Focused, Motivated and Mature Beyond His Years

As a student at Gwinnett County’s Mountain View High School, Blake Blume had the foresight to know he was not bound for college. “I always said when I got out of high school, that would be the last of sitting in a classroom for me,” recalls Blake, who graduated in 2022. “I was always wanting to learn something new, but I didn’t want to go to college.”

As a junior, Blake enrolled in the Automotive program at Maxwell High School of Technology, which serves CTAE students from Gwinnett Public Schools. In his case, however, COVID-related restrictions were still in place and he wasn’t able to enjoy the full hands-on experience of the program.

“Most of it was [learning] at home,” Blake explains. “I didn’t really get what I wanted out of it. So then, my senior year, I applied for Maxwell again. I didn’t know what I wanted to do, so I just started taking different classes, and I liked HVAC. A lot of it was the people I worked with. We always had a great time in that class. We had such a good group of guys and I enjoyed the class so much, it kind of drew me into HVAC.”

There, in instructor Mike Mahaffey’s program, Blake found his calling. He joined the school’s SkillsUSA team and won a championship in Construction Technology. As his graduation date approached, he began fielding multiple job offers.

“If I didn’t take that class, I wouldn’t be where I am right now,” Blake says. “Mr. Mahaffey was awesome. Not only did his class teach me HVAC skills, it taught me work ethic. I think that’s a big part of what companies are looking for. And Mr. Mahaffey saw that, so he was able to talk with the employers and say, ‘Look, this kid is 10 or 15 minutes early to class every day. He tries hard. He gets his work done.”

In the spring of Blake’s senior year, Mahaffey brought in representatives from local companies to speak to his class and conduct mock interviews. Among the companies was Tebarco Mechanical, whose reps were so impressed, they ultimately offered Blake a job. He accepted, and a week after his graduation, he began work as an apprentice in the company’s service department.

Blake’s supervisor, Jonathan King, explains how his young protégé blew through the apprenticeship process – normally a four-year program – in eye-popping fashion.

“In our business, you don’t qualify to even enter the apprenticeship until after 90 days of service,” King explains. “And we’re looking for things like attendance. We’re looking for attitude. We’re looking for coachability. Blake walked into my office on literally the first day that he could qualify for the apprenticeship, and he had his fee laid out in cash, and he said, ‘I’m ready for the program.’ And then, boom, boom, boom, he tested out of the first year, so he did not have to do the first year [of studies] – he started right into the second year, and then he finished the second, third and fourth year on his own in a total of nine months.”

Blake says pay raises and promotions were motivating factors during his apprenticeship, but more than anything, he simply wants to be the best. “My thing is, if you’re going to put effort into something, your goal should be to be at the top,” he says.

Having progressed through five levels of apprentice and service technician roles – he was officially a Service Tech II as of May 2025 – Blake has established an impressive career and home life. In fact, he recently moved to Dahlonega, where he purchased his first residence. That’s an achievement far beyond what many 21-year-olds have accomplished at a similar stage.

On the job, Blake enjoys the camaraderie of his co-workers and the satisfaction of doing his job well.

“I think one thing that helps me get up at four o’clock in the morning to come to work is the people I work with,” he says. “This group of guys is great. They are people I hang out with after work. Actually, one of the guys is going to be at my wedding in April.

“Another thing that stands out to me and makes me happy is when a customer shows they’re really appreciative of what I do for them, like staying late and getting their systems running. I think when the customer [expresses] appreciation to the company of the hard work you’re doing, that means a lot.”

Such praise hasn’t escaped King’s attention. “He gets a lot of those comments,” the supervisor says. “His maturity, his drive, his focus and motivation – it’s unparalleled. He’s intensely focused, but not so much that he doesn’t appreciate everything that goes on around him. He’s not like a bull in a china shop, so to speak.”

Clearly, Blake has a great future in the HVAC profession – wherever his career path leads.

“My goal is to one day become the lead tech,” he says. Maybe a little later down the road, I think a goal would be to move up on the office side, maybe to start managing other states. Another thing in HVAC is there’s the selling side and there’s the engineering side. So if I didn’t like the field side, I could move to sales or move to the engineering side or the management side of it. There’s a lot of room for growth.

“I knew I wanted to go in the trades for job security,” he adds. “Because the trades are always going to be around.”