Jonathan Bivens is an HVAC technician at Air Texas Mechanical. Watch this video as he explains how he discovered this career and why he’s so happy he did!
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After high school I was struggling to find a career that would provide for my family and also give me a good quality of life. I bounced around trying to find the next best thing. When I finally sat down and listened to my uncle, Robert, he convinced me just to go and have a conversation with the school and listen to what they had to offer.
After listening to him, I quickly enrolled — and I have listened to him ever since. He has guided me in all of my life decisions, work and home related. I don't know if I'd be this far in this field without him.
In my relatively short career in HVAC, I have started from the bottom step. Since then, I have worked my way up the ladder, and am now working on larger tonnage and problematic jobs.
In the future, I hope to have a bigger role as well with more responsibilities thrown my way.
In this industry, some of the benefits that I personally enjoy are the ability to be home every day. I have a family that is very important to me.
We also have great insurance. We have a company gas card and a company vehicle that's provided — transportation to and from the worksite to home every day. There's also plenty of room for growth and development.
This industry is growing rapidly. I do not think that we have near the workforce we need to compete with the growth [in the industry.] I think the technological advances that they are coming out with — every day, every year — are just going to keep putting us farther behind unless we get more qualified technicians to enter our field.
I would tell [someone starting out in this job] to be patient with the time you need to put in. Try to learn every day! If you treat this as a career instead of a job, it will pay off tremendously.
