My mentor in the HVAC industry


I like to tell people that I was raised by “old school” parents, but this is just a nice way of saying they were strict and religious.

I was the oldest of three siblings, and the only boy.

My father openly told me that girls needed their father’s love, and boys only needed discipline. That was the sort of upbringing I had, where boys and girls were treated very differently. I was made to get a full time job in the construction business when I was 17, and ever since then I have worked for a living. Now I am employed by a local HVAC contractor, who has taken me under her wing and taught me things my parents never did. My father was shocked to hear that the HVAC contractor was a woman. Jenny is the sole owner of the company, and also the lead HVAC technician for all installation projects. To a caveman like Dad who thinks that the HVAC industry isn’t suitable for women, Jenny scares him! I am just glad she doesn’t hold his views against me, because she has become my mentor in the HVAC industry and I am learning so much from her. Jenny tells me that over the next few months she will start giving me solo HVAC projects to complete. As much as I like working side-by-side with Jenny, I know that I have to be able to handle tasks on my own. Who knows, maybe in a few years I will have enough experience to become an independent HVAC contractor myself.

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