Work Life balance at the start.

20 year old, doing an apprenticeship in Germany (2nd year). The balance is definetly more work than life. I've worked over 60 hours a week in customer service in summer and spend lots of weeks for assembly in hotels on distance to my home. The job and career chances are well, but you have to be on fire for the job

Well, it all depends what you find. Some companies will work you like a dog, some others understand that life is important. I think starting out no matter what will be a little more on the work side. Lots of training and learning. You will more than likely start riding a long with someone and it depends how they are as well. And when you are first on your own jobs will take you longer for sure. I remember jobs i did on my first 9 months solo that took me 1-3+ hours, but if i did them now with the skills and troubleshooting i have learned they would be an hour tops.

Work life balance jobs are out there. Then again i hear if you become a supermarket refrigeration tech, you will be out working and on call all the time. But the money you will be making should be good.

Sincerely, A light commercial refrigeration service technician

It depends on a lot of things, like your location and the company you get hired by. I’ll tell you my experience, I started refrigeration 2 years ago when I was 33 years old. Married with 3 year old and 1 year old and a house. Didn’t know a lick of refrigeration or service work, learned everything on the job and my own time. I made the switch from a retail job that I wasn’t happy at, spent some time thinking about what I enjoyed and what I was good at and problem solving was what I came up with, I always liked math and science in school for that reason. Had a family connection to the refrigeration company I work for and met with the owner. He did a great job of explaining what they do and the skills need to do the job and it seemed like a great fit. He also did a good job showing what the compensation would be, showed starting hourly wage estimated hours worked in winter/summer plus bonuses and then showed here’s what a tech with 4-5 years experience is making and here is a tech with 8-10 years so you really know what to expect.

My experience with pay is, they have moved me along very well. I picked it up well and try to tackle what ever they give to me, right now I’m getting paid in the 4-5 year range. Because I have potential and good work ethic and good tech are hard to come by. Life and work can be hard to balance sometimes. Luckily my company doesn’t do any big grocery store work. Summer time you get 50-55 hrs winter is 45-50 and I’m on call once every 7 weeks. I just have to remind my wife that some of the late nights and being gone on weekends is part of the job.

Honestly man you’re gonna have a hard time with work/life balance in refrigeration. This is the place where we have to work on call, I’d say the average company rotation is every 3-6 weeks. Getting called out in the middle of the night, you won’t make good money for at least a few years, might not even see 25hr again for 2-3 years. I don’t know what to tell you, but it’s going to be a rough ride for you. We have an older guy who’s an apprentice where I work, it worked for him because he already had a job that was paying less than the lowest apprentice rate and he already has a house with a mortgage and doesn’t have kids. I couldn’t imagine starting out again with a baby at home

I don’t know how Canada works tbh. I started supermarket in PA and worked mostly 40 hour weeks in winter and 70-90 hour weeks in summer. USD pay in 2014 was $20 an hour

Oddly enough, I moved to NC which has a lower COL but higher wages. I did some more supermarket with more reasonable hours but less professional employers.

Finally I settled into a job at a major agricultural plant overseeing maintenance on big chillers and air washer systems. I am on call every 9 weeks and get about 2 calls a year. Regular 40 hours plus benefits and occasional project overtime (I.E. this needs fixed when production is down on a saturday). Pay here is over $30 USD now so I an gonna ride this place out I think. Also I had 12 years in supermarket before coming here but they have hired new people with nothing but basic HVAC experience so it’s not exactly elite.

Anyhow, the jobs are out there. Just have to find them. In supermarket your first 5 years will be quite rough. You’re going to spend a lot of that time driving though so it’s not like you’re killing yourself doing the job. After 5 years and a comfortable skill level, you’ll be good to look for a nice cushy spot.

Most of my career has has been an HVAC not refrigeration. Either way you’re gonna have to go to some kind of vocational school. They’re not gonna give you $25 an hour to start out unless you are extremely lucky and somebody knows you something like that. There will be days you will regret doing it hit the trade and be days that you love it. Right now I’m going through the hate part again because it seems like everything I touched is turning to shit but then there’s times that area touch turns to gold. Looking for a refrigerant leaks is probably the worst thing in the whole business. You’ll have to get really good with electrical the refrigeration part is easy to pick up. Not every vocational school is the same some are a joke some are very good. I taught the trade for a while in Reno Nevada at night at the union hall and at local community college when they were needing extra staff