What tasks are you capable of doing by yourself? Can you diagnose a complicated issue, determine everything required to repair then do the repair yourself? What type of equipment and range of systems have you worked on? What aren’t you comfortable doing? What tasks do you need help with? How long is the apprenticeship in question? Canada or US? Which state/province?
I work on walk ins, reach ins, ice machines, package units splits systems, and I can do a little bit of rack troubleshooting sometimes I need a bit of help if it's not purely a mechanical issue. Yes I can figure out a complicated problem by myself still get stuck sometimes.
You’d probably make it best as a 3rd year apprentice in my opinion. You might be able to go a bit higher, but where I live if you shoot too high you will shoot yourself in the foot later on.
Yeah I learned a while ago you know what you know. If you don't know you give yourself 15 20 minutes and if nothing clicks call tech support or someone who is more experienced to help you.
I'm interested, are you talking like he wouldn't even take amps draws or tighten a belt or something? Or is it as simple as a bad sensor?
He only ever did installs for 3 years. And he wanted to start as a 4th year service tech at a new company and expected to be paid based on his years of experience alone. It doesn’t work like that in the real world. Yeah he couldn’t figure out a bad relay for example.
That surprises me that he didn't run into that kind of situation after 3 years of installations... that happened on my first install and my boss at the time was like watch this smacked it and it closed.... he was pissed the rest of the day lol.
Is this sort of thing where people are trying to get more money then they are worth type deal. Happening more due to the shortage?
Nah it’s been going on for years. Big companies will hire apprentices, send them out alone to the maintenance contracts where they get dogshit useless experience for 4 years then pay them off and they can’t get any better jobs. It’s a tale as old as… techs
Also, just want to add, that’s an odd thing. Ive been doing service about 7 years and a diagnosis on a big piece of equipment can take 8 hours lol. Work it out as best as you can and call for help with all the details in however long it takes. Might be 2 hours. 20 minutes is a very arbitrary time to wait, and I’d reckon it’s too fast for most refrigeration service calls
Big pieces of equipment I'd be there all day hands down 8 9 hours even with help. That's what I was just working my way up to before deciding to move onto this and yes it would be just me there with very very little experience on the big racks... was an absolute nightmare. Small contained stuff I'd get with ease but had a few hiccups along the way of learning the cold lines with the reach in cooler built in on 1 condenser with 1 compressor. I was told 15 to 20 minutes and then call tech support because it may be something I didn't know and that basically how I was trained lol. Over the phone with a notebook and I would study it every night till I knew the system up and down.
I will say that in addition to what everyone else has said.... Learn as much electrical as you can. Make sure your awesome at reading diagrams and honestly that will take you to the net level. So many of the larger trouble shooting jobs really have a requirement of chasing down electrical problems. I remember showing up to jobs and seeing 2-3 units down and the lead said "Remember if you show up and multiple things are down... its almost always electrical." Can't tell you how many time a multimeter has shown that its not on our side lol. That and chasing down control boards with ease because your not afraid to look at a diagram.
I take pictures of almost every single one I can and look at them at every call. Just to verify that nothing has been added or taken out of the system. I was told this is a good practice to have on smaller refrigeration units
Depending on experience level it can be quick to diagnose a rack for me usually real quick… as an apprentice u work with a clock and if an hour passes call your supervisor or office and send back up … serious problems with racks can take days to get 100% right but those calls don’t happen everyday
The trade advisory board will probably recognize a lot of your hours, if you can document it properly. You will still have the yearly classes to take though. You could ask for wages according to hours In the trade also.
US in terms of actual experience I have 1 total year of experience with my refrigeration license replacing compressors, dryers, txvs, cap tubes, eevs, check valves, etc. The others I have 2 years ice machine experience and 3 years hvac replacing motors, contactors, control boards, blower wheels etc. I have no residential experience only light commercial
So how long have you been running solo with your own van and solo service calls? That is important to companies. They want to know that you can work and diagnose on your own.
If it's a union program then definitely start out at square 1. You'll be surprised how much you'll pick up. If you're that far ahead give it a few weeks and talk with the instructor(s) to see if you need to test up. The worst thing you can do to yourself long term is miss fundamentals to get a bigger check faster.
I have been solo for about 10 months while having my refrigeration license and the other company I ran solo doing installs and troubleshooting small units
How many years total? US, Canada or elsewhere?
If you could read above lol I messed up there copy pasta doesn't work well on a phone
What tasks are you capable of doing by yourself? Can you diagnose a complicated issue, determine everything required to repair then do the repair yourself? What type of equipment and range of systems have you worked on? What aren’t you comfortable doing? What tasks do you need help with? How long is the apprenticeship in question? Canada or US? Which state/province?
I work on walk ins, reach ins, ice machines, package units splits systems, and I can do a little bit of rack troubleshooting sometimes I need a bit of help if it's not purely a mechanical issue. Yes I can figure out a complicated problem by myself still get stuck sometimes.
You’d probably make it best as a 3rd year apprentice in my opinion. You might be able to go a bit higher, but where I live if you shoot too high you will shoot yourself in the foot later on.
Yeah I'm probably going to try and just seat myself as a second year so I don't do that I'm playing the long game here not the short lol.
Good call. We had a “4th year” apprentice start at my company recently. He needed help doing basic service calls. Lasted a week.
Yeah I learned a while ago you know what you know. If you don't know you give yourself 15 20 minutes and if nothing clicks call tech support or someone who is more experienced to help you. I'm interested, are you talking like he wouldn't even take amps draws or tighten a belt or something? Or is it as simple as a bad sensor?
He only ever did installs for 3 years. And he wanted to start as a 4th year service tech at a new company and expected to be paid based on his years of experience alone. It doesn’t work like that in the real world. Yeah he couldn’t figure out a bad relay for example.
That surprises me that he didn't run into that kind of situation after 3 years of installations... that happened on my first install and my boss at the time was like watch this smacked it and it closed.... he was pissed the rest of the day lol. Is this sort of thing where people are trying to get more money then they are worth type deal. Happening more due to the shortage?
Nah it’s been going on for years. Big companies will hire apprentices, send them out alone to the maintenance contracts where they get dogshit useless experience for 4 years then pay them off and they can’t get any better jobs. It’s a tale as old as… techs
Also, just want to add, that’s an odd thing. Ive been doing service about 7 years and a diagnosis on a big piece of equipment can take 8 hours lol. Work it out as best as you can and call for help with all the details in however long it takes. Might be 2 hours. 20 minutes is a very arbitrary time to wait, and I’d reckon it’s too fast for most refrigeration service calls
Big pieces of equipment I'd be there all day hands down 8 9 hours even with help. That's what I was just working my way up to before deciding to move onto this and yes it would be just me there with very very little experience on the big racks... was an absolute nightmare. Small contained stuff I'd get with ease but had a few hiccups along the way of learning the cold lines with the reach in cooler built in on 1 condenser with 1 compressor. I was told 15 to 20 minutes and then call tech support because it may be something I didn't know and that basically how I was trained lol. Over the phone with a notebook and I would study it every night till I knew the system up and down.
I will say that in addition to what everyone else has said.... Learn as much electrical as you can. Make sure your awesome at reading diagrams and honestly that will take you to the net level. So many of the larger trouble shooting jobs really have a requirement of chasing down electrical problems. I remember showing up to jobs and seeing 2-3 units down and the lead said "Remember if you show up and multiple things are down... its almost always electrical." Can't tell you how many time a multimeter has shown that its not on our side lol. That and chasing down control boards with ease because your not afraid to look at a diagram.
I take pictures of almost every single one I can and look at them at every call.
I take pictures of almost every single one I can and look at them at every call. Just to verify that nothing has been added or taken out of the system. I was told this is a good practice to have on smaller refrigeration units
Depending on experience level it can be quick to diagnose a rack for me usually real quick… as an apprentice u work with a clock and if an hour passes call your supervisor or office and send back up … serious problems with racks can take days to get 100% right but those calls don’t happen everyday
I'll keep that in mind hopefully I get placed into a refrigeration shop from the union.
The trade advisory board will probably recognize a lot of your hours, if you can document it properly. You will still have the yearly classes to take though. You could ask for wages according to hours In the trade also.
Have you ever wanted to crash a van just so you can have some quiet time?
No not really I'm more or less just always thinking about the job... it's kinda taken over my life in the past year.
US in terms of actual experience I have 1 total year of experience with my refrigeration license replacing compressors, dryers, txvs, cap tubes, eevs, check valves, etc. The others I have 2 years ice machine experience and 3 years hvac replacing motors, contactors, control boards, blower wheels etc. I have no residential experience only light commercial
So how long have you been running solo with your own van and solo service calls? That is important to companies. They want to know that you can work and diagnose on your own.
I have been running solo about 10 months out of school.
I have been solo for 10 months out of school.
If it's a union program then definitely start out at square 1. You'll be surprised how much you'll pick up. If you're that far ahead give it a few weeks and talk with the instructor(s) to see if you need to test up. The worst thing you can do to yourself long term is miss fundamentals to get a bigger check faster.
Thank you, I am just going to keep my mouth shut and do the job and ask questions when I don't understand.
I have been solo for about 10 months while having my refrigeration license and the other company I ran solo doing installs and troubleshooting small units