In this video, i'm hanging out with my buddy craig miggy lachio riding around in the van going to uh check out our scrap yard of all things, and we wanted to talk about the skills and knowledge that are required to get started successfully in the field. So, whether you're just starting school, maybe just leaving school starting your first job or maybe you're skipping school altogether and just going straight to work. These are some things you can do to help ensure your success as always to find out more about everything. Craig has to offer go to acservicetech.com and big thanks to him for being willing to hang out and share his knowledge, craig and i riding out to uh, take a look at the fabled kalos scrapyard, which is actually an aircraft salvage yard.

In addition to being a scrapyard but uh while we're driving, we thought we would cover some topics that are often requested, and one of the ones that you had brought up yesterday was um kind of the difference between nothing difference, but but skills and knowledge. So what are the skills attributes? Knowledge that somebody should have? I will start there. Somebody should have who's entering the field uh in order to be successful and then we'll kind of go into maybe some of the skills and knowledge that are needed for advancement. What's some of the low-hanging fruit that you think of some of the low-hanging fruit, i think one of the biggest things is knowing your sheet metal tools and being able to be able to make cuts straight.

No barbs so got to be able to show your basic tool skills. You know you could even go further than that and just real basic stuff. You know how to hammer a nail: how to use a cordless drill. I mean i know that sounds real basic, but you'd be surprised at how many people end up getting hired and it ends up being a disappointment to the to the employer that you know they talked a good game, but they really didn't show up.

You know ready to ready to work, so you have those basic basic skill sets of of being able to screw a screw in hammer nails in without bending nails. You know just those general things and then you move on to skill sets like sheet metal and gas, piping or and those types of skills, but but basically you have your your tin snips, your your sheet metal breaks. You have your your crimpers, the big thing with tin, snips uh, just making sure that you don't have any barbs. You can cut a nice straight line.

You know your your your measurement tool, you know you got your tape measure just ready. You know all your fractions and so that's a huge, huge skill. So really, if you have all this knowledge about refrigerant charging and and all kinds of in-depth knowledge, but you have zero tool skills right. It's a scary situation.

I mean what are you gon na do with that as an employer? It's a hard hard thing to overcome, and so i really just encourage everybody to to practice practice practice at home or whatever you need to do, buy a sheet of sheet metal practice. You know cutting this stuff out, you know and anything that you could possibly do. Take a night school course ahead of time. Do something i think um one thing that we've got to get over in the trade is this uh word should uh where people will come into school or wherever they say.

Well, you should already know that right. Well, it doesn't matter what someone should already know, or it doesn't matter what somebody should already be able to do, based on our experience, what matters is what they can do and what they do know and if we have a generation of kids coming up today, that Don't have those basic mechanical skills that maybe we learned in you know from our dads or from shop class or from our grandparents or whatever. Then, unfortunately, we've got no choice but to uh encourage them to learn those skills either on their own or help provide them. A context to do that which is actually something this is a complete and separate subject.

But at some point i would like to get more involved with kind of starting even before you get into the trade with helping people learn basic mechanical skills. But frankly, before i sound too cocky, i want to be really clear that if you watched me cut sheet metal, you would think this guy doesn't belong in the trade because she metal is not something i'm good at, but i think even further back from from sheet Metal is whatever tools are going to need to be applied in the region that you're in the type of work you want to do. You have to start further back with really really basic principles, and so that may be things like using a table saw you know how to how to use a uh. You know a reciprocating saw or a miter saw how to like, you said, use a drill.

How to position your body appropriately when you're cutting um in order to prevent keeping from hurting yourself all those sorts of things are, are really big and for somebody who wants to come into the trade who doesn't have those mechanical aptitude skills um, you got ta start And that would mean things like working on your car. That would mean things like looking up some youtube videos and doing some things around the house that maybe you wouldn't normally take on, because you're not going to go from doing nothing to being a skrill trades person. You have to take some of those intermediate steps, yeah, absolutely something like an instance of going up in the attic or going in a crawl space. Of course, you know here in florida you have a lot of slabs where i'm at in new jersey there's a lot of not slabs and a lot of crawl spaces, and so you really want to get in there and crawl around and and see.

Hey. Is this somewhere, where i want to be putting my body right, you know you want to kind of get used to those types, types of situations and kind of be aware of. What's happening you can you can look around and see even where the load-bearing parts of the building are by looking down in the crawl space up in the attic? You know you hire somebody and you expect them to kind of be aware of where they're locating their body at and all of a sudden. They step through the sheetrock and cause you a bunch of damage to the building that you as the employer need to need to fix.

So i mean even to those basics. Basic skill sets just be aware of how it's built, how the building's built you go up in the attic and they might not have subfloor up in the attic yeah you might just have joists, and the back of sheetrock is brown, so you, you may not know That that's sheetrock, but that's really what it is, and there is no load-bearing capacity there. You step on that you're going through uh, just anything that you could possibly do to get your basic basic tools: uh your basic tool, knowledge, like you, said working on cars. Anything you know try to get mechanically inclined because you could be the right person for the for the job for the career uh.

But maybe you just didn't, like you said, maybe you didn't grow up in a household that that taught you those types of skills or maybe you didn't, have a grandparent or something like that that didn't that, maybe you just never got shown these skills, but you you Have the right mentality and the right drive you just just need to work on those those basic skill sets and awareness yeah. A big thing i want to point out is that mentality of hard work, the mentality of being a problem, solver the mentality of enjoying working with your hands and solving mechanical problems. Those are the things that are the most important long term, but you do have to bridge this gap. I was telling uh craig yesterday that, like i was not a natural-born traits person at all.

I just grew up in a traits family in a mechanical family and so through immersion. I developed enough skills and enough knowledge to be able to get that opportunity, but but the reality was funny. This is a complete out of nowhere, but one of my one of the techs i worked with when i was really new to the trade. I was 18 19 years old, um shared some photos of a of a chiller that he was tearing apart and i haven't seen him in years and uh.

His name is gary lightcap, so gary, if you're watching this i'm talking about you, i joked around. I said man, this is a long way from uh from installing a ductless system or a mini split with you on a sunbank years and years ago, and this was when you know these were not common at all and the reason i mentioned that because i knew He would remember it is when we were pulling the condenser up to the roof, because we were just roping it up, which is a silly thing to do, but that's what we did it slipped well, i had rigged it and i had rigged it wrong, like i Had i don't know what i did, but i i tied it poorly and it slipped to the extent that he had to grab it right before it was about to come over to the parapet and he just caught it and muscled it up. And so his response to my little comment: there was he said yeah. I remember you were no help at all and you almost killed me so the point being that uh, you can still make it in this trade.

Even if you aren't supernatural - even if you don't have a lot of experience, but you do need to immerse yourself in some of those basic skills, you do need to know how to swing a hammer. You do need to know how to use a set of shears. You need you do need to know how to, if you're in a duckboard market, for example, how to use a duck knife and how to measure and how to lay out ductwork how to attach flex. You know simple stuff like that: if you're, the type of person who's never changed, the oil in your car in your life go ahead and do that, if you're the type of person who wouldn't know how to put on a spare tire on your car.

If you broke down to the side of the road, you might want to go ahead and start doing that i mean those are nice life skills anyway, and not because you're, a less less of a person, if you don't because you're not, but because getting used to Solving those you know, mechanical problems in your day-to-day uh is going to make you a better air conditioning technician or installer yeah. So i do want to. I want to say this that you can bridge this gap. You know so you may not have all the skills built up already.

You might not be aware of everything that you're going to need, but you can bridge this gap by hard work and diligence. I mean some people, they think. Oh, i'm not smart enough or i'm not this enough or whatever the reality is. If you have diligence - and you are a hard worker you can you can get through this - it means a lot to to be.

You know there on time and when i mean on time i mean before or before time uh and you know if you're willing to stay after whatever, whatever needs to happen, if you are quick with getting a tool and running you know kind of coming back, you Know if you show that uh work ethic, that that means a lot right and it's hard, you can't really necessarily i'll teach that you can try to and encourage somebody to to maybe break a bad pattern. But if you have that right there, that does help to try to make up for some of the skill sets that maybe are lacking and that you're trying to improve on on your own. And of course you know you can try to improve the knowledge aspect. You know at night with just reading and looking at youtube videos or all of those types of things but yeah.

You know practice yourself. I remember you know going into the job interview for the second hvac company i worked for and i was i was thrilled that he was thinking that i was older than what i was. I guess you know, and so that was awesome. You know, because i'm like all right well that that shows some maturity or whatever you know in reference to how i you know how you dress, how you present yourself and and that you're concerned about you, know your future in the company and and you're exhibiting.

That and you you are showing hard work and and asking the right questions wanting to learn, and so i think a big part of it is that you have that maturity that people can smell on you. They smell maturity, my residential general manager, and i talk a lot about hiring and best practices, and we talk about whether or not somebody is an adult. If somebody seems like an adult meaning that they don't need mommy to get them out of bed, they don't need. Other people to constantly tell them what to do in terms of just regular life skills that, in and of itself nowadays, is like over 50 of the way there.

Then you add in uh the mindset of wanting to work hard and enjoying working hard, not injury. You know not, it doesn't bother you if you got to break a sweat you're, not looking for just the next break um, not that you're trying to kill yourself, and i think a lot of people get this wrong. The best trades people i know they do take breaks, they do watch after their body, but they do that not because they just can't wait for the next break. They do it because they want to do the job the best they can and they want to provide for their families, but they actually have chosen to enjoy their work, which i think is is enormous.

Let's transition into talking about the knowledge that you should have coming in, though what are some things that maybe, if you're going to you, want to go into trade school, you want to get into the trade. What are some basic things you should be? You should have pretty solid first off. I do want to just back up even a hair more, which is the company that you're trying to that you're interviewing with that you're trying to get hired for you know, do some research on that company try to figure out who they are what's going on know Some things about the company first, before you walk in the door, you know have some respect for what you're really trying to get involved in, and you know how you do your research to see if, if it's the company that you want to be right, but reference To basic knowledge, you want to be able to understand what types of hvacr systems are out there in in a building as best as you can. The components inside the system is going to be a little harder up front.

But if you are starting to understand, you know what a split system is or the difference between a heat pump and an air conditioner. Those are some of the quick skill sets. You know which side the supply is on which side the return is on on an hvac unit, because you're going to be there helping somebody do a replacement or an installation, and you want to be able to understand the the tool terminology if we need certain tools From the truck you know what a vacuum pump is versus a recovery machine and not you're, not confusing the two compound gauge set versus a digital gauge set, you know whatever it may be, but in reference to the equipment is the big thing here and knowing the Difference between a return and the supply, even a return, grill and a supply register. You know those types of things are are crucial to the best of your knowledge.

Basically, you want to go around any of these homes that you're visiting or whatever walk around. You know. Look at look at what they have and where, where the registers are located at you know, are the supply registers on the inside wall, the outside wall. Well, they should be towards the outside of of the of the building typically and then you're going to have to return grills closer in towards the inside you're, going to notice things like the thermostat.

That's going to be on an interior wall, you want to start noticing some patterns so that you can move quickly, have an idea of what the lead, installation or lead service tech is talking about uh before they say it basically, but you know just try to be Aware of the systems themselves, yeah, i think, going into a career and again we're talking to a a lot of different people here, we're talking to some people who have already been through school, we're talking to some people who are going to end up working for a Company with no uh traditional education at all and we're talking to people who are going to be going into school, so you know three different kind of categories of people, but regardless of which one of those you are, you want to go in having a really good Grasp of the terminology and some of the basic system, infrastructures and the idea that a lot of people have that you can't know those things until you work. That is completely incorrect. You can know all of this stuff without having to buy anything without having to go to school without having to have worked in the trade. The knowledge part is the easy part for somebody who's new, because you can go onto craig's channel.

You can go on to the engineering mindset you can go on to hvac school. You can watch chris stevens on hvcr videos and if you spend, i don't know a good 40 hours just watching videos and then reviewing what you have in your own home, let alone anywhere else. You're gon na know what an air handler is you're going to know what an evaporator coil is and what it does you're going to know what a condenser is and what it does you're going to know what a compressor is and what it does you're going to Know the different types of metering devices you're going to know a gauge manifold, all that sort of thing and when you go in to interview for a job or to start uh school you're going to be so far ahead that it's not even a joke. I mean you're gon na you're gon na.

Have that knowledge that, even if you, you know, you stumble the first time, you're hooking up your gauges or you know you struggle with cutting sheet metal a little bit you're going to get a lot more grace, because you at least know what all this stuff means And what the significance is so i would strongly suggest that, and i would also suggest that if you have an impulse that you feel like you can't do, that, like you need somebody to hold your hand in the words of bob newhart. Stop it because you don't you don't need somebody to hold your hand in order to learn if you do fall into a pattern of always thinking that you need somebody to show you in order for you to know things, you're going to be behind the eight ball. Your entire career, but if you can get ahead of that and yes, it's great to have people - show you it's absolutely necessary to get hands-on tools and to have experiences in the trade yourself. But you can get really really far ahead on the knowledge side.

Uh at least understanding how the things, work and you'll find that it's so much easier. Yeah, there's something to be said about being hungry and being hungry, means that you are going after yourself and not waiting for somebody else to to give it to you to to force feed it. To you i mean those are the kind of people where you when an employer says this employee is just not getting it. I don't understand why they're not going out of their way to like understand what this stuff means and does like brian was saying it's free right there for you.

You just have to go after and put the time in. It's really a matter of time and being hungry and wanting to learn. Writing your notes down. You know trying to study.

You know material that you have, that is mainly free access, but you know there are steps that you can take to gain that understanding and looking at the hvc system at your house and and you're, not your neighbors, but like you, maybe your family and different stuff. Sneaking into your chambers looking through the windows check out their hvac system, see where the registers are. Locksmithing is also a great skill to learn. So if you need to learn that in order there's something to be said, i mean really and and brian hit it on the head.

If you have the hungry uh desire to to want to learn and a hard working effort like that, you display constantly. That is 50 of the way there you will make up much more than whoever your competition is. You know in order to get that job, just by your your sheer tenacity. That is definitely something that's important, so just go after it's all.

All i can say is: go after it hard and, and you can get it. This is something that i always said in in the high school, even with the with the high school students for when i'm teaching hvacr, it's does not matter how smart you are how smart people say. You are it's more of a matter of your desire to want to learn that is it and i mean that is it. If you want to learn it, you will, i mean, that's, there's no, stopping it.

So many sports metaphors here i'll try to stay away from mixed metaphors, but you know if any of you who enjoy sports or anything like that, you don't have to be the quickest strongest fastest in order to be good at enjoy and be rewarded by a sport. If that was the case, i would never be able to play anything because i'm slow and fat and weak. So you know there you go okay, maybe i shouldn't play sports. Maybe that's what it comes down to, but the point being that anybody can do well.

You may not be the world's best, but who needs to be the world's best? You know you just stick with it and one thing that to younger people, if you are younger and you're listening to this recognize. This takes time like you're not going to go in and have a good attitude for a day and have you know, get the job and then everything smooth sailing. This is going to take years of dedicated effort and having that mindset day in and day out, so you have to have a longer view of your career, rather than just expecting that you're going to do it for a short period of time, and it's all going To come, naturally, it will be a grind sometimes, but you have to take that you have to take that longer view in order to make it work. My first company that i worked at i worked there for three months and i had to check myself and see hey.

Am i working hard enough for them to teach me or you know? Is it me so basically am i working hard enough for them to teach me or are they just not teaching me in general and are they afraid that if i know more than i'm gon na get the raisin or not i mean that's silliness right, you know. That's and that stuff does happen yeah and that's exactly why i ended up leaving that particular company. But, like brian said, you know it's not going to come within a week. It's not going to come within two weeks.

You shouldn't you're not going to get all this massive respecter or anything like that. You have to work for it. You know it doesn't come. It doesn't just come so uh.

You know you might need to take a step and go to a different company or whatever, but at all i just recommend that you really highly check yourself to make sure that it's not you and you're, not maybe displaying enough effort and and maybe you're not going After it yourself and trying to learn on your own, you you will, you will get there, just be patient. Yeah yeah couple points, one if you, if you lack mechanical skills practice some of this basic stuff. We've talked about too. If you lack the knowledge, uh, then get it before you go into the job and three go ahead and buy craig's book before you start because then you'll have a real leg.

Up so remind everybody how they can do that, that's over at acservicetech.com, and we have our our our book there, which is preparing a system for refrigerant checking the charge, how the systems work in reference to the refrigerant flowing through there and troubleshooting. So we have that in a thousand question workbook that we designed to be for those that are hungry in the field, so you can self-check. You know it comes with an answer key, so you can check your knowledge and we also have quick reference cards that you can use in the field. We've got posters, i would love to see those in the classrooms and we've got powerpoints for for hvac, our teachers and uh.

You know we have all of our videos over on on youtube and and and brian's as well and and make sure you check. All of that out, so you know absolutely well thank greg, appreciate it yep we're here so uh we got another video coming all right thanks for watching our video, if you enjoyed it and got something out of it, if you wouldn't mind hitting the thumbs up button To like the video subscribe to the channel and click, the notifications bell to be notified when new videos come out, hvac school is far more than a youtube channel. You can find out more by going to hvacrschool.com, which is our website and hub for all of our content, including tech tips, videos, podcasts and so much more. You can also subscribe to the podcast on any podcast app of your choosing.

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