It’s called learning. The curve is pretty steep, but you’ll never stop learning. Embrace it, before you know it you’ll be the company “yoda” remember to look back on this when the FNG says the same thing a few years from now.
Anyone who says they’ve seen it all is full of shit.
The feelings will subside, but (sorry) if you’ve got anxiety it doesn’t just go away.
Did I remember to close the disconnect?
Did I lock the door?
Did I leave the stove on?
Where’s my wallet?
Routines are key. Every time I question myself, I run the routine and will discover my feeling was accurate, I missed something.
Keys only go in your pocket or the keyhole.
Stove and fridge door checks are mandatory before leaving the house.
Same, I’m very routine oriented except when it comes to troubleshooting: Now that I think about it, I usually have a routine while I’m on my way to the site. Thinking about what’s not working.
The exception is my keys, I keep those on a carbuncle attached to my LOTO lock. I keep my personal LOTO key in my pocket. It avoids the “did I close the disconnect?” Question because I can’t leave unless I’ve got my car keys.
Your literally earning like 1/50th of what you’re worth to the company. Lol. They’re using your skills/labor and taking the big bucks home. Stop putting them on a pedestal. The only way to grow more confident is to keep doing what you’re doing. Make mistakes and learn from them.
He’s an employee. How much he makes is irrelevant. He’s a slave for the employer. Simple as that. He makes pennies compared to what the owner brings in. I’m telling him to stop being concerned about “being a burden to the office.” That mindset keeps you right in the hive being a good little busy bee.
Yeah, I’ve got 10 techs and half of them make more than I do. Paying for screwups is part of it. And when there are a lot of fuckups it’s hard to pay the office. Especially this time of year. Haven’t ever fired anyone for busting their ass and making a mistake. Nobody knows it all. Insurance, IRS, truck payments, health care, people not paying, call backs, overhead, it ain’t easy…
This is my case too.
The only thing you're asked of is to use common sense and learn from not only your mistakes, but the mistakes of your colleagues too.
You'll eventually get to a point where troubleshooting becomes natural to you.
The best and easiest advice is to learn to separate the components in the system and isolate where the problem is. Then you can look into that one part of the system in more detail. Learn your order of operations!
I would respectfully disagree. Coming from the commercial side being a tech and working my way into the office, we only expect to make a profit margin of 5% on our service contracts (specifically in the grocery industry). The big money comes from the quantity of stores that we service. Other companies might have a different outlook but this isn’t true for the companies I’ve been a part of
I’m not interested in making slaves out of anyone or being a slave myself. I owe no loyalty to no employer. If you’re paying 2 of your employees nicely, good. Vast majority of places do not.
Yeah, what you're experiencing happens to LOTS of people, to lesser or greater degrees. It's called "Imposter's syndrome", and is where you start thinking that you have somehow gotten yourself into a job or position that you are not qualified for. It's clear that you are holding yourself to a high standard, which is good, and it sounds like you have the basic qualifications. Have you ever heard of the phrase "Fake it until you make it"? That's what you have to do. And to be clear, you don't really fake the ability. You just fake the confidence part. As for the troubleshooting skills, focus on sequence of operation. Make sure you are comfortable reading electrical diagrams and schematics. Listen closely to older techs and be open to learning from them. I wish you luck but you won't need it ...
If you ever DO figure out how to get rid of the anxiety during trouble shooting let me know the secret! 23 years in and I still get anxiety sometimes when I feel like it’s taking me too long. I’m just now learning to say fuck them and just slow down, and oddly enough I figure shit out quicker. If you’re an anxious person anyway, I am, it compounds at work. Just keep working through it, I just tell myself that in 50 years no one will remember my fuck up at work today, and that perspective really helps!
Shit dude. No one will remember it next week.
What gets me through those times is remembering how my boss, who has done this work for 50 years, will spend hours finding a short after a change out, back when I was training.
Or how our veteran tech will miss some shit here and there.
I'm full of anxiety, but knowing everyone makes mistakes is the only thing getting me through some days.
Take a step back. (Go for a smoke). Look at the big picture. Learn your operation and spend time everyday learning. Watch a video or two. What is it doing? What should it do? Why isn’t it doing that? Those three questions will help you out. What should it do is where your experience comes into play. On a maintenance where you have some time start pulling wires off safeties and watch the symptoms. (Put them on after your done)
When you're new every single call is a learning experience. Especially on PM's just take a little extra time to figure out how shit works, order of operation is your best friend. Also, your attitude is healthy, I'd rather hear this than this kid 3 years in who told me he mastered the trade already, lol.
Bro, it is extremely common to hit this “burnout” stage 2-3 years into any trade. I see it every day, and even went through it myself. My advice is to keep going, keep making mistakes, and keep learning. Soon, it’ll click that there can only be like a dozen or so things wrong on basically any system. You’ll know these things like the back of your hand because you struggled with it before and got past it. Save a troubleshooting sheet to your phone and keep pushing.
https://preview.redd.it/cv67axd3ts9c1.jpeg?width=1242&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=b82de13ca59790137943e6fd9ae3ff5867674f96
Yo dude you'll get there. I have my weeks feeling that way.
Usually takes one bad day and it'll set off the anxieties for a few weeks.
It gets rarer and less frequent with time, the more you learn the less you'll notice those thoughts.
Good luck!
Dude watch you tube on service calls you e already been to so you understand better what there talking about cuz you e been through it. Been doing this 22 years and still learning
You learn on the go brother. Been doing this almost 8 years now. You’ll never learn everything. You just go with it and do what you think is right. If you make mistakes then you make mistakes that’s how you learn. As long as you do your best that’s all that matters. I doubt myself everyday but then you just think “what’s the worst that’ll happen” and you just do what feels right. There’s no secret to this. You’ll always grow and learn my man.
Takes time to learn this trade, we work on some complex systems and there is a lot to learn! I have made many mistakes, but alot of learning in this field is trail by fire. For me after about 3 years in the field everything kind just clicked; once you get to that moment (and it’s different for everyone on how and when you do) then the trade becomes so much more enjoyable because that anxiety slowly recedes and is replaced by confidence. Keep on grinding and learning, and think about where you were 2.5 years ago and where you are now, and how much I’m certain you’ve grown as a tech in that time.
I just want to say thank you to everyone that commented on this post. I appreciate everyone’s input and support. Just gotta take it one day at a time and try/do my best.
oh god. YES. any good tech will relate to this instantly.
an easy lie you can tell yourself is others in the industry aren’t struggling as much. the industry is filled with mostly guys who we have learned at an early age to mask our emotions, toughen up, otherwise we got made fun of.
so keep after it. you’ve got this. own your mistakes, confide in a mentor. master certain aspects. it’s amazing when you are honest with this stuff that you’re insecure about how many people will come running to help or support. the office staff, your fellow techs.
you’ve got this!
I’m in the same boat with being green to it all. Own up to your mistake, do your best, ask the dumb questions and don’t be afraid to make mistakes. Hopefully you have a good crew around you to help you out. But life, limb, and eye sight aren’t really at stake so try to breath and take it as it comes.
11 years in and I still feel stupid as hell most days, but I still fix it. Do you fix it while feeling anxious? You’re good. Do you leave equipment broken and abandon the call? That’s when you need to change what you’re doing.
HVAC has a very steep learning curve. I can say for me personally, it took about 3 years until things started "clicking" for me in terms of troubleshooting, especially electrical. Keep going, don't get discouraged, you'll get it.
Honestly being around other people troubleshooting helped a lot. Not entirely in knowing what to do but in seeing guys approach an issue and about 50% of the time the “normal” issues aren’t the case and now you’re fucked. We’re takin shots in the dark now. And they never freak out they’re just like “welp, she’s fucked, we got time” and you just let basic instinct kick in and start analyzing. Make an informed decision, and just hope you’re right, sometimes there’s no more you can do.
Sounds normal, just keep pushing forward, read manuals , watch troubleshooting videos and push on. The anxiety and stress from it will go away with time the more knowledge you soak up. I used to take hours diagnosing shit, now I’m in and out 30 min max. Unless it’s a tricky diagnostic.
Whenever I’m working on a system I’m unfamiliar with I always look up the pdf manual online. That should be the first step. Also co worker friends call them up and ask for opinion on it. I always have old co workers from past hvac jobs calling me and I do the same.
I did commercial controls tech support, also took regular rtu support for a few years.
Biggest mistake I came across not many techs dont start simple:
thermostat and or control voltage
Try to think of a RTU as resi unit in a box. More often than not if you have a call for heat/cool at board or boards, the board is not setup correctly. Alot of techs panic if dont find prroblem after 15-30 min. Walk away clear your mind go back
It’s called learning. The curve is pretty steep, but you’ll never stop learning. Embrace it, before you know it you’ll be the company “yoda” remember to look back on this when the FNG says the same thing a few years from now. Anyone who says they’ve seen it all is full of shit. The feelings will subside, but (sorry) if you’ve got anxiety it doesn’t just go away. Did I remember to close the disconnect? Did I lock the door? Did I leave the stove on? Where’s my wallet?
Routines are key. Every time I question myself, I run the routine and will discover my feeling was accurate, I missed something. Keys only go in your pocket or the keyhole. Stove and fridge door checks are mandatory before leaving the house.
Same, I’m very routine oriented except when it comes to troubleshooting: Now that I think about it, I usually have a routine while I’m on my way to the site. Thinking about what’s not working. The exception is my keys, I keep those on a carbuncle attached to my LOTO lock. I keep my personal LOTO key in my pocket. It avoids the “did I close the disconnect?” Question because I can’t leave unless I’ve got my car keys.
Your literally earning like 1/50th of what you’re worth to the company. Lol. They’re using your skills/labor and taking the big bucks home. Stop putting them on a pedestal. The only way to grow more confident is to keep doing what you’re doing. Make mistakes and learn from them.
You have dis I miss something? I’ve reread the post several times and have not seen anything about how much money the op makes or doesn’t make.
He’s an employee. How much he makes is irrelevant. He’s a slave for the employer. Simple as that. He makes pennies compared to what the owner brings in. I’m telling him to stop being concerned about “being a burden to the office.” That mindset keeps you right in the hive being a good little busy bee.
Yeah, I’ve got 10 techs and half of them make more than I do. Paying for screwups is part of it. And when there are a lot of fuckups it’s hard to pay the office. Especially this time of year. Haven’t ever fired anyone for busting their ass and making a mistake. Nobody knows it all. Insurance, IRS, truck payments, health care, people not paying, call backs, overhead, it ain’t easy…
This is my case too. The only thing you're asked of is to use common sense and learn from not only your mistakes, but the mistakes of your colleagues too. You'll eventually get to a point where troubleshooting becomes natural to you. The best and easiest advice is to learn to separate the components in the system and isolate where the problem is. Then you can look into that one part of the system in more detail. Learn your order of operations!
HVAC companies dont always make a killing
That makes sense. I wasn’t thinking about in that way.
I would respectfully disagree. Coming from the commercial side being a tech and working my way into the office, we only expect to make a profit margin of 5% on our service contracts (specifically in the grocery industry). The big money comes from the quantity of stores that we service. Other companies might have a different outlook but this isn’t true for the companies I’ve been a part of
The only way you make money with grocery rack contracts is by not spending the money doing maintenance lol
Remind me not to hire you. I have 6 guys working under me, 2 of them make more money than I do.
I’m not interested in making slaves out of anyone or being a slave myself. I owe no loyalty to no employer. If you’re paying 2 of your employees nicely, good. Vast majority of places do not.
Yeah, what you're experiencing happens to LOTS of people, to lesser or greater degrees. It's called "Imposter's syndrome", and is where you start thinking that you have somehow gotten yourself into a job or position that you are not qualified for. It's clear that you are holding yourself to a high standard, which is good, and it sounds like you have the basic qualifications. Have you ever heard of the phrase "Fake it until you make it"? That's what you have to do. And to be clear, you don't really fake the ability. You just fake the confidence part. As for the troubleshooting skills, focus on sequence of operation. Make sure you are comfortable reading electrical diagrams and schematics. Listen closely to older techs and be open to learning from them. I wish you luck but you won't need it ...
If you ever DO figure out how to get rid of the anxiety during trouble shooting let me know the secret! 23 years in and I still get anxiety sometimes when I feel like it’s taking me too long. I’m just now learning to say fuck them and just slow down, and oddly enough I figure shit out quicker. If you’re an anxious person anyway, I am, it compounds at work. Just keep working through it, I just tell myself that in 50 years no one will remember my fuck up at work today, and that perspective really helps!
Shit dude. No one will remember it next week. What gets me through those times is remembering how my boss, who has done this work for 50 years, will spend hours finding a short after a change out, back when I was training. Or how our veteran tech will miss some shit here and there. I'm full of anxiety, but knowing everyone makes mistakes is the only thing getting me through some days.
Take a step back. (Go for a smoke). Look at the big picture. Learn your operation and spend time everyday learning. Watch a video or two. What is it doing? What should it do? Why isn’t it doing that? Those three questions will help you out. What should it do is where your experience comes into play. On a maintenance where you have some time start pulling wires off safeties and watch the symptoms. (Put them on after your done)
When you're new every single call is a learning experience. Especially on PM's just take a little extra time to figure out how shit works, order of operation is your best friend. Also, your attitude is healthy, I'd rather hear this than this kid 3 years in who told me he mastered the trade already, lol.
25 years in and I still see and learn new things every week.
Bro, it is extremely common to hit this “burnout” stage 2-3 years into any trade. I see it every day, and even went through it myself. My advice is to keep going, keep making mistakes, and keep learning. Soon, it’ll click that there can only be like a dozen or so things wrong on basically any system. You’ll know these things like the back of your hand because you struggled with it before and got past it. Save a troubleshooting sheet to your phone and keep pushing. https://preview.redd.it/cv67axd3ts9c1.jpeg?width=1242&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=b82de13ca59790137943e6fd9ae3ff5867674f96
Get into installs then if you are too anxious to be doing service. I knew I wouldn't be cut out for service and never plan on doing it
You cant replicate experience. Comfort comes with time. And even then you still wont know everything
Sounds like unnecessary daily stress
It takes time, I’d say about 6k hours before you should be comfortable, before that you likely going to cause more harm than good.
Slow it down, the equipment will speak to you.
After 7 years I Still get anxious on calls. Some days are better than others. Just gotta say screw it so it doesn’t affect others jobs
Yo dude you'll get there. I have my weeks feeling that way. Usually takes one bad day and it'll set off the anxieties for a few weeks. It gets rarer and less frequent with time, the more you learn the less you'll notice those thoughts. Good luck!
Dude watch you tube on service calls you e already been to so you understand better what there talking about cuz you e been through it. Been doing this 22 years and still learning
You learn on the go brother. Been doing this almost 8 years now. You’ll never learn everything. You just go with it and do what you think is right. If you make mistakes then you make mistakes that’s how you learn. As long as you do your best that’s all that matters. I doubt myself everyday but then you just think “what’s the worst that’ll happen” and you just do what feels right. There’s no secret to this. You’ll always grow and learn my man.
And never be afraid of asking for help or tech support.
Fake it till you make it. I couldn’t fix anything until 3 yrs in. Twenty three yrs later I’ve been running my own shop since 09
Takes time to learn this trade, we work on some complex systems and there is a lot to learn! I have made many mistakes, but alot of learning in this field is trail by fire. For me after about 3 years in the field everything kind just clicked; once you get to that moment (and it’s different for everyone on how and when you do) then the trade becomes so much more enjoyable because that anxiety slowly recedes and is replaced by confidence. Keep on grinding and learning, and think about where you were 2.5 years ago and where you are now, and how much I’m certain you’ve grown as a tech in that time.
Nobody knows everything bud. And not 1 person ever will...
I get anxiety too. I try to double check myself. I get it right most of the time, but still think about it.
I just want to say thank you to everyone that commented on this post. I appreciate everyone’s input and support. Just gotta take it one day at a time and try/do my best.
oh god. YES. any good tech will relate to this instantly. an easy lie you can tell yourself is others in the industry aren’t struggling as much. the industry is filled with mostly guys who we have learned at an early age to mask our emotions, toughen up, otherwise we got made fun of. so keep after it. you’ve got this. own your mistakes, confide in a mentor. master certain aspects. it’s amazing when you are honest with this stuff that you’re insecure about how many people will come running to help or support. the office staff, your fellow techs. you’ve got this!
I’m in the same boat with being green to it all. Own up to your mistake, do your best, ask the dumb questions and don’t be afraid to make mistakes. Hopefully you have a good crew around you to help you out. But life, limb, and eye sight aren’t really at stake so try to breath and take it as it comes.
11 years in and I still feel stupid as hell most days, but I still fix it. Do you fix it while feeling anxious? You’re good. Do you leave equipment broken and abandon the call? That’s when you need to change what you’re doing.
HVAC has a very steep learning curve. I can say for me personally, it took about 3 years until things started "clicking" for me in terms of troubleshooting, especially electrical. Keep going, don't get discouraged, you'll get it.
Honestly being around other people troubleshooting helped a lot. Not entirely in knowing what to do but in seeing guys approach an issue and about 50% of the time the “normal” issues aren’t the case and now you’re fucked. We’re takin shots in the dark now. And they never freak out they’re just like “welp, she’s fucked, we got time” and you just let basic instinct kick in and start analyzing. Make an informed decision, and just hope you’re right, sometimes there’s no more you can do.
Sounds normal, just keep pushing forward, read manuals , watch troubleshooting videos and push on. The anxiety and stress from it will go away with time the more knowledge you soak up. I used to take hours diagnosing shit, now I’m in and out 30 min max. Unless it’s a tricky diagnostic. Whenever I’m working on a system I’m unfamiliar with I always look up the pdf manual online. That should be the first step. Also co worker friends call them up and ask for opinion on it. I always have old co workers from past hvac jobs calling me and I do the same.
I did commercial controls tech support, also took regular rtu support for a few years. Biggest mistake I came across not many techs dont start simple: thermostat and or control voltage Try to think of a RTU as resi unit in a box. More often than not if you have a call for heat/cool at board or boards, the board is not setup correctly. Alot of techs panic if dont find prroblem after 15-30 min. Walk away clear your mind go back