I thought that the most difficult part about being an HVAC technician was going to be taking all the classes and certification tests necessary for me to be a member of my trade.
However, I was wrong.
When I started my apprenticeship at the HVAC company owned by my teacher, I thought I would be going out on service runs all alone. I didn’t anticipate the fact that someone else would be coming along these HVAC repair runs with me. The worst part is that it wasn’t just any other HVAC technician, but it was the person who taught me during my classes. He ended up hearing me grumbling about this whole situation, and he turned to me and told me that nobody promised that HVAC training was going to be simple or easy. To be honest, I didn’t really necessarily expect it to be easy, but I also didn’t expect my boss to be breathing down my neck when I was trying to help customers with their HVAC problems. Then, I overheard him telling one of the other HVAC technicians that I was one of his brightest pupils in HVAC school. I asked him, if I was one of his best students, why did he feel the need to shadow me on these outings. He told me it was because all I had was textbook knowledge, and now I would go out into the real world and face real HVAC system problems. I only ever had problems that were simulated. Now I would face the real thing and I would put my textbook skills to work. He wanted me to use my knowledge and instincts to get the job done in real life