My son thought he was the best HVAC technician ever.

Last year, when our son graduated high school, he decided he didn’t want to go to college. He made his decision to go to technical school and become a HVAC technician. He spent a year learning all about heating, air conditioning, and ventilation systems. By the time he got his HVAC certification, he was convinced he was the best HVAC technician to ever graduate from the course. I just raised an eyebrow, and I didn’t say yay or nay. I held my tongue and waited for him to fall off his self-made pedestal. When he started working for the local HVAC company, he soon got his comeuppance. They had ten HVAC technicians that all had at least five years experience. For his first two weeks, he had to go with one of the older HVAC techs so he could learn the ropes. He soon found out that working on a HVAC system in someone’s home was much different than working in a closed environment. At the end of the first week, was dragging, and not just because he was tired. He couldn’t believe how much he hadn’t learned while in school. He said they didn’t tell him how many different HVAC systems there were. He also didn’t know the difference between the AC parts and the furnace parts. His next two weeks are going to be working in the parts room before he gets to go on a service call by himself. His ego had been deflated, but now he was ready to become a good HVAC technician instead of an excellent HVAC student.

heating and air conditioning system