With winter upon us, who do you call if your heat is not working? An HVAC technician. Heating, ventilation, and air conditioning.
Jason Huber became an HVAC tech two years ago. He says, typically, the number of service calls he makes in a day are weather-driven.
Another aspect of his workload is system maintenance. “A lot of people don’t do maintenance on their equipment. In turn their units will either not run or they’ll run too long and then they’ll end up breaking down afterwards.”
“You have to be EPA-certified dealing with refrigerant, and then you just got to have some technical background to work on a system like this with all the electrical components and know how the system runs,” according to Huber.
A military veteran, Huber says the skills he learned in the Army, including punctuality and a hard work ethic apply to his HVAC job.
Communication skills are also key, according to Huber. “You definitely need to know customer service. You’ve got to be able to talk to the customer. You might be the smartest human being in the world to work on an HVAC piece of equipment, but if you can’t talk to a customer, there’s really no point in doing it.”
He adds that there is great satisfaction in solving customers’ problems.
“Enjoy it. I love it. There’s nothing better than providing service to customers and seeing their smiling faces whenever you’ve got their unit back up and running.”
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), the median pay last year for HVAC technicians was $48,730 a year.
