In 2023, I quit my dream job to attend the National RV Training Academy. I came home and immediately started my own mobile RV repair business. February marks one year since I graduated from the NRVTA, so I thought I would talk about whether it was worth it. Today, I'm going to go through the pros, the cons, whether or not I thought it was worth it, and then some tips for you if you're considering going to the NRVTA.

My name is Emily. I've been a certified RV repair tech for one year now, and this is RV Repair Woman.

It is really hard to find people talking about this program on the internet that isn't sponsored by or directly from the Big Red Barn itself. So today, that's what I'm doing.

Overview

First, I just want to give a quick overview of what the NRVTA is and what programs I took there, just so you know where I'm coming from. The National RV Training Academy is a program held out of Athens, Texas, that teaches technicians and inspectors specifically how to work on and inspect RVs. They have a bunch of different offerings there. I personally took the five-week certified tech course and then stayed for two additional weeks to learn about solar and generators. Those are each week-long programs.

Other things that they offer include becoming an inspector, which is a three-week-long program if you're doing just that. You're going to take the first week of fundamentals, which pretty much everybody takes. It's the same fundamentals class that I took as a certified tech. In fact, there were people in my fundamentals class that then went on to become just inspectors. Then you have two weeks of just learning how to be an inspector, learning the software, learning how to inspect an RV, and going around and doing practice inspections. I can't speak to the inspector program because I didn't do it, but that is something they offer that you can do just to become an inspector, or you can become a dual tech and inspector. I do know people that stayed, I believe, for 10 weeks, so they stayed for the full five that I did to become an inspector, plus the two I also did to learn about solar and generators. I believe they make you take a week off, thank God, in between, and then you come back and you can take two more weeks to be an inspector.

And then, if you just want to learn a little bit about how RVs work, you can come for just one week. Basically, you just take the first week of fundamentals, and then you can take a test at the end to become a registered tech.

I personally stayed for the five weeks to become a certified tech, and then I stayed for two additional weeks to learn about solar and generators. I'll just give you a quick overview of what that looks like. The first week is the fundamentals week, and if you have watched any content about the NRVTA, you will know that that week is a fire hose of information. And I know I sound like everyone else talking about this program, it's true, haha. That week is basically just teaching you the basics of electricity. So, you're learning about voltage, amperage, resistance, continuity, and capacitance. You're learning how to use your multimeter. If you took Physics 101 at any point, you're essentially learning the entire electronics section of a physics class in one week. And it goes quick, and it's a lot to take in, especially if you have not worked with electricity in a while. It's gonna be a lot. I had worked with electronics on and off in my last job before I came to the NRVTA. I had taken essentially Physics 101 oh my god, truly an accountable number of times because I kept changing schools and worked with small circuits and soldered things and wired things up for my last job. Oh, I was also there with my dad who is a retired science teacher for high school. He had taught Physics 101 and had taught this basic curriculum, and I had him there at nights to be able to bounce information off of, and I still found that first week overwhelming. I don't say this to try to convince you to not do it and that you're not going to get the content. I say it more in a comforting way, like if you are sitting in that first week going, "Oh my God, my brain is very full and I am overwhelmed," everyone is. It's okay, you're gonna get there. At least for me, once I got more hands-on, things really started sticking, but it is a lot of information just to get thrown at you.

Editing Emily here. I just want to make this point clear because I reference it later in the video. I did this program with my parents, haha. I moved in with my parents into a 25-foot Class A for two months in order to take this program. Fun experience, highly recommend if you've got a great relationship with your parents. Who else wouldn't kill to get to spend 7 weeks learning a new skill with their dad? Super fun. My dad and I now run separate RV repair businesses, his based in Oregon, mine based in Las Vegas. My dad and I took the full 7 weeks together, and my mom joined us for the first week so she could become a registered tech, so she could answer the phone and answer people's basic questions to help support my dad and I. I just want to make that clear because I reference it later, and I know that's not how most people go through the NRVTA. And also, just something to think about when I'm talking later about being homesick, I was very much in a living situation that was outside of my norm. I normally live in a full-size house with my boyfriend. So, okay, back to the video.

Things to know before going into that fundamentals week: It is a lot of sitting, and they try to do little breakout labs and make it as engaging as possible, but just know that is a lot of sitting at a desk and taking notes. I personally had to go stand in the back of the classroom quite a bit and just, like, stand up and pace and walk, and they were very nice and allowed me to do that. I am someone who has shaped my career around not sitting at a desk for hours on end, and so sitting at a desk and taking notes for, you know, 8 hours a day just wasn't something my body and my mind were prepped for. But they very nicely allowed me to stand in the back. I stood and took notes every now and again, a TA would come check on me and just be like, "Hey, how you doing?" I'd be like, "I'm great, I'm fine, I just... my back needed to stand, I needed to move and wiggle and not be in anybody's way." And they're like, "Cool, you do your thing, as long as you're happy." Like, "Yeah, I'm happy." But yeah, just know, my mom and I had brought games and hobbies and projects that we were going to do in the evenings, and that whole first week, we were coming back to the RV and just crashing, absolutely crashing. We would have dinner and then just, like, pass the fuck out. Your brain is just working on overdrive, just trying to take everything in.

Things are gonna calm down. It is not this, like, deluge of information the whole time where you just feel like you're white-knuckling it trying to take it all in. After that first week, you then go into appliance-specific classes. So, for me, the next week was air conditioners, the week after that was fridges, I then had water heaters and furnaces (they group those two together into one 'cause they're pretty similar), and then I had exterior systems. You then take your certified test, become a certified tech, and then after that, I again stayed for two additional weeks, one to learn about solar and one to learn about generators.

Pros

For the prose section, I thought we would hang out with Wonder Woman because by the end, it kind of felt like Wonder Woman. Spoiler alert, that's going to be close to pro number 5.

Pro 1: Amazing Staff

But we'll start with pro number 1 the amazing, amazing staff at the NRVTA.

I think we have all been in a class, either in high school or in college, where it really felt like the teacher was phoning it in. It felt like the teacher didn't want to be there, they didn't care about whether or not you learned the information, and it just felt like the teacher hated life. So, you are hating life. And I can confidently say there really isn't a single teacher or TA there that is like this. And in fact, it is the exact opposite. Every teacher there feels like they are having a great time, every teacher feels like they are excited to be there, they're excited about you learning this information, and they are invested in you getting this and taking the time to make sure that you get this.

Some of the standouts, of course, Todd. If you have watched any of the videos that the NRVTA puts out, what you see on screen is what you get in person. The big beard with a lot of energy. Todd is who teaches the fundamentals course, and it's all him talking and teaching and getting you pumped from the moment you get there to the moment you leave. It is all Todd. You do labs with some TAs here and there, but it's a lot of Todd, and he has the energy to hold it all on his own. He does a great job. Every now and again, he will pop on a video or something to show you something on the side, and he'll sort of disappear into the back. And my mom, who has run events and speaking engagements and things like that, she and I would be talking, like, "Oh, the poor man is getting to, like, sit and pee and take a break," and that isn’t the case. If you're taking your fundamentals class sometime deeper into the year, so there are already people there who are taking their specialized classes like ACS and fridges - when he's putting up those videos and disappearing into the back, he is actually poking his head into the various specified classes and just checking in on people and seeing how they're doing. Like, "Hey guys, how we doing? Are we getting this? Do you feel like you can fix a fridge?" And not in a way that feels overbearing, just like genuinely wanting to be another person there supporting you. You’ve got a new person here that you don't know yet, but you know Todd, you feel like you know Todd, here's Todd just like checking in with you if you need him. He's really great. He's a great face for the program. We were big fans of Todd's energy by the end.

Another standout for us was Todd's brother, Brian. I understand Brian may not be there all of the time, but we became big fans of Brian in my family. My mom took just the registered class while she was there, so she took just that first week of fundamentals and then took the registered test. She just wanted to be able to know enough to be able to answer people's questions on the phone and help support my dad and mine’s separate businesses. And she was so nervous going into that registered test just because she hadn't taken a test in a really long time and she didn't feel as confident as she wanted to going in. And my dad and I were really nervous for her, not because we didn't think she would do fine, we knew she would do great, but we didn't want other people to take her lack of confidence at that time for a lack of competence. And dang it, I just want everyone to treat my mom like she's as amazing as she is. And she came back just singing Brian's praises. Brian had done all of the review prep for the registered test and then helped administer the registered test and had walked her through, helped her feel confident, helped her feel like she had this. Anyone who treats my mom well is an angel in my book, 'cause my mom's awesome, and everyone should treat my mom amazing. He was just so supportive of not only my mom, but, my whole family. We were kind of... We asked a lot of questions that will be in the tip section, but, I could understand how, maybe not everybody would have been our biggest fans. But Brian was really great at being like, "Nope, bring them on, let's figure this out." And we would actually be in other classes and have a weird niche-specific question, and would catch Brian in a hallway and be like, "Brian, can I ask you about this?" And he's like, "Yes, let's figure this out, let's do this." And so, we’re big fans of Brian.

And then, the other really big standout was Sue, the Queen of Poo. Sue is wonderful. Again, she's a TA and does have her own business, so I don't know if she's there every session or if she has left at this point, but Sue is such a fantastic TA. I had her as the TA for water heaters and furnaces that week, and she was awesome. It was so fantastic as a woman in the space to see another really competent woman. All of the TAs were great, and there were other female TAs that were great as well, but Sue was just really a standout. She was very eloquent in the way that she talked and really great at specifying her teaching style to the person she was speaking to. So, for example, you would go into these labs where they would just give you, a room full of broken water heaters, and your job is to figure out what was wrong with each one, and you're supposed to raise your hand and double-check that what you found was indeed what was wrong, and if you're right, they move on to the next water heater. If you're wrong, you dig down again and figure out how you screwed up. And she was really good at identifying that, if my dad or I screwed up and, weren't quite right, she'd be like, "Um, try again," because she was really good at identifying, "Oh, who's almost there? Who's almost got it and just made a mistake and we'll get there?" Or you could see with other people that were struggling a little bit more, she would sit there and really walk them through in a way that wasn't giving them the answer, and instead was asking questions that made the student do the thinking and get to the answer themselves without just telling them what to do next. My parents were both teachers growing up. I grew up basically out of school surrounded by teachers, so I grew up surrounded by people talking about pedagogy, which is basically, talking about how to teach, and Sue just had really great pedagogy.

Pro 2: Hands On Learning

Pro number 2 - You get so much hands-on learning, which is really where my brain shines. The way that the appliance-specific classes work, so like ACS, for instance, your Monday is usually more of a desk day. It is the teacher up at the whiteboard with a PowerPoint or drawing, walking through how this appliance works, the different components of it, and the order that the electricity goes through, and like why it works that way, and how it works. And that was always the day that I felt least confident. Every Monday, I was like, "I'm not gonna get this. I don't understand what is happening. This is just a lot of words." And then Tuesday… (if you are feeling really nervous on Monday, just wait for Tuesday. Go home, have some carbs, come back Tuesday.) Tuesday was almost always a super hands-on day. Tuesday would be the day you would gather up in the morning, you know, maybe for an hour, we do a little overview, talk about like, "Okay, what is the troubleshooting process?" And then they would just let you loose into a room full of broken appliances. Each one has something wrong with it, and you just have to hunt down why, and then you fix it and you make it work, and you raise your hand and you ask the TA, "Is the thing working? Was this the problem?" And they're like, "Yes," and then you move on. It's great. It's great. Again, talking about pedagogy, like the teaching profession is really trying to move towards, hands-on learning as much as possible. Research is showing that people take information in better when they're interacting with it other than just being spoken at. And you get so much hands-on learning. You basically get to do hundreds of RV calls by the time that you've left between all of the appliances that you diagnose. You not only get the hands-on, but you get the repetition of the hands-on.

My highlight, my favorite day of the whole thing, there was the first air conditioner lab day where they just let us loose in a room full of broken air conditioners, and they were like, "Just tell us what's wrong with each one." And that was when everything clicked, and it was like the clouds parted, and I just felt like a whole new person. I was like, "Oh, I've got this." I love working with my hands, and if you're someone that loves working with their hands, this is a great thing for you.

You may be going, "Emily, if we did desk on Monday, hands-on Tuesday, what are we doing Wednesday, Thursday, Friday?" All the appliances, they're trying to teach you at least two brands. So like, for air conditioners, they're trying to teach you Coleman Mach and Dometic. So Monday, we're basically going through the specifics of air conditioners, and then I think we started with Coleman. And so we're trying to go to specifics of Coleman. Tuesday, we spent primarily in the lab diagnosing Coleman air conditioners. Wednesday morning, I want to say, was talking about the specifics of Dometic air conditioners and how Dometic was different than Coleman. (They're not very different.) And then we spent Wednesday afternoon doing the lab diagnosing Dometic air conditioners. I want to say Thursday was going over weird niche things in air conditioners, like zones, those weird thermostats they have now where the connection is just like a cat cable, soft starts, and also just giving you more time in the lab if you wanted more time. Oh and how to take off an air conditioner, things like that. And then Friday is review and then your air conditioners test. And Friday is usually a half day. They usually need a break at that point.

Pro 3: Different Staff

Pro number 3 - Each week has a different instructor. So Todd is doing fundamentals, and then you're going to have a different teacher for air conditioners, which is a different teacher than who's teaching fridges, different teacher than water heaters and furnaces, and so on. Which was really great. Each teacher had their own teaching style. It was great to see how different people troubleshooted differently and had different techniques. I really gelled with the air conditioner teacher and the way that he taught. But it was really cool to see other people’s and how they went through things. And just so you know, there is no one specific way to troubleshoot. You just find the way that works for you.

Pro 4: Life Changing

The next one is a bit more holistic, but I just want to say that like the first five weeks of going to the NRVTA was one of the most fulfilling experiences of my life. I'm not always someone who walks around with all the self-confidence in the world, and I cannot tell you what a confidence boost it is to go into a program like... I would have said I didn't know anything about electricity. I had taken physics five times and aced it every time. I'd worked with electricity in my job, and so I would have been like, "Oh, I don't really know that much about electricity," and I was making myself small. And by the time I left, I just felt so empowered and so in my self-confidence and, like, I had this. I could cry. I could cry thinking about it now. It was life-changing for me to get to go from trying to discount my knowledge in my own head without realizing I was doing it to walking out of an experience being like, "I can do things that not everyone can. I know things that, not every person in the world knows and I'm good at a thing that, a lot of people aren't confident in.” If you are walking into this experience with a really strong sense of self and a ton of self-confidence and you can take on the world already, it maybe won't be this drastically life-changing experience that it was for me. But I can truly say even if I in five years decide to shut down my business and that I don't want to fix RVs anymore, will never regret having gone to this program. It changed how I saw myself. It changed how I go through the world. Truly knowing that you have a skill in your back pocket that not everyone in the world can do and that you're really good at and it is of a fundamental skill tha, people need in the world is just a really empowering way to move through life. And I hope that doesn't come off as corny, but I felt like a different person when I left than when I came and that was really big for me.

Pro 5: Felt Ready to Start a Business

Which moves into Pro number 5 - I left feeling like I could start my own business. When I started the NRVTA I wasn't sure about whether or not when I left, if I was gonna come back and try to work in a shop for a bit of time or for a year, just like get more experience under my belt. I just didn't know how much are they gonna teach? How confident am I gonna feel? And by the time that I left, I felt confident enough to start my own business, which, let's be clear, for someone who did not have a ton of self-confidence going in, was such a huge leap. It was a huge leap to go from, "Oh, I don't know. Am I gonna be able to do this? Am I gonna have to go help someone else out?" To, "I've got this. I'm gonna start my own business." What a leap! What a leap we made in five weeks. Huge. Huge! So if you're sitting there being like, "Oh, I don't know. Is this gonna be enough for me to do this on my own?" Honey, girl, baby, listen. If I could feel confident walking out of something, anybody can.

Those are my five main pros that I could put on paper. I'm about to go into a bunch of quote-unquote cons, but I just want to make it clear at this point in the video, like, was going to the NRVTA worth it? Yes. Would I recommend it? For a good hunk of people, yeah. I'm about to talk about, you know, the people for whom it may not be for. Again, as I'm going through the cons side of things, I don't want people being like, "Oh, she hated it there." Like, no. I've got qualms. You'll have qualms with anything that you do. But, this program changed my life in so many ways. I don't work for someone anymore. I work for myself. I run my own business. I just walk through the world with so much more confidence. Going to the NRVTA fundamentally changed my life. And if you're considering going, you know, stay for the cons side of the video, but for most people, I really recommend it. I love the life that I've been able to build because I went to the NRVTA, and I love the person that I am now. In large part because I went to the NRVTA. While I'm talking about the cons always know with every con I'm about to go through, I'm really glad I went.

Cons

Alright, enough of the mushy gushy, enough of the vulnerability. Let's move on to the cons, or at the very least, things to consider. Because what was a downside to me might be something that everyone else is looking for. I don't know.

Consider 1: Old Male Centered Space

Starting with number 1, just a thing to know before you go in: the target demographic of this program is very homogenous. It is a lot of old, southern white guys. And let me be clear. I’m choosing my words very carefully. There is nothing wrong with that. It just means that if you are a young woman, you're going to be an outlier. While I was there, everyone was very nice and very supportive, and I met some really amazing people. But yeah, you're going to get some comments that make you raise your eyebrows.

I am someone who has worked in male-dominated industries basically my entire life. I originally went to school for computer engineering, which is still a very male-centered space. And then I moved on to the entertainment industry, which, at least the part that I was working in, was all men. The last job that I had before I went to the NRVTA, I worked in a fabrication shop, and I was the only woman that worked in that fabrication shop the entire time that I worked there. I am used to being in male-dominated spaces, and there were still moments every single day at the NRVTA that made me raise an eyebrow and go, "Hmm” And you just have to decide what level of eyebrow rise works for you.

I was also the youngest person in every room I walked into, so a lot of the jokes and references just were not meant for me. Again, totally fine. Not everything needs to be made for me. It just meant that at the end of seven weeks of being there, seven weeks of, you know, raising eyebrows every now and again, and seven weeks of being the outlier, just gosh darn it, was I ready to go back home and hang out with a bunch of young women. Oh, I was craving it so much. More than I was expecting. I am not usually someone that gets homesick, and by the end of this program, I was really, really craving home.

So just know if you are not from the South, if you are a woman, if you are a person of color, if you are queer - you're going to be in a very, very small minority in this program. And that may be a situation that you really excel in. I thought that was a situation I really excelled in, and even I found myself by the end just being really drained. That's not really necessarily the NRVTA's fault. That's just really sort of the climate that we're in still as a country. They are actively, clearly making an effort to get more women in. They're putting women in their advertising. A lot of their TAs are women. I felt supported as a female being there. Still if you've been a woman in a male-centered space, you know what I'm talking about. You get an eyebrow every now and again. And seven weeks of eyebrows, I wanted them to come down. My forehead was tired. And it's just something I want to be clear before you go in so you're not surprised.

Consider 2: A Very Texan Experience

Similarly, something to consider number 2: This is a program held in rural Texas. At least, to a city slicker like me. I live in Las Vegas, Nevada, and before that, I went to school in Boston. I am a city woman. And so, just sort of being, again, at least to me, sort of middle-of-nowhere Texas, was a cultural shock in some ways. I definitely, at times, felt like I should have had my passport checked before I came over the border. It's just a very different vibe. It's Texas. There's a lot of talk of religion, guns, and politics. And I was not the one bringing these conversations up. They just happened. There's a lot of it. A lot. And so, again, not really being, at least the vibe that I hang out with day-to-day, just by the end of seven weeks, I was really homesick, really ready to go home.

I did not quite realize going in just how Texan the experience would be. I'm from Las Vegas. Once you get off of the strip, not everything in Las Vegas is Las Vegas-themed. Everything in Texas is Texas-themed. Even the gas stations are all Texas-themed. It's really funny to me, but also makes you constantly reminded that you are in Texas. Like, there's no place that isn't just screaming "Texas." Which, again, there is absolutely nothing wrong with Texas or being Texan, but just by the end of seven weeks, wowza, was I ready to just go home to my circle of the world.

If you're sitting at home right now considering whether or not to go to the NRVTA, think about how similar to rural Texas is your day-to-day. And if you go, “absolutely nothing like rural Texas”, which is basically my day-to-day, I would say just put in more of a support system back home than I did. I really should have scheduled more group calls back home just so I could even have time to download with friends. Just to be like “Here is the crazy thing that happened today.”

I want to be very clear. Like, if you took this program and picked it up from Texas and dropped it in Las Vegas, all of these people in Las Vegas would be like, "Dude, there's some crazy shit going on here” that I wouldn't bat an eye at because I live in Las Vegas. As a Las Vegasian in Texas, I felt like there was crazy shit happening every day, and no one else seemed to think it was crazy because it just wasn't my brand of crazy, which is fine. I just love my brand of crazy. It's just not Texas crazy.

Just not where I am going to live the rest of my life. And I was definitely homesick and just ready to be home by the end. And it wasn't just me. There were many people, for whom by the end of seven weeks were just like, "Yeah, really ready to go home." And that's okay. Just had I known that that was going to be the case going in, I just would have prepped a little bit more. So, a thing for you to consider - just how much home do you need to bring with you? How many calls home do you need to make? I should have made more. Should have made more. And that's on me.

Side Story: First Day

In a similar vein, oh my goodness, on your first day at the NRVTA, at least when I was there, you show up and it's early in the morning 'cause that first week they also have the business class. So, you show up an hour early every day for that first week to get the business side of things. Everyone has woken up early, everyone's drinking their coffee, and they’ve got AC/DC playing. We're getting everybody pumped. We're introducing everybody. They're like, "This is Todd," and you're like, "Yeah, Todd!" And then they're like, "This is Brian!" you're like, "Yeah, Brian!" I'm not even a woo person, and by the end, I'm like, "Yeah, I'm ready to learn about RVs, woohoo!" And then they bring in the founder, who gives a way-too-long speech just about his life and how he started the NRVTA.

Huge qualifier, they may have gotten rid of this speech or shortened it drastically because, wowza, was that speech probably the worst thing at the school. It was wicked long, wicked boring, at times offensive, and just a terrible way to start off the program. You go from super high energy, "Yeah, I’m ready to start learning about RVs," to the lowest, most boring hour of your life. And they know it because they come back after that speech, and they're like, "Hey, guys, we know, let's bring the energy back up, let's get back to excited, woohoo," and you're like, "Thank God!"

Just know, while that speech is happening, just decide to take that time as a meditative moment, just be like, "You know what? This is boring, and that's great. I'm gonna take this time to breathe, settle, be ready, 'cause it's about to go 100 miles an hour, and I need to be ready." So, this is just my slow moment. This is the calm before the storm.

And, I want to be clear, they might have gotten rid of this speech because my class latched onto it. It was so funny. Our class made fun of this speech so much. It was one of those things where as you're watching it, you're looking around, and everyone's nodding their heads, and you're like, "Oh, everyone else is really digging this. Like, I must be the crazy one that is not connecting with this boring-ass speech." And then they finally you get into breakout sessions where you can talk to people, and all it took was just one person being like, "So, about that speech," and then everyone goes "Oh, thank God!" And then our class proceeded to riff on and joke about this freaking speech for the rest of the time we were there. Every new class we had every week, all would take was one person saying the wrong thing on Monday, one person would crack a joke about that freaking speech, and the poor teacher would be like, "You're that class, aren't you?" And we were like, "It's us! Ha ha!"

It's really bad. It's really bad. I hope they've cut it. If they haven't, just know to laugh. Just know it. It's boring. Everyone thinks it's boring. It gets better from there. That's the worst part of the whole thing.

*Had a commenter reach out, and apparently the speech is still there as of January 2024.

Consider 3: Solar and Generators

On to consideration No. 3: Back in the pro section, I talked about how the first five weeks I was there were some of the most fulfilling weeks of my life, and I stand by that. You may also have remembered I stayed for an additional two weeks for solar and generators. And let me just say, solar and generators were not my cup of tea. And not because of the content. Solar was, um, just a terrible week for me. I did not enjoy solar at all. And again, not because of the content, it was mostly the way it was presented.

At least back when I took solar, and this was a year ago, and keep in mind, they do surveys at the end of every class, and I know that they read them over and they make changes to the classes accordingly. So the solar class could be very different now. Please, if you're considering taking the solar class, call them, ask them about it. There's a chance it's very different.

When I took it, it was one of the more soul-crushing experiences of my life. On Monday, we did the desk thing, like we usually do. We talked about solar, and the next four days, Tuesday through Friday, they just brought in an RV that someone had paid to have a solar installed done to. And they were just, let us loose, and said, "Go install a solar setup on this RV." With almost no supervision. Like, you could go ask questions, obviously, but there was no organization to the people at all.

Because, if you don't know, most of the solar setup is putting a battery bank, an inverter, MPPTs, into a compartment in an RV. As students, you're not allowed to do the solar install on the roof, just for safety reasons. So, they have TAs do that part. And now, we're trying to fit what, for us, was 20 people inside an RV compartment. And you can see how that just doesn't work out. And if you are someone small like me it sucks.

I just got completely shoved aside by the rest of the class in a way that was really demoralizing. Just gonna be up front. I got physically shoved out of the way. I got barked at, I got yelled at, and just spoken down to in a way that truly made me feel demoralized as a human. I literally got back home crying most days in solar, 'cause I just felt so small. So small. And I think some of it was, I was just coming off of such a high from the first five weeks. I just felt so confident in myself and like, yes, I can do this. And then, literally, the next week was just getting literally pushed out of the way and barked at, told I was doing things wrong. I hated it. I absolutely hated it. If I think about it too much, could honestly cry again right now, thinking about that freaking solar class. It just made me feel so small.

I think part of it is, again, just being a woman. Like, I worked with a whole set of people for five weeks. At the end of five weeks, they all knew I was a competent human. They knew I was okay at this. And I could do this. But you lose a whole bunch of people after five weeks, people that were just there to become certified techs. And you gain a whole new set of people that are coming in just to learn about solar, or coming back just to learn about solar. So there were a bunch of people there that didn't know me, and I guess did not know I was a competent person. You know, it sucks that that wasn't an assumption that was made. But, it really turned into, you know, who could be the biggest, who could be the loudest, who could be the most aggressive, was the only people that got heard. And that's just not an environment that I do well in.

And so, eventually, I was like, I'm just gonna take a step back and stand at the wall and just not get shoved and touched. And then, I got talked down to by the teachers for not being invested enough. And that's really when it finally, I was like, I cannot take this anymore. nervous laughter. And that's when I just completely shut down and was like, "Fuck this."

I will say, they do listen to their surveys. And this was a year ago, so there's a very good chance that that solar class may be very different now. Please, if you wanna learn about solar, it is such a good skill to have. Talk to them, call them, ask them about it, see if it's a right fit for you. And again, there was a whole group of people who were really excelling in that environment. It just wasn't me. It was not an environment that worked well for me and, in fact, made me feel really small.

But, we're gonna forget about solar. We're just gonna forget about it for a minute. And we're gonna move on to generators. Generators was the runner-up for my least favorite class. (A distant second, but second non the less) And that was with a huge asterisk on it because it was almost everyone else's favorite class. So, again, that's why it's really subjective and up to you what fills up your cup. It seemed like most of the people there had some sort of mechanics background in any way. Like, they had either grew up in a farming environment and so had worked on tractors and farming equipment, grown up just working on cars in their garage with their mom or dad, or were truckers. There's a lot of truckers in my program. And so, there were a lot of people that had experience with engines. And the class, while they very quickly went over the engine side of things, really was more geared toward if you already had this engine experience. And I did not. I have none. My tools background is building props and sets for the entertainment industry. I did not grow up tinkering on cars. I grew up making false walls for musicals. So, I just have a different background than almost anyone else in the room.

And I just did not walk out of that generators class feeling like I could work on a generator or really do anything with a generator. I had even walked out of the demoralizing solar class feeling like, "Oh yeah, I could do a solar setup." Like, "I'm not gonna do it the way they did, but I could do one." There's no question. I left the last day of this generators class and I've been working on the rough draft for my website. So, I'd like filled in all the classes I was taking so they would be there. I immediately went home and deleted generators off of my website, any mention of generators, 'cause I was just like, "I do not understand this at all." I left feeling like I understood generators less than when I started. And that was mostly on me. Again, if you have any sort of motors experience, you will connect with that class. There's no question. 'Cause everyone else did. I didn't. But again, that is just something to take into consideration.

If you have small engines experience, you're gonna do great in that class. You are gonna walk out being like, "Ah, screw all the other appliances. I'll just work on generators." And you could start a whole business just working on generators. I get so many calls for Gennies that I have to let go 'cause I don't understand them at all. I try and even to this day, I'm still trying to find a way to learn about generators because everyone explains them as if you already understand small engines, and I don't. And that's okay.

Consider 4: Oversimplifying

Thing to consider, number four: If you walk into the NRVTA with any sort of electronics experience, you're gonna get a little frustrated at times. They simplify things down to try to explain them to people that have no electronics experience, and at times over-simplify to the point that they are saying things that are incorrect. And it drove my dad and I up a wall at times where I would literally have to turn to him and be like, "Am I crazy? Am I misunderstanding this?" And he's just like, "No, Emily, they're just... let this part go."

And they qualify that at the beginning. They're like, "Does anyone here have an engineering background or an electrical background?" You, sheepishly raise your hand, and they're like, "You're gonna be annoyed, and you're gonna try to correct us, and you're just gonna have to let it go." And like, it eats you inside.

If you don't know anything about electronics, you're not gonna do anything wrong from what they're explaining. It's just... it's just not correct. And it would take like, just only a little bit more time to explain it correctly.

(Electrons are not inherently magnetic. They are not being attracted to the north and the south pole of a magnet in an alternator or when we are creating alternating current. It is actually the magnetic field that is being created when electrons move through a wire. And that field is what is being affected by the magnet.)

Oh, but if you don't have a lot of electronics experience going in, you're not gonna know what they're explaining incorrectly. And honestly, the way that they're explaining it, you can do it. You can get through doing the stuff that you have to do and it'll affect your life none. Just know if you come in with any sort of background in this, you're gonna be annoyed at times and you just gonna have to live with it. And that's okay.

Consider 5: Terrible Tests

And then number five, their tests are bad. End of story. Specifically the certified test, the registered test, and the like, weird fake test that we take just for fun at the end of the first week. They're badly written and you just have to accept it. This is truly one of those times, and I know we all hated it in school when you'd raise your hand and be like, "Is this gonna be on the test?" And then the teacher was like, "You shouldn't worry about the test, you should just worry about knowing the content." And you wanted to freaking scream. This is truly one of those times. I'm gonna tell you, do not worry about the test. Just worry about knowing the content. They will get you through their really terribly written tests.

There are literally questions on the test, multiple, that are having to do with things they have not taught you. They never teach you anything about tires at all. Never. And there are questions about tires on the test. They never teach you anything about water. And there are questions about water on the test. And you just have to accept that you'll get those wrong. It's okay. They will get you through. They'll get you to pass. You do a bunch of review beforehand and they basically tell you everything you need to know just to get to a passing grade. And you just let it go.

They use the excuse of like, you shouldn't expect us to teach you everything. And no I don't, but I also then don't expect you to test me on things you haven't taught me. You also haven't taught me about cosmetology, so I don't expect you to randomly have a question about cuticle care on this test. And that is essentially what they do. You just have like random questions that have nothing to do with anything they have taught. And it killed me and my family - again people that grew up in a teaching environment. And you just let it go you channel your inner Elsa and you let it go.

Luckily the tests and quizzes for the appliance specific weeks I believe are made by the individual teachers themselves and are much better. Much much better. They actually have to do with the content being taught in the class. Wild concept I know.

Okay we got negative for a minute. We took a deep breath. Those are things that may be cons for you or at least things to consider before you go to the NRVTA. Okay? Please please keep in mind with everything - I liked being there. I enjoyed my time there and I would recommend it to other people that are considering going into this field. I can enjoy having been there and have qualms with the program. I can contain multitudes. That is the duality of man. If I have not scared you off to going to the NRVTA, which I really hope I haven't, here are some tips and recommendations I have for people that have packed up their RV and are on their way to Athens Texas as we speak.

Tips

Tip 1: Ask Questions

Tip No. 1: I've said it before, I'll say it again. Ask a shit ton of questions. If you think you are asking too many questions, I guarantee you, you're not asking enough. This is your, in retrospect, relatively short amount of time to learn as much as you can so you can come home and start your own business. Don't waste a second of it. Do not leave there wishing you had asked a question that you were too shy for. And I know that's easier said than done. Listen, I am a young millennial woman with anxiety. The idea of raising my hand and admitting I don't know something in a room full of older men is literally my worst nightmare. So if I can do it, you can too. But I've got a couple of tips for you to help if you truly cannot imagine raising that hand and asking that question in a room full of men.

Write it down. I would literally in my notebook have one page that just said QUESTIONS in all caps on the top. And every time even a passing question crossed through my mind, I would jot it down. Sometimes just as the teacher continued to talk, my question would get answered. Sometimes just in sitting there ruminating on it for a little bit, I would figure it out myself. But a lot of times, I would get to a break, a lunch break, the end of the day, and just be like, "Nope, this question was not answered." And so I would go up to the teacher or one of the TAs one on one and just literally go down the list of every question I had. And they were very nice and very polite and very patient. And they will sit there, stand there, lunge there, I guess, with you and answer all of your questions. That's what they're there for. It's what they love to do, get the questions answered. Also, keep in mind, almost every time I did this, halfway through me asking my questions, I would often have a small crowd of people around me that were just listening for what the answers were. So just keep that as a fable - if you are confused by something, there's a very good chance that other people are too. It's not just you. If you can get the question answered, you're not only helping yourself, you're helping out other people. It is selfish of you not to ask your question.

Another thing that helped a lot on the questions front was almost every night, I got to go home (home, quote unquote, back to the RV with my dad.) And my dad and I, over dinner, while we're cutting up the penne and shoveling food into our mouths, would go back and forth and explain to each other different things that we learned that day. Even stuff that we thought we already understood, we would go back and just be like, "Hey, walk me through it." And you would be surprised how many times you think that you understand something and know something until you have to explain it to somebody else. And then all of a sudden, it doesn't feel so confident anymore. And often times, it was at night, over dinner, us going through things that I would come up with more questions. And I would write them down. And I would come back the next day. And before we got started with class, I would go to a teacher, TA, and get all my questions answered. The teachers are almost always there wicked early. So there's time to show up an extra 10-15 minutes early and get your questions answered. It'll help you a lot. Again, other people will be showing up with questions as well. You're helping out other people.

I know that not everybody gets the privilege of going to the NRVTA with a buddy. You know, I got to do it with my dad. Try and make a friend in the first week. Have someone that you can meet up with in the evenings and just go back and forth and make sure that you're both getting it and you're both understanding. That doesn't have to be every night like it was for my dad and I. Maybe you guys just decide that like, Wednesday night, you're halfway through the week. You just, you know, meet up at the clubhouse and do your laundry and go back and forth making sure that you guys are doing okay. That's your halfway point of the week. Have that be your check-in. Make sure the two of you are doing good. If that is a level of outgoing that you are not comfortable with, I understand I'm a very introverted person. I'm sitting alone in my home talking to a camera. Come home and explain things to your significant other, either in person if they're with you or over the phone. Again, you would be surprised how comfortable you feel you understand something until you have to explain it to somebody else. And the questions that they start asking can lead you to questions that you should be asking to the teachers the next day. More questions means more understanding. You got this.

Tip 2: Play With your Meter

My next big tip would be to play with your multimeter before you go. I do have a video, I think it's multimeter basics for RVers. Just play around with your multimeter a bit in your own RV and a friend's RV. Just like test some batteries or something before you go. If you show up knowing anything about how to use your multimeter, you're going to have such a leg up on everyone else there. And it is a huge confidence boost.

I, for some reason, in my head, had it that like, I don't want to review too much or know too much before I go 'cause then I'll be bored. That was the wildest thought I think I've ever had. You will not be bored there. There is plenty to learn. If you show up knowing, again, even just how to use the multimeter a little bit, it'll just give you such a confidence boost that's gonna propel you into the rest of the program. Play around with your meter some. You'll be really glad you did.

Tip 3: Do a Time Pressure Drop Test

My next big tip: do a time pressure drop test while you are there. This is something you're gonna learn in week 1. A time pressure drop test is how you test an RV to see if it has a propane leak. They go over it relatively quickly and it sounds very simple to do. And it is. But I highly recommend that you do one while you are at the NRVTA. Go back to your own rig, go to a friend's rig, do one of these tests. Do them a couple of times so that way you feel confident. And if you do have any mistakes or you are screwing it up in any way, you still have time to go back to a teacher or a TA and ask them for some help. Again, this test is relatively simple. It took my dad and I a couple of tries of doing it before we felt really confident in it. And that is a test you want to feel really confident in because at the end of that test, you are going to tell an RV owner with confidence whether or not they have a propane leak. So whether or not their rig might burst into flames, and that's the thing you want to say with a lot of confidence. So practice that test and do it at least once before you leave so that way you feel confident when you go do it in the world. They tell you how to do it, but you don't actually hands-on do one in a classroom setting. So make sure you do one for yourself on your own time. You got this.

Tip 4: Tools

You do not need all of the tools on their tool list. If you go to their website under the FAQ section, they do have a recommended tool section and they have tools that are quote-unquote required and tools that are optional. I'm gonna tell you right now, you don't need most of the tools on that list as a tech. There are many, many more that are required as an inspector, but as a tech, you don't need all of those tools in order to take the classes. Almost all of the tools that they recommend are tools that you're eventually going to want as a tech, but like if you just dropped a whole bunch of coin on your tuition and you're like, "Jeez, now I gotta go spend more coin on tools," get the bare bones. I went over this in my RV Tech toolbag tour, but just really quick, the only things that you must have to get through the program are:

But that's about it for mandatory. Obviously, if you have more tools and you want to bring them, go for it. But if you're trying to bear bones it, you totally can with just those handful that I mentioned. Save yourself a coin and just know you're gonna need to buy more tools down the road. You're good. You got this.

Tip 5: See Sue Early

If she is there, Sue, the Queen of Poo, gives a presentation on black tank and gray tank cleaning, maintaining, all of that good stuff. It is an excellent presentation. Highly, highly recommend you go. Know that that presentation is going to be standing room only. It is very popular. Everyone wants to go to it. So if you want to go and see it, get there early. Get there wicked early because otherwise you're not gonna have a seat and you're gonna be hanging out in the back. I recommend it not only for the content, the rest of the NRVTA experience doesn't really go over tank maintenance at all, and she knows her stuff. That's how she has specialized her business. But also just to see her presentation style and just hear how she speaks and how she presents things. She's really good at it. And you would be amazed how much of this job is having to teach RVers about RVing, and she's very good and very eloquent at it and manages to make it fun and entertaining and a topic that most people could just not give a crap about, pun intended. So yeah, if you could just not only learn about tanks from her but also learn about just presenting information in a fun and informative way, you will get a lot out of it. Highly recommend.

Tip 6: Binder Prep

And then one of my final tips is one that may only apply to my family but I think will apply to other people. As I mentioned earlier in this video, I went into this program with my mom and dad, and we stayed in a 25-foot Class A the entire time. I was sleeping in the drop-down bunk above the driver's seat, which was an experience, as you know, really feeling like you've made it into adulthood and then sleeping in a bunk. It was just a different pace in life, but worth it for the whole experience. But we were definitely maxing out the capacity of that RV with the three of us. And through the whole experience, you get binders for each and every week that you're there. So I got seven binders, my dad got another set of seven binders, and then we got an additional binder because my mom did the first week with us for the registered test. Which means we had, quick math, 15 binders that we randomly had to find room for. And that wasn't something that we had considered when we packed up the RV to get there. So just know if you are already maxing out the space in your RV, make sure to make some room for all of these binders that you're going to have that you're going to want to keep.

When I first was at the program, I was like, "And once this is all done, I'll probably recycle these. I don't know if I'll need them all." And once I have time, which, wowza, is your life gonna get super busy once you start this kind of business. But once I get time, I might pair them down a little bit and try to get them all into, you know, one or two as opposed to into seven. But you will be amazed how often you come back and reference these. You think you've got furnaces down, you're doing great, but then you don't touch furnaces for months because you live in Las Vegas and it's 120 degrees out and you're only getting calls about ACs and fridges. And then three months go by and you get your first furnace call and you're like, "Dear god, what did the blue wire do again?" You just need a quick refresher before that first call. So you're gonna get a bunch of binders and you're gonna want to keep them, which means you're gonna need to make sure you have room for them. So keep that in mind when you're packing.

And that is it, my friends. That is it for the pros, the cons, the tips. That is the whole of my experience at the NRVTA. Like I said at the beginning, it is so hard to find content about this program that isn't put out by the NRVTA itself. Almost everyone you see reviewing it is a friend of Todd's. And while I enjoyed Todd, we're not like besties hanging out on the weekend. I am not getting like any kickback or payment for talking about the NRVTA. If when you sign up and they ask you how you heard of it, you could say, you know, Emily Kistler at RV Repair Woman, and maybe I'll get a kickback. That would be dope. But like, yeah, I'm not right now, haha. So these are my honest thoughts about my time there and whether or not I would recommend it, which I totally would. Going from working for somebody else to working for myself has been such a fulfilling experience. Having a skill in my back pocket that I know people need and a lot of people don't have is such a fulfilling way to go through the world. I know I said it in the pros column, but like, you have to imagine, I came from the entertainment industry, which I love and I think is valuable and I think like, does add to the world. I'm a big proponent for the arts. But it's a big difference going from that to making sure a woman staying in a trailer taking care of three kids has hot water. Like, it's a big difference in my life. And when I come home from those days, it's, you feel really good about yourself. And I get to feel that way almost every day because I went to the NRVTA. Huh, what a good rhyme. Well, ended on there. Thanks for sticking around for this really long video.

This has been RV Repair Woman.

You got this.