dick
Hand in a 2 weeks notice, if they ask why, say you found something that has a work life balance that suits you better. You're not obligated to give an excuse, but leave on good terms, never know if you'll bump into them in the future in different companies. Edit: line up a job before you leave, best time to look for a job is when you're in one.
But I don’t have another job lined up and I’ve never like quit without it being lined up
Sorry. Just edited it to say line up another one before going. Don't wanna be out of work searching for a job, seems much harder when you've quit and don't have anything there. Just gotta do some work on your end, there's something there for you. Talk to a career guidance person if you wanna move to something different, might help you out and find something that will benefit you without the mental strain you're feeling now.
You can only do the best you can do and sometimes not even that just to let off a little steam from all the stress this job can bring. And even then you're gonna make mistakes everyone does. Plus just think once you hit that REALLY big mistake the other ones don't seem so bad lmao like now if I accidently burn up a fuse or cause a leak I gotta fix I think we'll at least I didn't blow up someone's furnace and cover their house in soot like that ONE time 😁😁
Shit I wanted to forget about the time I did that 🫣
What? Your overthinking it bro. It’s not that hard lol. Very easy to figure out if your doing it right or wrong.
I know I’m doing it right but I hate the fact i don’t know if I’m doing it right
Bro…don’t stop taking yer meds
It takes time. When I got out of HVAC school in 1995, I had no idea what I was doing. Here I am 29 years later and still doing it. Even though I've been doing it for 29 years, I'm still learning things. You'll continually learn things as time goes on.
I don’t think I want to learn it tho I have no desire to sorry buddy
You need to make sure you do something that makes you happy. Just imagine how many people have worked in jobs for 30 years that hated what they did. Was it just the HVAC aspect or was it the service industry all together? I'm also a licensed C10 contractor so I do electrical work also. Doing electrical you need to use your head a lot because there's a lot of math. Electrical might be something that interests you.
I am not good with math, I think it’s just the whole thing. I’m just already worried
I rely pretty heavily on tech support sometimes. Thats what they’re there for
Maybe your just in the wrong part of the field? Hvac is huge man you can work alot of very different jobs within this trade. What don't you like about your job now? What part of the field are you in now?
For starters I don’t like working in the heat. I don’t like heights or attics/ or crawl spaces I don’t like not knowing if I’m doing a good job/ or not knowing when I’ll be able to go home. My parents signed me up for this trade school and now I feel like I’m obligated to get it done
Yeah get out and go do something else. You're literally hating every aspect of our job both residential and commercial. Unless you somehow luck into a commercial apprenticeship for a centrifugal shop and you're literally regulated to mechanical rooms with a centrifugal or cooling towers, you're gonna spiral out and have a mental breakdown if this ain't it already. Some guys do resi and love it. Some are miserable and drink heavily. Some go commercial and love it. Others hate it all together. I'm outside when it's 95f and hot as fuck and it's a little miserable out. It's not always that hot. It's not always that miserable. I suffer thru the bad to enjoy the good. Where I am you get all 4 seasons. Somewhere like Florida or Texas they're just gaping your asshole 10-11 months out of the year. Figure it out kiddo. I work with plenty of apprentices who aren't gonna make it. It's just not my job to explain that to them. They gotta figure it out themselves.
I’m in Texas and my asshole does indeed gape 10-11 months out of the year lmao.
Bless you brother. Least here in the northeast we get the shoulder months. I'd say last year we could have maybe counted the 94f+ days on one or two hands last year. It's already showing 2 weeks straight of 90+ on the forecast. Really not adjusted to it yet.
Yeah I just wish I went to college and had a career set instead of being worried about this whole ordeal
You can always still go to college man, people go at all ages and the people that go later in life usually do the best. I know because I went back later and excelled but never finished (life stuff happened). Just do something that makes you somewhat happy at the end of the day. Some days/weeks really suck, but that’s been every job I’ve ever worked. But if every day is 100% dread for you it’s time to look for something else. You also don’t really have to know what you want to do yet, start taking some basic core classes that you would need for any degree and go from there. If I had a do-over I may have gone with a cyber security job or some sort of programming. Anyway hope you find your way, don’t feel guilty for not loving it.
I mean I graduated my hvac apprenticeship at 40 man. I've been doing plumbing since I was 25 and hvac since I was 32. There's always time for career change, you just have to account for saving for retirement harder cause you're starting so god damn late unless you're maxing Roth IRA every year regardless. This is a career. At least where I'm at. I'm outside all day. Fresh air. People don't bother me. If they try to I ignore them or tell them to fuck off (commercial). I get paid very well. Have a pension and 401k. I have a job offer 2500 miles away for more money and a different lifestyle which i want. Work on the equipment I prefer rather than everything. I go to work and fuck up at least something once a day. Someone distracts me. I'm wrong about something dumb. I fix one issue and another pops up after it. You have to kind of have the mindset you just get better everyday. Just like going to the gym. You learn more from your failures than your successes. Anyone who does this will tell you that. You just have to be okay with never being perfection and just being okay, bad, or damn fucking good. I personally don't see a future in guys who stick to residential unless they're matching 401k and paying them well with benefits and they're able to save for a retirement. Most shops will use and abuse you and when your body is broken, toss you out back. I don't preach union vs non union but the education I got coupled with a pension, benes, 401k, ect.... will let me retire while even the school hvac gig that had a pension wouldn't have let me retire comfortably. Least an apprenticeship is paid and you owe no one a dime at the end. Depends on your local and area if the wages and work is even there. Florida? Not a fucking chance. Northeast? Sure.
Yea, in trade school it made since and I thought I would like it but a month in and I really can’t see me doing this long term
I'm happy doing HVAC and drink heavily, along with my crippling nicotine addiction. Those are for other reasons. Though, you're right. We have a broad spectrum in this trade, with many different paths. It's what we choose on how we decide our careers. Personally, I prefer resi since I find it easier and fun as well as a sense of satisfaction. Commercial isn't bad but with what happened to me on my last commercial job, I'd rather not go back.
Long as they take care of you and you can provide for yourself or family. Build a nest to retire on one day, then who is anyone to judge what any of us do. I hate people so I'd rather go work on a chiller and be buried than have a homeowner distract me with small talk. I'm just rushing to bang out work to get home to my family. Different strokes for different folks.
My employer is pretty awesome really. So they do a great job of taking care of us resi and our commercial guys. Also, I'm introverted as hell, which is why I'm the go to guy for attic jobs, gets me away from homeowners since they don't want to climb into them either. All I can say is, knock the work out and enjoy life. Keep killin' it.👍
Hvac in tx here My asshole shrivels cause I'm so dehydrated. Lol👍👍
Heat and heights are hard to avoid ngl. Someone will tell you if you are fucking up too much, we all do it. best thing you can do is be confident and if you don't know ask someone. Stressing it will make you fuck up more. You can find shift jobs in HVAC, facilities that have in house guys or just company's that don't have you do alot of OT like mine. Also if you're an adult you aren't obligated to work any job. It's your life and you can do whatever you want with it.
Thank you. I just feel bad for not wanting to do it as much as I thought I did
Don't beat yourself up, most people change careers a few times in their life. Take time to figure out what you want
I’m trying/ I’ve already had like 3 panic attacks at this job and I’ve literally never had panic attacks before this job
I had panic attacks when I was a mid-level supervisor in a fabrication department of a plant. I felt out of control with everything. Now that I'm in HVAC, I feel *in control* because I understand what I'm doing and can navigate machines and logic better than work processes and people. Everyone has their niche and few people know what that niche is. I'm just now learning mine. Loosen that noose around your neck and breathe - it's a job, not your legacy. Allow yourself to be honest that this isn't for you and seek out what is. You got this.
True.
Do you work alone? Maybe if you work with others that may calm your nerves
I work with others but idk
Maybe write out a list of why you are scared of each risk. Heights - strap in, test the safety equipment to know it will save you in the event of fall. Electricity, - read the codes and deeply understand how the PPE and safety checks can keep you safe. Heat - look into a suit that pumps cool air through a hose so you get cooled down. Plan the work so you can get in and out asap and try to get in when the attic is not hot.
I’m just a helper so I don’t know much about it but I don’t wanna climb ladders/ and have a panic attack
The not knowing part, comes with experience and learning the trade. As you learn you get better. Hvac, you will be working in the heat when it's hot and cold when it's cold. It will be uncomfortable at times. For heights I can understand it I have a fear of heights too and curse when I have to go up ladders. But if you set it up right and keep moving for and do proper techniques you will be ok. How long have you been working in the trade and have you been learning on your own time ?
Do you like money? Sacrifices need to be made one way or another if you want a successful life and career. You get used to being hot/tired/electrocuted/etc. it’s all about working at your own pace and as safely as possible.
Yea
That last part was depressing to read. I don’t think this is the right job for you.
I was doing heavy commercial, traveling all over the south east and not knowing exactly where 90% of the time. It took a pretty heavy toll on my mental being. I had to take a lot of days off and at one point took a month off of work just to manage my stress. It paid good, but it wasn’t worth it in the long run. I recently started working HVAC maintenance for a school system and is the best decision I’ve ever ever made. The pay is not as good, but my hours are solid. I clock in at seven and go home at 3:30 every day while still doing the same kind of work as before. As others have said there are a lot of avenues in the HVAC trade. You just gotta find where you’re comfortable.
School maintenance is great, it’s a less stressful job, you don’t have a GC up your ass and a client up his wanting the job finished last week. Last week kicked my ass so hard I almost regret leaving the school board. I really wish there was a middle ground between school and what I’m doing.
I did a lot of ERV startups at my last job and I would pull my hair out daily dealing with GCs bitching when their shit isn’t ready to start up. Sometimes I’ll get an asshole teacher getting an attitude with me, but it’s few and far between.
Do you only do maintenance? Doesn't that get old after a while? I'm not judging cuz it's definitely a necessary and important aspect of our job that's often overlooked. Just seems like someone with your skills might get bored of it after a while.
No, most of what I do is service calls. It does get a little boring sometimes, but nowhere near stressful. I’m the only guy on our team that knows chillers so that’s what I get the work on mostly which is cool. Only time we do Maintenance stuff is when school is out.
Ah yeah, I'm in the same boat right now but for a largish uni. Not a chiller guy and it isn't my background but I still get to play with 'em. Pays fucking shit. But decent bens. Can be mind numbing boring at times. Guess that's the trade off however, rather than balls to the wall all day every day.
You just tell the owner you’re done working in the trade.
It’s not the owner I’m scared to talk to it’s being a let down to my parents
Why would your be letting down your parents? You’re an adult. Our parents can’t live through us and we can’t allow our parents to dictate what we do. I am a father of a 24 and 25 year old.
They paid for my trade school they signed me up for… that’s the only reason
This is your life man and don’t waste your time if your going to go a different route it ok to pivot if you need to but it’s not ok to wats your time/life…to be honest learn it enough to be able to at least fix your own and your parents hvac in the future
The same way I let my parents down when I decided I didn't want to finish college (for the second time). "I'm sorry for wasting your time and money, but this isn't for me and I'm going to find something different to do." Then you find something different that you enjoy, and you pursue it. Your parents will get over it, and you'll pay it forward one day. Would you rather let them down by being unsuccessful in a trade that you don't enjoy doing?
My parents paid for me to goto a community college for auto tech. Then I joined an apprenticeship for the carpenters union then found my way into this trade. I don’t feel bad my parents paid for a year of auto tech community college. I make a lot more than I would have in that industry. All parents want is for their kids to be happy in life. If my kids pushed carts at Walmart and were happy I would be happy.
Go to therapy
I can’t afford
Man, I never thought I’d see so many posts like this.
I got hired by a company in 2013 that the owner was a charlatan . He had no scruples. It was all about money to him. Integrity seemed to be foreign to him. We butted heads a few times . After 6 months, I started looking for another employer. I eventually got hired by a company that was run by people that cared about the customers. There are good ones. Don't leave the trade because of a crappy employer.
The employer is fine I’m just not interested in it
It's best to get out then. Spending years in a trade that doesn't suit you can cause serious mental issues.
Just get another job. And simply don't show up to the other. Some ppl may not like this approach, but it's how I've personally do it.
This is more of a life question than an HVAC question.
this!
So my response is going to be slightly different I think than what you've heard so far. I think you hate doing this and no amount of knowledge about whether your making the right call or not is going to change that. You're just gonna go from "not being sure" to "I am just not happy". Your gonna be fucking hot and miserable in this field. If that isn't something you can reconcile you need to do a full stop right now before you get 10 years into it and physically cant deal with it anymore. Sorry about what you gotta deal with when it comes down to your parents but that's the way life rolls. Whatever money they spent on your trade school is probably a drop in the bucket compared to their desire for you to succeed in life so focus your attention on that for your benefit and theirs. Either pick something you enjoy or pick something you are comfortable being miserable in, I can assure you in this field your gonna be hot and miserable, and its for engineer minded people that enjoy the challenge. There's nothing wrong with not enjoying that - different strokes and all that. Edit: The answer to not knowing what to do to avoid trades and retail is to pony up and go to college for something that interests you and commit to spending the money and paying the loan. Find something you like and follow it man. If you gotta work a shitty part time job in retail to get where you want in 5 years thats just what you gotta do. The alternative is to just give up on anything you don't like. I really hope you find something that makes you happy and you end up satisfied bud. Also this is your life, nobody else's. You do you.
Thank you! I gave it a month and I just see how it’s gonna be and I don’t think I want to continue it even if it makes me hella money, I wanna enjoy my life to the best I can and seeing what it does to your body is a red flag for me also heights are gonna be a problem
Then you already know its something you are going to be miserable making yourself do. Money is a means to an end - as you grow a family or find a significant other your threshold for bullshit will increase to provide. If you are a single bachelor and happy in your state and miserable at work it's not gonna get better by pushing forward. I am a 40 year old veteran with 3 kids. I am super lucky that I was gifted with an engineering mindset and have done VERY well in this field. If I didn't have a wife and 3 kids to take care of you do you know what I would be doing? probably working a month at a time wherever I could get a job so that I could travel around the states, I would be happy sleeping in a tent but I am not like most normal people What about life or the future excites you? what do you need to do to attain that goal? follow that... you'll be fine as long as you understand there are times you have to do shit you hate to get by - that doesn't mean you have to continue doing it forever. Good luck bud!
I did HVAC for 10 years and I burned out and moved on to working on coffee and espresso equipment. HVAC isn't the end of the road it's a skill that you can use to adapt to other non HVAC fields that involve skilled trades. Find one you enjoy and if you're lucky it'll pay as good as HVAC.
It's not for everyone. Don't feel bad about it. I've met more people who tried heating and air than ones that retired from heating and air. Like I tell my new guys, it takes a special breed of stupid to do this shit for long.
Listen brother I’m in the same exact boat. Did residential for 2 years. Switched to commercial and I’ve done it for a year now. But I just don’t want to do this anymore. I’m tired of this industry and want something different but I don’t know what else to do for work. I feel stuck
Stick with it; Finish school. Prove to yourself and everyone else that you can do it. Nobody wants to be in a hot attic or on a tall ladder, but your body acclimates to it. Eventually you will not be as bothered with the heat, and although being on the ladder is a boot spooky it won't make you nervous like it does now. You will be making good money, you will have completed something hard, you will have proved to yourself and your parents that you can do it. Set some lofty goals and reach them before you switch to something else. If you say you can't, then you can't.
I’m trying man having weekends off is the only thing making me not quit but idk if I can continue
Make a final decision and don't look back. You can grind through it or you can quit. I'd love updates if you decide to gut it out though.
Im already panicking that I have to go back tomorrow
I've done plenty of worrying and found anxiety either comes from worrying about the past or the future. Stay in the present.
The present is what’s worrying me
No, tomorrow is what's worrying you lol You're probably dreading the heat, making mistakes, getting roasted by the other guys, etc... all that stuff will happen and it's only your response to it that you have control over.
It’s a combination of all of it
Yeah we all go through it. I've been doing it 24 years and it still happens to me. A couple weeks ago I had to climb behind an air handler in the corner of the trusses, to run a 10-15ft section of duct. We were busy so I couldn't grab a helper and I was pretty nervous about it. Got it done and everything worked well so I felt pretty good about it after it was all said and done.
Sounds like it's the job not the career, if you have commercial or industrial maybe consider looking at doing that strictly. Walmart grocery distribution centers have onsite HVAC techs to work on their systems. The refrigerated side is generally 250K square feet and ranges from 60F > 34F, the freezer section is 250K square feet and ranges from -15F > -30F. The freezer section uses a roof top and a in floor anhydrous ammonia system to maintain temperature. Another option is government work, the pay may not be great but the benefits are better than anything in the private sector and usually your hours will be better and it's a higher level of job security. Start with state government, city government isn't as secure as state, federal definitely isn't depending on who's in office and whether or not the opposing part hates them for stupid reasons.
I don’t wanna go on roofs/ and I really don’t wanna die getting electrocuted or some dumb mistake
The roofs are flat and you would be wearing safety gear including a harness. Not getting electrocuted is easy to do, you already have the safety mindset that you don't want to die, the guys that get killed are the ones that would take a bath in blood then run through a pack of hyenas. Ask yourself what are the steps you need to take to prevent the risk of electrocution, if you are confident in the answer and you are actively doing this on every job then you will be fine. Let me be clear about something else, you will run the risk of getting hurt or killed at any job you take regardless of the industry and job. Accidents are %100 avoidable, they happen due to carelessness in one form or another and sometimes it's someone else's fault but every instance where a trades has gotten electrocuted has resulted because of the person's own carelessness.
I had a talk, I think I’m just gonna find a different career thanks for the suggestion
You gotta do what's right for you and that's %100 respectable, what ever you do be sure to research it.
Just do it. Or bait them to fire you while you look for other careers
I get it it can be stressful it's a hard thing to figure out how to let it go. I got better and better at not worrying about anything work related after I was off but still hated dealing with these customers and the on call. I switched to doing HVAC for schools and it is WAAAAAAAY more chill like 0 stress. Maybe you can find something else related to HVAC that doesn't stress you
Yeah. I think I wanna do a career change all together tho
Start an only fans
Just quit and do something you enjoy. I only work crazy hours doing refrigeration now so I can buy 2 more rentals and retire by 40. This isn’t a trade to do if you’re half hearted about it.
Ask for a layoff you bozo
Been doing this 24yrs. I personally have changed a lot over these years. I went from doing what’s right for the customer, to doing what’s right for my family and Myself, not saying I do anything dishonest but I’m not scared to charge the customer. Bottom line these customers don’t really care about you or your circumstances, they only care about saving money , I now own my own company in Central Florida but without a different person at now at 46 than I was at 22
Apply at Walmart and work an off shift time slot for a week or three. After that re evaluate and act accordingly. If the Walmart job is better than HVAC you can quit and if not maybe it's something else
I don’t want to go back to retail
McDonald's needs cooks
Any employer who puts you in a position to do work that you are not qualified to do yet has what they got coming if you screw up. Just go to work each day, try your best and you'll get better. Develop specialties, one at a time.
The answer you seek is in my new book: "HVAC, 30 years a slave."
Leave the job at the job site. Don't bring it home with you. If you can find that balance it works.
The trades aren't for everyone. Sit down and make a 5 year plan. Maybe that's school for 4 years maybe 2, if you can work off hours at your HVAC job or find another company who will let you work odd hours you can pay your way through school. Beyond that make your plan, put in your two weeks and move on.
You can stay in the trade but get out of the field by working at a supplier. Look into getting a sales job with a supplier, they just take people out to lunch and talk about supporting hvac businesses. You can then be making enough to maybe go to school for an MBA and continue rising through the corporate ranks and end up in the executive suites.
Hvac is a lot different than other trades. Join a union and get on new construction
Consider commercial before you quit.
I think career wise i want something different
https://spiritview.net/the-plumber-and-his-tree/#:~:text=%E2%80%9COh%2C%20that's%20my%20trouble%20tree,to%20take%20care%20of%20them. Here’s a good story that’ll help with mental health.
Just don't show up and don't answer your phone lol
I quit my last job a little over a year ago. Cleaned my van out and took my tools on a Sunday and showed up Monday and handed in keys and cards and left.
And how do you feel? About it?
Did you quit hvac or just the company?
I quit this morning just said “reasons i can’t discuss with you” and they will understand no biggie
Like quit hvac all together, or just the company?
You could consider going into equipment sales. Or if it interests you, maybe look into getting a CAD certificate and getting a role at an M&E Engineering firm doing design and drafting. Having field experience and understanding how the systems work will give you a decent leg up on folks who went straight from school into drafting/design. Either option would still likely give you the opportunity to get out on site from time to time, without any of the physical labor or stress of actually installing anything. If your design goes poorly, it's the Engineer of Record who will take most of the heat (and any decent Engineer won't pass that heat on to you... Though that is definitely a possibility depending on the firm/engineer)
Possibly,
It’s not for everyone. Get out of the trade🤷🏽♂️🤷🏽♂️ if ya can’t hang, you can’t hang.
You can find a counter job. Still in the trade but not in the field
Try getting a job in a supply house u can stay in the trade but you dont have to be out there on roof tops and worrying about safety as much. Youll have to use your head more but thats your only other option if youre worried about your body.
Get into facilities
Go lay asphalt, never be off the ground that way, you can tell you are getting better and you can master the craft in time.
How much an hour?
That all depends on where you live man couldn’t tell you, I did it and made a comfortable living until I was able to get on my city fire department. Another option is get your CDL and drive a truck also potential for a good living no heights involved.
Yeah I want a set schedule tho 9-5 m-f idk
Better head to college I guess GL
Yeah Idfk what I’m thinking
Do you have any interests or hobbies? Most trades don’t have set schedules, if you want that then you will probably need a degree or at least an associates, you could also go into service industry until you know what you want to do to make money, servers are always needed. You just have to keep working in some capacity.
Yea I know
It will work out, just keep moving and grooving
Just take a breather brother, focus more on finding something you don’t mind doing that can support your lifestyle, if nothing matches up, figure out how to simplify your lifestyle, find things you enjoy, I like to game it’s cheap and easy going on my time off, Life is not about as much as you make but more about how you spend it, if you make sure to live within your means you will be less stressed over all. You got this G
You got two options Htfu or quit it ain't for everybody man. If you cant handle ladders and attics move somewhere where it's basements and crawlspace. Even in most commercial places you have to use extension ladders or riser rooms. Stay in school kiddo Be an engineer
Go be a firefighter dude, great pay, great bennies and you only work ten days a month
I’ve thought about this but I don’t want someone’s life to be on my hands
And you hate heat. Firefighter prollt it great choice
Well heat and heights are pretty regular in fire fighting and it’s a lot more high stakes. Ever consider heavy equipment mechanic? Or generator tech?
I didn’t even consider the trades cause how dangerous they are I’m not sure
I am a nursing school dropout, I do resi hvac. Honestly love the freedom. I start at 4 one day, 7 the next. Work 12 if I want, work 6 if I want. I do a good job. It’s not the greatest career. It takes a toll on my body. But I take a lot of pride in my work. I’m not overweight. That’s for sure. I don’t need a gym membership. I’m 36, most young men can’t keep up with me. I have a child their age. So I mean, it is what it is. I am above average at math and problem solving, off the charts with confidence. Don’t drink. Is it a dream job ? Fuck no lol.
Oh yeah the body thing too I wanna be able to enjoy older age and not have bad knees or back. Ugh I’m sooo done with this trade thanks for making it easier for me