Career Change: Air Conditioning and Refrigeration/HVAC?
Discussion
Looking to get out of an industry I've kind of been stuck in for the last 15+ years. I'm 35 in November and I need to get into something that offers more prospects and job interest/satisfaction.
I had a two year break which came to an end last year and did carpentry for 3 years, I really enjoyed it and love working with my hands creating things.
My reasoning is if I'm going to take a step back and a drop in wages it needs to be something that also going to be worth my while financially. Looking at what Chippies are earning in this country it' no more than what I can earn now. I've thought about a job in Air conditioning and refrigeration/HVAC previously I've just no Idea where or how to start.
A lot of the job adverts on Indeed seem to ask for plumbing and gas qualifications.
What would you do if you where me? I have very minimal outgoings and debt so that's not a huge worry and I can carry on working flexibly through the agency I currently work for.
Trying for find anything that doesn't seem to resemble a training centre that wants you to pay them to train you but then you get an irrelevant qualification in return seems nigh on impossible. Been on the City & Guilds website where they list the colleges but then there's nothing on the college website or the links are dead.
I had a two year break which came to an end last year and did carpentry for 3 years, I really enjoyed it and love working with my hands creating things.
My reasoning is if I'm going to take a step back and a drop in wages it needs to be something that also going to be worth my while financially. Looking at what Chippies are earning in this country it' no more than what I can earn now. I've thought about a job in Air conditioning and refrigeration/HVAC previously I've just no Idea where or how to start.
A lot of the job adverts on Indeed seem to ask for plumbing and gas qualifications.
What would you do if you where me? I have very minimal outgoings and debt so that's not a huge worry and I can carry on working flexibly through the agency I currently work for.
Trying for find anything that doesn't seem to resemble a training centre that wants you to pay them to train you but then you get an irrelevant qualification in return seems nigh on impossible. Been on the City & Guilds website where they list the colleges but then there's nothing on the college website or the links are dead.
Edited by NordicCrankShaft on Friday 21st September 16:46
I’m in supermarket refrigeration. I’ll be honest at 35 your going struggle to get into a company to give you time to train and if you do you will be offered very little money. Refrigeration isn’t that simple, your basically an electrician, a plumber and a refrigeration repair guy all in one. Average basic wage once qualified is 28 - 34 unless you live in London where it’s a bit higher. You’ll need to pass your f gas test to be able to work on any equipment and most company’s want a minimum of nvq2 in refrigeration now. Depending on what you ended up working on there is often an opportunity to do overtime and call out which can dramatically boost your wage. Supermarket fridge engineers can make 50 to 70k a year if your willing to put a lot of hours in and not see your family again. There is transport refrigeration, hvac, domestic, commercial and industrial. Depends what interests you the most. In the winter it’s pretty quiet but in the summer when all your mates are out enjoying the weather, you’ll be driving around in the van trying to fix a thousand calls where everyone wants you at once. You have to have an interest in some respect of it or the job will drive you crazy. I know in supermarket fridge a lot of the older guys are calling it a day as the job is so demanding with stores open or staffed 24/7 it’s such a strain on family life. Air con isn’t as bad hours wise as supermarket but your trying to fix air cons in offices and room with people trying to work. It’s just as big a nightmare. If I was to have my time again I would get my gas certificate and get in with one of the big gas suppliers or get my electrical and get into high voltage works.
Edited by richelli on Monday 1st October 23:04
richelli said:
I’m in supermarket refrigeration. I’ll be honest at 35 your going struggle to get into a company to give you time to train and if you do you will be offered very little money. Refrigeration isn’t that simple, your basically an electrician, a plumber and a refrigeration repair guy all in one. Average basic wage once qualified is 28 - 34 unless you live in London where it’s a bit higher. You’ll need to pass your f gas test to be able to work on any equipment and most company’s want a minimum of nvq2 in refrigeration now. Depending on what you ended up working on there is often an opportunity to do overtime and call out which can dramatically boost your wage. Supermarket fridge engineers can make 50 to 70k a year if your willing to put a lot of hours in and not see your family again. There is transport refrigeration, hvac, domestic, commercial and industrial. Depends what interests you the most. In the winter it’s pretty quiet but in the summer when all your mates are out enjoying the weather, you’ll be driving around in the van trying to fix a thousand calls where everyone wants you at once. You have to have an interest in some respect of it or the job will drive you crazy. I know in supermarket fridge a lot of the older guys are calling it a day as the job is so demanding with stores open or staffed 24/7 it’s such a strain on family life. Air con isn’t as bad hours wise as supermarket but your trying to fix air cons in offices and room with people trying to work. It’s just as big a nightmare. If I was to have my time again I would get my gas certificate and get in with one of the big gas suppliers or get my electrical and get into high voltage works.
Now this sounds interesting. I did actually look at going to college this year to do an electrician course. However I was talking this over with somebody I know who is an electrician and they kind of put me off it saying that it was overly saturated. Saying that all the kids coming out of school these days weren't interested in thing like bricklaying/carpentry/plumbing but the more "white collar" (if that even makes sense) construction jobs.Edited by richelli on Monday 1st October 23:04
This sounds like it would be quite satisfying reading some of the job descriptions and would definitely appeal to my working outdoor nature.
The industry I'm trying to leave it catering. I'm a trained chef, have been all over the place running high end kitchens and I'm at a point where I'm tired of if. The money is decent but the amount of hours expected to be put in on a weekly basis is absurd.
I'm not afraid to start at the bottom, this does not phase me, it's the getting a foot in the door that seems to be an issue.
I'm not afraid to start at the bottom, this does not phase me, it's the getting a foot in the door that seems to be an issue.
I was 24 when I started on a similar path. I saw no future in the low pay, lack of opportunities, overly stressed and rubbish hours world of being a chef. I too looked into engineering disciplines in order to get better opportunities. I started by going to college to get my Level 3 Btec/Technical Certificate/ONC and a level 2 NVQ at the same time. I applied for every apprenticeship/entry level job in manufacturing/process/electrical/design/engineering/energy/rail I could hoping ideally to get in to a maintenance technician sort of role and hopefully on shift work for the extra allowance as back then my only goal was hoping to be able to buy my own home. I managed to pick up a factory job stood at the back of a press inspecting bits of Ford Focus front suspension, far lower level than I wanted but it got me into the right sort of environment and I gained some experience there that sat well in interviews to come. But it was minimum wage and getting employed by the factory and not the agency and getting moved up a level weren't guaranteed so I kept the job hunt up.
I finished a night shift in the factory and drove 70 miles for an interview for a in a quarry. I ended up getting an awful lab tech job in a much more local quarry that was better hours and slightly better pay, not to mention not working for an agency. It wasn't a conventional quarry as nothing was dug out of the ground, the aggregate came in the form of steel slag from the blast furnace in Redcar, on my second day the furnace was mothballed and the job hunt resumed. The "lab" experience plus my qualifications landed me a position as a "process operator" for an electronics and materials technology R&D facility. I gained a lot from this role taking every opportunity to learn that I could from improving health and safety, to training to be an internal auditor for ISO9001 to taking on the responsibility for the manufacture or a printable ink for a flexible copper process. This give me the experience to get a job as a technician on a chemical plant working a shift pattern that'll suit me perfectly and pays £40k+. It's taken me 7 years to get to this point but it's fair to say I've had a hard go of it. I put it down to a number of things from not having the right connections, poor cv writing ability, poor application ability, annoying rules around apprenticeships, performing badly in interviews to just plain old bad luck.
In the early days I sent out cv's by email, by letter, via job site applications and by visiting companies in person. It was awful, months and months of hearing nothing back or the occasional rejection. The hardest part was definitely getting my foot in the door to get the experience I needed. There are lots of things that need fixing out there though and usually for a decent wage.
One thing I would keep in mind is that the rules around apprenticeships now are much better and can be exploited to good effect to get ahead. Depending on the size of the company they can either claim it from the government if under 350 employees or claim it BACK from the government if over 350 employees. So if you get a low level job you can put in a formal application explaining to the company why it's a good idea to put you through the training and it won't really cost them anything.
If you're going to go down this route get a clear idea of where you want to end up and how to get there. Look into the qualifications and experience you'll need. Find out what companies have the rolls you want to do and can give you the experience you want to have. Don't be deterred by rejection. Keep sending CV's out. Keep track of where and how you send the CV so you can approach the same companies a different way. Ask friends about jobs going where they work. Chef hours can be flexible so a day a week at college or doing work experience a day a week is an option.
Good luck.
I finished a night shift in the factory and drove 70 miles for an interview for a in a quarry. I ended up getting an awful lab tech job in a much more local quarry that was better hours and slightly better pay, not to mention not working for an agency. It wasn't a conventional quarry as nothing was dug out of the ground, the aggregate came in the form of steel slag from the blast furnace in Redcar, on my second day the furnace was mothballed and the job hunt resumed. The "lab" experience plus my qualifications landed me a position as a "process operator" for an electronics and materials technology R&D facility. I gained a lot from this role taking every opportunity to learn that I could from improving health and safety, to training to be an internal auditor for ISO9001 to taking on the responsibility for the manufacture or a printable ink for a flexible copper process. This give me the experience to get a job as a technician on a chemical plant working a shift pattern that'll suit me perfectly and pays £40k+. It's taken me 7 years to get to this point but it's fair to say I've had a hard go of it. I put it down to a number of things from not having the right connections, poor cv writing ability, poor application ability, annoying rules around apprenticeships, performing badly in interviews to just plain old bad luck.
In the early days I sent out cv's by email, by letter, via job site applications and by visiting companies in person. It was awful, months and months of hearing nothing back or the occasional rejection. The hardest part was definitely getting my foot in the door to get the experience I needed. There are lots of things that need fixing out there though and usually for a decent wage.
One thing I would keep in mind is that the rules around apprenticeships now are much better and can be exploited to good effect to get ahead. Depending on the size of the company they can either claim it from the government if under 350 employees or claim it BACK from the government if over 350 employees. So if you get a low level job you can put in a formal application explaining to the company why it's a good idea to put you through the training and it won't really cost them anything.
If you're going to go down this route get a clear idea of where you want to end up and how to get there. Look into the qualifications and experience you'll need. Find out what companies have the rolls you want to do and can give you the experience you want to have. Don't be deterred by rejection. Keep sending CV's out. Keep track of where and how you send the CV so you can approach the same companies a different way. Ask friends about jobs going where they work. Chef hours can be flexible so a day a week at college or doing work experience a day a week is an option.
Good luck.
Edited by bobmcgod on Tuesday 9th October 09:34
Also don't forget hospitals either. There's shed loads that needs fixing in them things.
Post office have a fleet that needs maintaining and have a training scheme to go with it.
EDF have an outstanding apprenticeship program, as do national grid and network rail.
Having a HNC (equivalent first year uni) can get you in places at technician level on just that with no experience.
Level 3 NVQ's need work experience but will always land you work somewhere.
Talk to local colleges about apprenticeships.
Use the indeed app on your phone and check daily using "trainee". Sometimes something good can crop up.
Odd ball Idea I had but never followed up on was the TA. I'm not sure how the training works but they need trades too.
Also people say electrician. Do they mean running cables through houses and offices, do they mean working on pylons, substations, electrical maintenance in a factory or do they mean laying cables next to road works? Don't be put off one thing because it's talked about in too broad a sense.
Post office have a fleet that needs maintaining and have a training scheme to go with it.
EDF have an outstanding apprenticeship program, as do national grid and network rail.
Having a HNC (equivalent first year uni) can get you in places at technician level on just that with no experience.
Level 3 NVQ's need work experience but will always land you work somewhere.
Talk to local colleges about apprenticeships.
Use the indeed app on your phone and check daily using "trainee". Sometimes something good can crop up.
Odd ball Idea I had but never followed up on was the TA. I'm not sure how the training works but they need trades too.
Also people say electrician. Do they mean running cables through houses and offices, do they mean working on pylons, substations, electrical maintenance in a factory or do they mean laying cables next to road works? Don't be put off one thing because it's talked about in too broad a sense.
Edited by bobmcgod on Tuesday 9th October 09:37
keirik said:
friend of mine runs an air con company in London.
If you want to work 80 hours, 7 days per week to scrape by its probably a great job.
If you're looking for job satisfaction, and it sounds like you are, then I wouldnt recommend it, and I don't think he would either
On the face of this post, either your mate is winding you up or he is doing it wrongIf you want to work 80 hours, 7 days per week to scrape by its probably a great job.
If you're looking for job satisfaction, and it sounds like you are, then I wouldnt recommend it, and I don't think he would either
I was an Air Con guy by trade, on the tools from 1985 to 2000. I still work in the related industry of Building Engineering Services and manage half a dozen air con engineering guys (not directly but through a team structure) as well as having links to guys who run 1 man band outfits, micro companies and those with 30ish employees and whilst I'm sure they have bad weeks with long hours it isn't like that every week and they do pretty well (some of them very well!)
An employed guy working 80 hours per week in wouldn't be 'scraping by'. Our outside London guys average 50 hours in a long week and earn 50k plus.
Maybe there is more to it than is explained above
To the OP, it's difficult as a career change. why would any company take an adult trainee on at £7.50 an hour when they can take an 16-18 year old on at half that? Even before that, when I was at college on day release there was a parallel adult retraining course going on at the same facility. The guys on that were finding it hard to get placements for the practical element, then there weren't the vacancies for them to fill at the end of the training period any way as effectively they only had two years of training with less then half of that out in the field where a newly qualified 'apprentice' had 80% of four years experience behind them.
You mention carpentry, does this extend to be considered a 'handyman'? An 'in' for you might be to get into a large office/factory or similar campus where they will have some directly employed trades and some sub contract. There could be opportunities to work with the trade and pick up some experience and badger the local management for training that could lead to more specialist stuff
Good luck
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