Graduate Connections – Meet Manuel (Manny) Rubio

Manny, 30, a hometown guy from Phoenix, Arizona, completed the Refrigeration Technologies program at RSI back in October 2019. 

Thanks for your time, Manny; what did you do in the years after high school before coming to RSI?

After high school, I dabbled in community college. I was curious to see what I was into. I wanted to go for law enforcement, but I didn’t do very well; I just didn’t like the setting. After that I bounced around from being a manager in a fast-food place to working warehouse jobs. That’s pretty much what I did until I decided to go to RSI in 2019. 

So, where did the idea of HVAC or going to RSI come from?

My uncle. He went to RSI a couple of years before me. He pushed education and how important it was for me to do better in my life. I saw how well he was doing; he’s got his own business and is having a blast. I decided to go and talk to RSI and give it a try. It sounded like a good career path to follow, and I wouldn’t be broke!

Did you have any HVAC or electrical experience at all?

None, I was 100% green. I actually didn’t like hard labor or anything like that. I’d rather be in the AC all day!  

In the AC all day, how’s that working out for you! What did you enjoy most about your time at RSI?

I would say the people I met, because I’m still really close to a lot of them today. Also, the teachers because everybody at that school cares about your success. I never once felt like anybody was like, “ah, you’re fine!” Everybody at RSI made it their mission to make sure you had success.

Being new to this field, did you have difficulties or frustrations on the program? 

I had to really work for it. It was hard for me; I’m not going to sugarcoat it. I’m someone who has to touch something to learn it. I needed to see the actual equipment to get it. So, It was hard for me. I know it was probably easy for a lot of guys, but for me, I struggled a lot. But I put in the work to get where I’m at now.

Did you ever consider quitting, or is that not in your nature? 

I did, actually, twice. The first time was in phase one; I didn’t think I was going to be able to understand any of this. My uncle was the one who told me I had to keep going and it would start to make sense. The second time was phase five, furnaces. My wife, who was my girlfriend at the time, told me, “Sure it’s hard, but it’s going to pay off, you’ve got to stick with it.” Ironically, as much as I didn’t like that class, I’m really good at furnaces now! So, honestly, yeah…I thought about quitting twice. After that I was l locked in. I had everyone at school and at home rooting for me, so I had a support system to keep me going, which was important.

Did you work while at school?

Yes, I did warehouse work. I worked three 12s on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. I went to RSI in the evenings. In those days, night classes were Monday through Thursday and the program took about nine months at night.

You graduated in October 2019. Tell us about your career since. How did you get started? 

I got hired right away. We were two or three weeks into my last phase when one guy got hired at Chas Roberts. He told everybody about Chas, so everybody who was still looking went to Chas Roberts. I went into the Warranty Service Department, and I stayed there for about a year before I shipped over to Parker & Sons for another year. My goal was to do two years working residential, no matter what. After that I jumped into low temp work for a short while, maybe six or seven months.

Can you explain what “low temp” is?

It’s basically servicing and repairing equipment. I worked on ice machines, walk-in coolers, reach-in coolers, basically refrigerators and freezers. I enjoyed it, actually I loved it, but what they don’t tell you about low temp is that it’s very demanding, especially if you’re married and have kids – and at that point I was married, and we’d had our first kid. I thought, “I love this, but I would rather be home for my family.”

Why is it so demanding?

There’s a lot of on-call work, but there’s also quite a bit of pressure. When a freezer goes down, there’s probably like $20k of product in there. You have to fix it or that product is wasted. You can’t say it’s late, I’ll be back tomorrow! You have to stay and get it done.

I see how that makes sense. What did you do from there? 

I actually worked at Spectrum Mechanical with people I went to RSI with. I was doing HVAC work on new commercial construction sites. A guy I went to RSI with was the manager of the department I worked in, and one of my other classmates was my lead tech. I was there for about a year but decided that the construction side was not for me. I don’t want to say it was boring, but there was a lot of, “Oh, it’s the electrician’s fault” or “Oh, your eight hours are up, we’ve got to go because of budget.” That wasn’t for me. It was really fun to work with those guys again because I hadn’t seen them since school, but it wasn’t for me. 

So, that’s brings us to where you are now… 

For the past year or so I’ve been working for Lennox National Account Services, I’m the lead tech here now; they promoted me about six months after I got here. Lennox is a manufacturer, and NAS is the HVAC service division for multi-location commercial businesses. I do maintenance like changing filters, turn it on/off, making sure everything’s working. We have service calls when units don’t work. That’s all the basic stuff. Then we have EMS, BMS, or Novar systems, which are building automation systems. Everything is tied into this big old system that can see every unit, every sensor, in the building. I do pretty much everything here.

When you started in the field fresh out of school, were you happy with the money you made?

So funnily enough, and I’ll say now that Chas Roberts pays way better now than it did when I started, I was actually making the same hourly that I did at the warehouse, so it was not a step up. But I did get a hefty raise after a while because I showed them that I knew what I was doing. But I did double my salary because I went from $20k to $40k, so that was a big step up because there was plenty of work and plenty of hours.

Five years into your career, I’m sure you’re reaping the financial rewards now.

Yeah, I’m absolutely reaping the rewards. I’ve got a house, my family’s taken care of. I think it’s important that RSI students realize that when they come into the field, it takes a few years to get to this level. It’s different for everyone though. If you go straight into refrigeration or even low temp, you’re going to make big bucks sooner, especially if you don’t have a family to get home to. But for us HVAC guys, it can take a little while; you’ve got to learn your way into it because it’s all different and you’ve got to prove your worth.

Congratulations! What’s the plan from here then, Manny?

I love Lennox. It checks all the boxes for me right now. I can see my future here. I actually went back to RSI last week to see how we could go about hiring some RSI graduates. It was a real nostalgia trip! Long term, I’d love to make it into management here one day. I’ve had discussions that whenever a position comes available, or if I can learn something new, I’d like to take that opportunity, but I know it probably won’t be for another ten years or so, when I’m like, “Oh, my back hurts!”

What do you enjoy most about this trade? 

The ability to solve problems and that we get to be outside and not at a desk. I get to go places and figure out why things aren’t working. It’s a good feeling when you figure something out.

What advice do you have for new students to be successful at RSI? 

My advice would be to dig in and keep any negativity away from you. Don’t listen to what people are saying. You’re going to hear peers say, “Oh, it’s too hard, I should quit.” It’s going to come from somebody negative in the class. It’s not a bad thing, we’ve all been there, but if you put your time in, if you study and work with your teachers, you’ll succeed. A lot of teachers would stay late to help me or my fellow classmates. Hard study and your teachers are going to be your best friends. But that is what you need to succeed at RSI.

If you’re an RSI graduate and would like to share your success and be an inspiration to others, please email [email protected] to be considered for a Graduate Connection interview. Please include details such as your graduation date (month/year) and program.