When I started this job, it was just a job.
Maybe you remember how it is – young, needing work, not honestly caring what that work is as long as it pays! I had no idea what I was doing on our first day, but the senior tech in charge was a enjoyable dude.
He pulled myself and others aside and said to be quiet, to listen, and to pay attention to everything he and the other men did. His name was Max, and he said if I worked difficult and did as told, he would teach myself and others how to be an HVAC tech like him. Max was an older guy, and had been in the HVAC industry for twenty years, however he was also a joker and a dinner-cut toker, if you guess what I mean. The point is that outside of work Max was a cool guy, and on the job he was a focused HVAC professional who always delivered top flight results. Although we got to be friends over time, I kept our perspective at work and stayed focused on learning as much as I could about HVAC systems. It took myself and others weeks just to learn all the specialized tools they use on their HVAC duct jobs. Max was our professor, and he always did right by me, until it got to the point he thought I was ready to get our HVAC certification and “step up to the sizable leagues” as he liked to say. Now I run our own HVAC work crew, and Max and I only see each other on weekends.