A local Aire Solutions technician received national recognition at the ServiceTitan HVAC National Championship last month.
Auston Pickard has worked for Aire Solutions for five years. This year he earned his NATE certification — a stamp of approval from HVACR collective North American Technician Excellence — and was invited to compete in an online, multi-round HVAC proficiency test. Out of thousands of other technicians, Pickard was one of 15 selected to attend the ServiceTitan championship in Tampa, Florida.
Though he did not make it to the top three, ServiceTitan nationally featured Pickard’s story of pushing through obstacles
Pickard joined Aire Solutions after a stint of factory work, and he almost left after only three months.
“I hated the crawlspaces and stuff,” he said in a ServiceTitan interview. However, learning his wife was pregnant with their first child motivated him to stick with it, and he has since ways around his problem.
Initially, he was “coming out of those crawlspaces covered in webs,” he said, “...Then they (my coworkers) started saying, ‘How about you clear the webs out first?’ And it made sense, and now I just deal with it.”
Today he enjoys the chance to help people at all times of the year.
“We’re providing a service, and they’re willing to pay for that service and have us come down and have them fixed up. So they’re not suffering, they’re not uncomfortable.”
Today Pickard and his wife have two children, Alivia and Alexis, ages four and two, and he is grateful to have a job with many opportunities to learn.
“If you’re willing to learn, they’re willing to train you,” Pickard said.
Aire Solutions President Tim Funke agreed, adding a flexible skill set is an advantage in the HVAC industry.
“You know, if you’ve got an HVAC background, that’s great, but we’re so willing to take just good people,” he said. “It is technical. I mean, we’re dealing with computer boards, circuit boards, electronics, that’s a huge part of our business today.”
Aire Solutions is located at 1405 S. Broadway St. in Poplar Bluff. For more information, contact them at 573-785-1500 or visit airesolutions.net.