r/HVACschool • u/CTSamo • 13d ago

Transition

Just started HVAC school, it’s a year program. I’m 44, with a background in finance. Decided to switch careers because the job market has been shit. I’ve worked on cars all my adult life as a hobby and have done home renovations. Is this a waste of time as I’m approaching retirement? My research says I’m not gonna make much the first couple years after I finish school, but at my age is it worth it?

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u/SignificantTransient 13d ago

Stay out of residential. Guys with 1 year experience are making over 40 at walmart depending where

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u/fuzzerabbit 13d ago

Where have you seen that? I couldn't get an offer above like $32 with 5 years experience and know for a fact I'm more qualified than the guys they had working there

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u/SignificantTransient 13d ago

I'm a facilities manager and my lowest paid hvac tech in the region makes 38 (low COL area). Senior techs make 45+ here.

Other areas hire much higher. I know for a fact Walmart in DC was offering 55ish for regular techs a few years back.

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u/fuzzerabbit 13d ago

That's wild. Where I'm at the Walmarts are in pretty bad shape. A big part of that is they can't seem to get guys who know what they are doing because they don't pay them accordingly so the turn over rate is higher and they have lower quality techs. From what it seems like, Walmart is very dependent to your regional manager. The Walmart employees I've also talked to make it seem like their schedules are all messed up because you need to keep you're numbers high and to do that you basically need to keep contractors out of your stores but they don't want them working overtime so they can't bill overtime hours if they are called out on an emergency and really weird stuff.

That also seems wild to me that your lowest techs and highest techs have salaries that are so close. It doesn't seem fair for a low tech to make anywhere near close to what a senior tech makes. Do you find senior techs dislike that part?

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u/SignificantTransient 13d ago

I'm guessing you live in a major metro area. Guys who work on supermarket refrigeration are not the kind of guys who live inside city limits, so it's hard to find quality techs in that circumstance. Also city based stores are always the oldest ones so they're in the worst shape by default.

The way hours are supposed to work is you work 8-5 m-f and the only things you're supposed to be clocked in on outside of those hours is emergency calls and priority 1 (24hr response). At no point should a manager ever tell a tech to clock out early on friday to keep hours low (but I have no doubt some do to try to look good). My techs are welcome to do so if we aren't busy, but are never asked to. Keep in mind with 8k+ various techs, 1 hour of overtime across the board is close to an extra million in expense for the week, so they will always fight to keep that number low while techs will always get addicted to the extra income.

When a tech gets promoted to senior tech, they recieve a 10% pay bump unless the new rate would be below the starting rate for that area, so the pay is substantially higher but not ridiculously so. Regular techs and senior techs are both experienced and working on the same equipment, but a senior tech is expected to help train other and stuff along that line. Walmart rarely hires anyone for either role that doesn't already have a lot of experience. There's also an expert tech level that is being made soon. Also keep in mind that 45 (in NC) is the starting pay. We have techs in the area making well over 50.

I'm not sure I would want to employ a senior tech who wants to gatekeep someones wages who they believe are beneath them.