How to Be a Successful HVAC Technician
I’ve been working as an HVAC technician for a long time now, and have had a pretty successful career, but that got me thinking, what does this career take? How do you become a successful HVAC Technician?
One of the most common questions I receive from a new tech is: What can I do or focus on to become more successful in my HVAC Career? That question has caused me to reflect back to when I first got into the trade. I remember asking that same question to my Journeyman at the time. I still remember his answer, and I believe it still holds true today. - Leave your personal life outside of work, push yourself out of your comfort zone, ask questions, and learn something new every day. If you can do these things, you can be successful not only as an HVAC technician but anything else you put your mind to. Let’s take a deeper look into how this advice can lead to success.
Looking for more information on how to properly inspect HVAC equipment? Check out my post The HVAC Inspection Guide.
Leave Your Personal Life Outside of Work
….And for the younger generations getting into the workforce, this means putting your phone away! This is just solid advice for anyone looking to have a successful career. When you come to work every day, your focus should be on work. We all have things going on outside of our work life, both good and bad, but when you bring that into the workplace it can easily become a distraction. Both for you, and your coworkers. Distractions cause people to miss the details, and to lack in time-management skills. Both of these traits are very important in the HVAC career field.
A lack of Time management prevents you from effectively being able to manage your schedule or to stay organized. Many techs are running multiple calls and/or repairs every day. The ability to keep an organized schedule, invoicing, a clean and organized vehicle are crucial. As an HVAC Technician, your service vehicle is like your portable office. Once it becomes unorganized, your daily job tasks become much more difficult.
Losing focus and skipping the details can cause workmanship problems and even lead to injuries. Working in the mechanical trades, you are often in situations that can easily put you into harm’s way if you don’t pay attention. This is why it is so important to stay alert and avoid complacency. Focus on the work you are performing and don’t skimp over the details. Leave your personal life at the truck.
Push Yourself Out of Your Comfort Zone
Nothing in this world comes easy. Once find yourself out working in the field, it is easy to become overwhelmed by all of the information that you don’t know, and that’s normal.
No one expects you to know everything, especially as a helper or apprentice to the trade. This is the time to push your self and make all those mistakes. If you are constantly hiding behind what you know and are comfortable with, how will you learn? It is best to realize that you are going to screw up, but that all anyone asks from you is to learn from those mistakes so that you can do better next time. Now, I am not saying to be careless, you need to do your best at all times.
Trouble-shooting is a big part of the HVAC technician job description. As you continue to learn and push your self every day, you will build the confidence you need. It can be very intimidating getting those first few service calls that a unit is down. You have no idea what it could be, and the fear of the unknown causes you to become nervous. You begin to play all the “could be scenarios in your head” while your drive to that call. As you continue to progress and get outside of your comfort zone, you will see more problems first hand. Soon you will begin to see repeats of calls you’ve taken in the past. Before you know it, you will be ready to take a look at anything, because you’ve built up that confidence.
You will never have seen or know it all, but the willingness to stick with it and find the problem/solution is what sets apart the real techs from the parts changers.
Some techs don’t get nervous dealing with the unknown of mechanical issues. They seem to have a knack for troubleshooting, and great mechanical skills, but are maybe lacking in their Customer-service skills.
Customer service is a huge part of the HVAC trade, both in commercial and residential. Push your self to get to know your customers and build relationships. If you find yourself stuck at a shop that pushes sales over everything, find a new shop.
Building customer relationships can follow you your entire career, and help ensure success. It’s a small world and reputation is everything. Interacting with people can take practice, the ability to adapt to all personalities, and people types is an invaluable skill that any great technician will strive to have.
Ask Questions
And be Teachable. This is a critical skill that you must achieve in order to be successful. If you are not teachable, no one is going to try and teach you. Be prepared to admit you don’t have all the answers. Don’t be the know it all fresh out of trade school. You may have learned something one way in school, but realize, there may be multiple approaches to performing the same task and you might just learn a superior method if you are teachable. Stay humble, and admit when you are wrong, others are much more likely to appreciate that attitude and be willing to help you out.
Ask questions. Your greatest resources are the other techs around you that have been doing this work for a long time. Most of the time, these guys want you to ask them questions. It shows that you have a genuine interest in learning and bettering yourself. In my experience, people want to help others that are actively trying, but if you are not trying to better yourself, why would I spend my time and energy trying to help you?
When you start a new career, one of the most stressful aspects can be the uncertainty of your performance.
Instead of waiting to hear any negative or constructive feedback, ask for it, and welcome it. By asking, you will demonstrate that you take your career seriously, and you will have the opportunity to learn things that you may have otherwise not realized. Take this feedback as an opportunity to improve and grow. This mindset and attitude will surely set you on the right path to success.
Continually Learn
The HVAC field is an extremely fast-evolving trade. You must be willing to invest in yourself and continually learn to be successful for many years. I often run into guys 25 - 30 plus years in the trade, and you know what they all say? You will never know everything there is to know about HVAC, Refrigeration, etc.
It seems as tho every few months you run into new equipment, utilizing new technology that nobody else has any experience on. 25 years ago most equipment was all relays and contactors. Now you’ve got equipment that runs fully off of microprocessor boards that you need a laptop to troubleshoot and diagnose correctly.
Keep up on your education. Attend manufacture held training classes, research online, get in the forums. You can always learn something new every day if you are willing to put in the work.
If you are reading this article, I assume that you are a motivated individual looking to better themselves and succeed in their career. I hope that you found something of value that you can take with you, and I would like to conclude with this list of 10 things that require 0 talent and will help to set you apart.
10 things That require 0 Talent
Be on Time
Work Ethic
Effort
Body Language
Energy
Attitude
Passion
Being Coach-able
If you would like to learn more about getting into the trade and becoming an HVAC Technician, Check out the article - How To Get into HVAC with No Experience
