u/mingee2020

So I promised a friend I’d bring some pulled pork to his birthday party today.

Last year he told me that his daughter, a 10 yo sometimes picky eater, absolutely loved the bbq. Like she couldn’t stop talking about or eating it.

So I was aiming to get it on around 5pm, but got called into work early. So I quickly loaded up our bge with Jealous Devil, started it with a torch, and got ready for work.

I quickly rubbed the butt, loaded it in, and had to leave. I hadn’t had a chance to dial in the temp or anything. So I asked if my wife could check in on it. I have to say, I’m just so proud and appreciative of my wife.

She’s never smoked a thing, but is a bge grill master. She got the temperature dialed in, and this is the wonderful butt I saw when I got home.

Now we’re 16 hours in and can’t wait to rip it up.

So I did HVAC Vocational school the last two years of high school, 1998-2000. I was second best in class, which was, admittedly, an extremely low bar, 50% of the guys were there to smoke weed in the parking lot and take massive hits of refrigerant whenever they could get away with it. Me and a couple other guys had our head on straight. The only other guy that was better than me, Dan, now owns and runs a successful HVAC company with his brother. I couldn’t be more stoked for him.

I only worked for an HVAC company for about 3 months after high school. I broke my hand riding BMX, quit, and never went back. A very fun, fast, but mis-spent 20’s-30’s followed. BMX, Partying, traveling, motorcycles, did a cross country solo unsupported 4,000 mile bicycle trip in my early 30’s, then came home and settled down.

So I took a 26 year break from the trade. Taking mostly dead end jobs, no real direction, literally I’ve had several dozen jobs, in many industries. I’ve left them all on good terms, and every one of them would hire me back if they could. I’ve had many side hustles, and the past 10 years I’ve been a stay at home dad.

The past week I’ve been working on updating my Universal EPA 608 certification. I passed it back in 2000, but even if I could find my card, which I have no idea where it is, I wouldn’t use it, I needed the refresher.

If you stuck it out this far, thanks.

I obviously have an absolute metric ton to learn/re-learn. But I love fixing things, and I like serving people.

My question is. Where do I start? I’m no longer the 19 year old boy that could crawl around crawl spaces and hang out in 150 degree attics for hours. I’m 45 years old and been out of the trade for close to 3 decades.

Should I get a job with a small outfit

or go with a big one that could find a place for me to fit within a larger organization?

In the coming weeks I’ll be hitting the streets getting my resume into some hands and I’m curious what your experience has been with larger and smaller firms.

TL; DR 45yo, wanting to get back into the trade after a 25 year break. Where to start?

Pork Butt, 7 hours into a smoke