Menu
What's new
Find's Treasure Forums

Welcome to Find's Treasure Forums, Guests!

You are viewing this forums as a guest which limits you to read only status.

Only registered members may post stories, questions, classifieds, reply to other posts, contact other members using built in messaging and use many other features found on these forums.

Why not register and join us today? It's free! (We don't share your email addresses with anyone.) We keep email addresses of our users to protect them and others from bad people posting things they shouldn't.

Click here to register!

Need Support Help?

Cannot log in?, click here to have new password emailed to you

Where Are You Located & What Do You Do For A Living?

Once again thanks to everybody for your support as well as hearing your stories and such. It's always nice to know that others have been there. Misery loves company so to speak.

I've got my resume up on several websites, including a few that are specific to the HVAC field such as hvac agent. Never heard a thing from any of these sites. Been sending my cover letter/resume to HVAC companies on Craig's List even though most of them want 5 years or more experience. Have an ad up on Craig's List as well stating that I'm willing to work for very little to gain experience in this field. Went through the yellow pages and sent cover letter/resume to all the HVAC companies that had a website listed. I have done some driving to companies to hand my cover letter/resume in by person. Dressed for a potential interview of course. Want to do more of that but it's hard to do when gas prices are so high and I don't have any steady money coming in.

I think my next step is to call companies one by one out of the yellow pages and ask if they hire HVAC grads with no experience. I'll mention that I'm either willing to work for free or at minimum wage to gain experience. Haven't figured out which way I'm going to go with that yet and need to get the words down for the phone calls before doing it.
 
SE Mich near A2. I convert my God given freedom into money by working as an electrician. Somehow the govt thinks they merrit a 40% piece of the action.
 
I live in South Texas near Corpus Christi. I am retired from teaching school for 32 years. Now I hunt, fish, metal detect, make knives and farm 220 acres.
 
I live in central FL. Forty years old and a Federal babysitter ( Correctional Officer ). Enjoy riding sportbikes. And plan on getting into deer hunting this year. I detect the local lake swimming holes , but get to the Gulf coast beaches every chance can.
 
I live in Metro Detroit and for the past 3 years have been selling new/used OEM auto parts. Most of my sales are online, so it leaves me with a fairly flexible schedule for my hobbies (Fishing, metal detecting and just about anything involving the water). Before getting into this business I owned a small landscaping company and spent a few Winters in Florida fishing (And occasionally working) on charter fishing boats.
 
=Ism]
SE Mich near A2. I convert my God given freedom into money by working as an electrician. Somehow the govt thinks they merrit a 40% piece of the action.[/quote]
 
I still may be able to go back to HVAC school. I visited two HVAC schools over the past few weeks. These schools are about twice as long as my school was (my school was 6 months). Funny thing is they don't offer all the industry certifications that I got at my school, which doesn't matter since I already have them. One of these schools I want to attend but not the other based on what I've heard about them. Besides getting more indepth education, I want to attend the one school because they placed 73% of their students this past year, which is pretty good in this economy.

The school I don't want to attend told me that even with the pell grant and a government backed student loan I would still not get enough to pay for the school. These government backed student loands are based on need and not credit history, and since I have no assets or income at the moment I should qualify for the full amount. They didn't enter my information or anything. It's just what the financial aid officer told me.

The school I want to attend is $7000 more expensive, yet their financial aid officer is telling me I would get enough money to pay for the school. Not only that, but he said that I would even get extra money for living expenses while going there. Currently rent and food is being provided by family but I would need gas money to attend this school. He told me that many of their students are getting enough to pay for the school and living expenses. This is with the same pell grant ($6000) and government backed student loan I would get. It's the same grant/loan that the other school said wouldn't be enough.

Not sure who to believe here, so I'm heading back to this school next week to fill out the FAFSA form (a government financial aid form) to apply for the pell grant and the government backed student loan. I just hope I can get enough money like this guy is saying. Just don't understand why one school is telling me I wouldn't, while the school that costs more is telling me I will.

Anybody have any experience this this sort of stuff that can give me some insight? I really hope it's true and that I can get enough money to pay for this school. Enough to pay for it and enough left over for gas money is all I'd need.
 
I live in central Va. Worked in industrial maintenance in some form for the past 12 years. After the last company that had been around for about 30 years went belly up I was looking for a job for about 2 years. The problem was that companies could hire engineers to what I was doing and they would gladly take jobs they would have turned down just a year earlier. That's when I noticed a profession that is in demand with good benefits the pay isn't great but it is fairly secure. Well I talked it over with the wife and now I'm in law enforcement. Never thought I would be doing this, but I enjoy the work and the people I work with.
 
Just because you have a degree will not guaranty a job in that field. The one school says they have a 73% job placement also don't say that they are all in the field of their schooling and can be most anything as many will tell you. I went back to school when I was 36 back in 1984 for Electronic servicing and was told the job placement was great with the school only to find out that this meant that the percent was those that were working, not those in the field they went to school for. Just something you want to think about.
Now what I did was went though vocational rehab as I had been in the tire service for 13 years and my back, ears and leg were so bad I knew I had to change to a different job. My wife did some checking to see about vocational rehab and see if I qualified and we did the paper work and medical exams and was told about the Pell Grant and with the vocational rehab would pay the tuition and the books needed for the course plus was enough to sign up for the food plan, so I had lunch and supper and found a sleeping room off campus as I lived 55 miles away from the school and went home on weekend to the family. Now this didn't cover my home expenses so I took out a student loan for $2500 a year for the 2 year course to pay my house payment, light bill and food. I was able to do work study at the school in the computer lab 4 evenings a week at $2 a hour and when I went home on Friday nights and came back on Sunday, but on Saturday I worked at a tire shop for 4 hours to pay for the gas going to and from school as I drove a Pinto so at that time I got $18 every Saturday for the gas and had enough if I wanted to have a few sodas or coffee as everything else was covered.
I was able to get heating assistance, but no food stamps as they said I had too many vechiles in my name as those I had junked out were still in my name, so my wife was a good shopper and used coupons and we made it. Now is when I found that because I had a diploma didn't guaranty me a job, I was sent some leads with most wanting experience which I had only working on TVs for myself and others, but not enough to help. Even the state Job service was of no help and like you went out and put some application in where ever I though my training would help, but no luck getting called in for a interview. I started a TV repair shop in the front of my house and was able to survive until my folks offered me their business as they wanted to retire, so 25 years ago my wife and myself became owners of a small town bar and cafe which we still do now.
The help is out there if you want to go to school, but they may only pay for the books and tuition and you will have to take on part time jobs to pay your own personal expenses in order to go to school. If you are Veteran I know you can get help too as one of my classmates was in the AF and got disabled and he and his family was being taken care of while he was in school.
Even though I didn't get a job for what i trained for and had to pay back a $5000 student loan I chalk it up as being a great life experience and one of my daughter was going to the same school I was at the same time, only she was in accounting which helped her out to get a start.
I was told by many and I am sure it is still the same, but never call a company looking for a job, or E Mail one either, but be presentable and go right into the company when you ask if they are hiring, many have got hired on the spot as it shows they are aggressive and not lazy sitting at home on a computer or phone.

Good luck Critterhunter.


Rick
 
Rick, great story. Thanks for sharing. I know what you mean about the job placement statistics but while I was at the school I noticed a large board on the wall with pictures of all the graduates this past year. I noted the names of the companies they had listed under them that hired them. I could remember about four of those company names and have applied to them as it shows they are willing to hire HVAC graduates with no experience. I want more than anything to make this my profession, so I'm willing to "risk" going to the school and taking my chances with getting a job when I get out. They also have a career services center which works to find you a job while you are still attending school there.

I've got a small story for you too. A couple years back my Uncle became ill and he had me mowing his grass (about 3 to 4 acres), running errands for him, and so on. Some times he would pay me for doing this to cover my gas money and some times he would not. For instance, he paid me $40 to mow his grass, which took me the better part of the day with all the weedwacking, push mower work, etc. I wasn't doing it for the money, but rather because I knew he had nobody else to help him.

He had no kids. It was also said over the years that when he passed away the estate would be split five ways among my brothers and sisters. He told my one brother this on a number of occasions. Turns out it wasn't spelled out that way in his will. My oldest brother and oldest sister were named in the will as in charge of the estate. Split 5 ways it would have been over $77,000 a piece.

What do you think my own brother and sister did? Since it wasn't spelled out in the will that the estate was to be split among us, they kept it all. They didn't even tell us but rather had a lawyer send us a letter in the mail. Both of them have good jobs and didn't need the money as badly as my one sister and I did, and my other brother was going to put his daughter through college with his share. My one sister is living out of the country and wants desperately to come home and start a new life for her self. She could have done that with the money. Myself...I of course could have used my share to pay off my bills and not have to file bankruptcy, and still would have had enough left over to go to this school. None of this mattered to them.

What have they done with that money? A new Mustang GT, two Harley motorcycles, gambling trips to Vegas, and so on. They don't give two sh&ts about what happens to the rest of us. Needless to say my one brother and I haven't talked to either one of them since we figured out what they were going to do to us. I would never had done something like that to them.

I know because I was put in a position one time to sue somebody worth millions of dollars when his drunk farm hand caused us to wreck on his property. I ended up with a large piece of wood that went through my arm and had to have surgery for it. I couldn't even work for weeks. I had a friend of the family who is a lawyer try to talk me into suing him. He said he would do it for no cost unless we won and said I could easily get close to a million dollars out of the accident.

I didn't sue because I wouldn't be able to enjoy that money. It would have been dirty money even though by law I was probably entitled to it. That's the reason why I know I wouldn't have been able to do this to my own brothers and sisters. I have friends that treat me better than they did. Just because they are flesh and blood doesn't mean I'm obligated to be friends with them or make them part of my life. As far as my one brother and I are concerned they don't even exist to us anymore.

This would have been life changing money for us, not just used for some dumb toys and trips to have fun.
 
I live near Blacksburg Va. out in the county. Looking out my window in front of my house the mountain that is a few miles away. On the other side is WV. Live on a dirt road. As a kid I grew up in Myrtle Beach S.C. in the 50's and 60's. We owned one of the first hotels on the south in. That was a great time and place to be a kid growing up.
As far as what I did for a living. I worked with Pepsi Cola for 30 years. I covered the state of Va. and part of Tenn. managed around $13,000,000 in sales. But now at the age of 65 I am retired. Working harder than ever with a couple gardens in the summer and getting to fish for small mouth bass in the New River and salt water fishing at the coast. But my first hobby is metal detecting. I spend about six weeks a year on the coast of S.C. and N.C. hunting and a couple times a year go relic hunting at a paid hunt in Va. called Diggin In Va. now working part time in the spring for Scott's. Living the Dream!!!!!!!
 
I live on the Treasure coast of FL. Been a Plumber for 25 years. Get to the beach when ever I get some free time.
 
I live in Southern New Jersey, Married with 3 boys. I work for the State of New Jersey as a Lieutenant for NJDOC for 17 years. I hunt the beaches and use Minelab GT and Excal. I picked up an 705 and am looking to get into some dirt hunting.
 
Critter it's nice to know your still around. I live in NJ and I am a retired police office and insurance investigator. I usually hunt the beaches in NJ and local baseball and soccer fields. I also collect social security and work a part time job. I help my kids by watching my grand children. I never have enough time for detecting. When I do get out I have not found anything worth talking about.
 
Hi,

Retired cop living in SC. Love detecting beaches at night. Had a few threatening situations over the years
but it's the price I pay for avoiding sunburns.
BTW, I know a few promising Civil War sites based on research. The problem is getting permission from the owners.
What I need is a used car salesman for a partner....because he wouldn't be bashful about asking for permission whereas I am.
Oh, well, You don't need permission to hunt beaches.
I included a picture of my best 2 beach finds...found within six months of eachother.

EL Pulltabio
 
You ever think of going to area churches and volunteering to do some HVAC maintenance for them, on the side? You would be able to list that as experience and every little bit of experience would contribute to that 5 years needed thing.
 
Calibration Technician for the Biotech and Pharmaceutical industry.
 
Severna Park off season home, Hunt the Chesapeake Bay during that time, then my First summer living at the beach, OCMD, June 1st to Oct 1st 2014, 33rd street. First full year of retirement, pension and SS I'm Blessed I don't have to work. Off season I do testing on the Minelab Excalibur just to pass the winter months, Dec 1st to March 1st

Miss reading your Post Critter...........
 
I used to live in the beautiful Texas Hill country. I used to have an A/C and electrical sevice company until about 3 months ago when I closed it down and went to work in the oil patch in Odessa TX. No water around here to detect in. I used to hunt the swimmen hole around my home and hit Port A when I could get time off.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top