last year when I was having a tough time in m career, I posted this blog post about some co-workers at the time who were being decidedly competitive with me on the job.
Its funny how much things can change in a year's time. I'm working in a completely different environment now. I have finally found a place where I don't feel like I have to know everything. I don;t feel like I have someone chomping at the bit to prove me wrong. As a matter of fact, I've been experiencing a bit of the opposite effect. I feel like I can actually admit that there are people better than me.
The thing about this trade is that even within the HVAC business, there are specialties. At one time, you were just an HVAC guy, and you could reasonably be expected to work on anything and everything in the field. These days, like many other industries, HVAC techs are getting to the point where they can't know everything in the field. There are rooftop guys, and chiller guys, and data center guys... and now VRV (variable refrigerant volume) specialists, and start-up techs- there are so many technologies out there that it would be impossible to know everything.
So, I'm finding that at this company, these guys have become comfortable with sharing knowledge with each other, and admitting they don't know everything- and i have to admit that it's kinda nice. We have a design engineer in the office so I don't feel like I'm up against the wall for system layout and design. We have a guy who is really good on refrigeration and knows "vapor-compression" really well. We have a guy who knows controls well, and a couple of rooftop guys, who I'll admit know more about Trane rooftops than I do.
I have always been a "whole industry" kind of guy, so I never really focused on any one particular brand or type of system- and I'm finding that as I get older, my patience for learning new stuff is waning, so I'm probably never going to be a "specialist" on any one particular aspect of this business. I have a state master license, I know my stuff, and for once I'm starting to feel like I'm good with what I know, and I have some guys I can call if I run into something which I'm not familiar.
Wednesday, February 01, 2012
Saturday, December 31, 2011
xbox update
So, the short version of the story is that I've given up on a fix, and I'm putting the broken boxes on ebay. We bought a refurb at Best Buy for $199 with a two year warranty.
here's the listings
I'm also selling a few other things, take a look!
Maybe we can get one of these later this year...
here's the listings
I'm also selling a few other things, take a look!
Maybe we can get one of these later this year...
Monday, December 26, 2011
2011 in review- 4 jobs in 12 months
2011 has been a weird year for me in terms of my career. I started out the year working for some friends of mine, and one day in early February they decided to close up shop. Luckily a friend of mine had been talking about coming to work with their company, so I had a place to go.
This next company was an 8A contractor, and although I am honestly grateful for the job, I spent several months doing some VERY manual labor, and I came to realize that I'm not the young man I once was. I don't mind a little hard work, but hard work every day is a different story. I enjoyed the work I was doing, and I liked most of the people with whom I was working, I just found that the type of work I was doing was very grueling, and that I really wasn't doing what they originally hired me to do. The thing that really killed it for me was that they didn't offer company benefits, and I really needed to get some kind of health insurance.
Another opportunity came along with a mechanical contractor out of Glen Burnie, MD, and I took a management position with their company. I soon found that I was going to be spending quite a bit of time fixing a bunch of jobs and projects that had been completely mis-managed.
I talked my dad into coming on board with me, and we found ourselves up to our eyeballs in screw-ups. I finally got fed up, and sent a candid, honest email to the owner in which I outlined several things that I saw as problems in management, and he decided the next day to shut down the department and send us all packing. Maybe I should have kept my mouth shut and let the mismanagement continue until a time of my choosing. I'm not sure, but whatever the reason, it was a strange run that ended abruptly.
I finally landed with the company where I work now, and it has been like a breath of fresh-air. They are a big enough company where they can offer benefits, and they are in a well-defined market where I have been able to thrive and work on my skills in troubleshooting and service.
The other good news is that they have decided to promote me to account rep after the first of the year, so I'll soon be back to a desk jockey job after rockin' a field position for the last two years.
Lessons learned: 1. I need enough humility in my life to realize that I shouldn't think of trying to run my own company for quite a few years, but 2. despite my miserable failures, there are people out there who have managed to be dumber than I am.
I'm really hoping that this will be my job for the long haul, and that now I can get back to focusing on family, life, and some of the other things I have been wanting to do for some time. I spent so much time this year pre-occupied with career and work, and I'm really hoping that in the coming year I can get back to a more balanced life.
This next company was an 8A contractor, and although I am honestly grateful for the job, I spent several months doing some VERY manual labor, and I came to realize that I'm not the young man I once was. I don't mind a little hard work, but hard work every day is a different story. I enjoyed the work I was doing, and I liked most of the people with whom I was working, I just found that the type of work I was doing was very grueling, and that I really wasn't doing what they originally hired me to do. The thing that really killed it for me was that they didn't offer company benefits, and I really needed to get some kind of health insurance.
Another opportunity came along with a mechanical contractor out of Glen Burnie, MD, and I took a management position with their company. I soon found that I was going to be spending quite a bit of time fixing a bunch of jobs and projects that had been completely mis-managed.
I talked my dad into coming on board with me, and we found ourselves up to our eyeballs in screw-ups. I finally got fed up, and sent a candid, honest email to the owner in which I outlined several things that I saw as problems in management, and he decided the next day to shut down the department and send us all packing. Maybe I should have kept my mouth shut and let the mismanagement continue until a time of my choosing. I'm not sure, but whatever the reason, it was a strange run that ended abruptly.
I finally landed with the company where I work now, and it has been like a breath of fresh-air. They are a big enough company where they can offer benefits, and they are in a well-defined market where I have been able to thrive and work on my skills in troubleshooting and service.
The other good news is that they have decided to promote me to account rep after the first of the year, so I'll soon be back to a desk jockey job after rockin' a field position for the last two years.
Lessons learned: 1. I need enough humility in my life to realize that I shouldn't think of trying to run my own company for quite a few years, but 2. despite my miserable failures, there are people out there who have managed to be dumber than I am.
I'm really hoping that this will be my job for the long haul, and that now I can get back to focusing on family, life, and some of the other things I have been wanting to do for some time. I spent so much time this year pre-occupied with career and work, and I'm really hoping that in the coming year I can get back to a more balanced life.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)