For the right job candidate, I would offer a proposal—a rare opportunity to learn one of the most coveted skill sets in the building trades. My proposal is that in exchange for your services to maintain the heating and cooling needs of our 568 clients who have signed service contracts, we will teach you everything you need to know to be a fully accredited HVAC Service Technician—essentially a residential service based HVAC Apprenticeship track.
My proposal is for one very specific kind of person. The person I am looking for is a people person and relationship-driven. She’s the kind of person who can if given the right knowledge set, walk into a home and become that homeowners trusted heating and cooling advisor.
I’ll explain how it works. 568 Western New York families have signed heating and cooling service contracts with our company. What that means is that 568 people own a furnace or boiler that needs to be inspected, cleaned, and maintained at least once a year. Most of those folks also have air conditioners that also need some love requiring a second visit from their trusted HVAC Service Advisor. Your job, year after year, is to provide this service. You clean, you inspect, and you make repairs. You might find yourself in a scary basement or crawl space on one day, and on another day in a fancy-schmancy exquisitely finished living space. You could be in a crappy rental in a crappy part of town or an upscale home in East Amherst. It’s all part of the job. But over time you will learn every imaginable thing you need to know about the industry.
As you get to know your customer’s homes and situations you’ll begin to advise them—not just heating and cooling, but also air purification systems, UV lighting for energy efficiency, duct sealing, ductwork installation in other parts of their home, duct cleaning for old ducts and thermostat installation (programmable, non-programmable, and communicating). You might talk about their bathroom exhaust fan, attic fans, or perhaps a solar-powered unit. You might suggest that they install a generator in case of a power outage.
You will be the expert that your clients will come to trust. They’ll ask your opinion. While you are busy doing the right thing by your customer, you will make money on each item you sell. We call it a spiff. If you’ve done right by a homeowner, they will love you and recommend you to their friends. You’ll sell stuff to them as well. 🙂
At night you could choose to go to school and earn certifications and gain knowledge—and we will pay for it! Of course, we’ll pay you well, and give you benefits!
How do you advance? Well, you have options. The first is that you could do what you are doing…forever. You could get comfortable with your clients and follow them into retirement—always picking up new customers while some others fall off.
Alternatively, you could take all of your knowledge and move into an Installer position, or you could advance into a Service function in residential or even commercial.
A Service Mechanic in HVAC currently makes high-twenties to more than $35/hr plus those spiffs we talked about, plus overtime, plus benefits, puts some folks up over $100,000 in compensation. It’s likely a ten-year track, but what lucrative career path isn’t?
I’d love to hear your thoughts on it. There really is no downside to my proposal. You win by learning a trade, we win by gaining another top-notch mechanic. Let’s start by sending me your resume.