I had my heart set on going to college, until I found out how much it cost to go to college.
- The teachers and counselors at school never mentioned that part, they just told me how important it was to develop my mind and lay the groundwork for a great career.
Once I started doing the research and saw how much it would cost me, I had to rethink things. No matter how valuable that education was, how could I afford to live when I would graduate with a hundred thousand dollars in debt? I looked at other options, and the trade school for HVAC certification program really caught my attention. A little market research showed me that the base starting pay for a new HVAC technician was remarkably high! An HVAC tech can start off making more than a teacher or a nurse, and it doesn’t require nearly as many years of education. HVAC work is a specialized skill set that you can study in a program at my local community college. You can’t learn it all in books and manuals, though, which is why HVAC students also work for a contractor to get some hands-on experience. Even more interesting to me than the starting pay, is that the demand for new HVAC techs has not gone down for years. In other words, HVAC technicians are in demand, and have been so for many years. In a volatile economy, it’s smart to find a job that is secure, and it seems that HVAC techs will be in high demand for many years to come.