Be Humble, Be Confident, and Be Safe: A Conversation with Skillworker Phillip Johnson
Interviewed by Skillwork Talent Expert
Phillip Johnson grew up in the trades. With a father who was a pipeline welder, a brother who is a master electrician, and another on his way to a journeyman HVAC certification, the trades are in the family DNA. Today, Phillip works with Skillwork as a refrigeration and maintenance technician, most recently placed at a large industrial facility in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. We sat down with Phillip to talk about what it really takes to succeed in the skilled trades: the mindset, the challenges, and the lessons that stick.
Q: You grew up around the trades. Can you tell us how you got started and how you eventually connected with Skillwork?
Phillip Johnson: Basically, I was born into the trades. My dad was a dirt worker who also became a high-stress pipeline welder. My brother is a master electrician, and my youngest brother is working toward his journeyman HVAC certification. So, the trades were always around me.
I started working with my best friend’s dad right out of high school. He was a refrigeration and HVAC specialist, and that’s where I really learned the craft. After that, at every job I’ve had, whenever production would slow down, I got pulled into maintenance because I’ve always had a knack for it.
I first reached out to Skillwork when I was working up in Fremont. About a year or two later, I got back in touch with Ethan at Skillwork and got placed down in Texas. Now I’m up here in Fremont, Nebraska.
Q: What has been the biggest challenge you’ve faced in your career in the trades?
Phillip Johnson: Honestly, it’s the people side of things. I had a great mentor named Zach Bentley from Red Oak, Iowa, who taught me probably 90% of what I know right out of the gate. So, the technical stuff came together. The harder part was learning how to navigate personalities on a job site.
A lot of people don’t check their ego at the door when they walk into work. They want to look like they know everything and get credit for many tasks. The biggest hurdle for me was just stepping back and realizing it doesn’t really matter who gets the credit. What matters is that the problem gets fixed. As you get older, you start to understand that a lot of the stuff people compete over just isn’t that important.
Being willing to admit when you don’t know something is part of that, too. In the trades, somebody is always going to have something to say about your work, whether they’re being serious or just giving you a hard time. But at the end of the day, as long as everybody’s safe, all that other noise is stuff that does not carry significant weight in the long run.
Q: What’s the most exciting part of the work you’ve done so far?
Phillip Johnson: This current facility in Milwaukee is pretty exciting. They have a rough estimate of 257,000 pounds of ammonia on-site. The scale of the whole operation is just impressive. It’s a little intimidating at first, but everybody here is on the same page about what needs to be done, and safety is taken seriously, so it’s not as stressful as you’d think.
That said, you must stay aware of how dangerous this kind of work can get, and not just with ammonia. In any trade, things can go sideways fast. That awareness keeps you sharp.
Q: If you had to identify the most important skills for someone looking to succeed in maintenance or industrial work, what would they be?
Phillip Johnson: Three things, really: safety, confidence, and humility. And they all work together.
Safety is first, always. Everybody wants to go home at the end of the day.
Confidence is about being willing to step outside your comfort zone, because you have to in order to grow. In the trades, if you mess something up, people are going to give you a hard time. That makes it tempting to stay in your lane and never try anything new. But if you’re going to advance, you have to be willing to try, make mistakes, and keep going. Everybody makes mistakes. Don’t take it too hard.
Humility is knowing that you will never know everything. I work alongside guys who have been doing this as long as I’ve been alive, and even they forget things sometimes. Even they need a little help now and then. Nobody knows everything. Staying humble about that is what keeps you learning.
Q: Safety gets talked about a lot in the trades, but how do you keep a safety mindset when you’re under pressure to get something done fast?
Phillip Johnson: Sometimes you have to use your own judgment in the field. Diagnosing a machine might mean observing it while a guard is off, or testing amps while it’s running under load. You must be aware of whatever you’re working with, whether that’s electricity, steam, ammonia, or anything else that can get dangerous fast.
The key is taking a step back when you’re under pressure. In an industrial setting, downtime costs thousands of dollars per minute in some cases. That pressure is real. But rushing a job doesn’t fix it faster. It usually backfires. You skip a step, you forget to fully tighten a bolt, and now you’ve made things worse and caused more downtime.
The world isn’t going to end if something doesn’t get fixed in five minutes. Your standard operating procedures exist for a reason, and you need to follow them at all times. If someone is telling you to deviate from an SOP, get it in writing. And if something goes wrong because you skipped a safety procedure under pressure from someone else, the responsibility still comes back to you. That’s a hard truth, but it’s important to understand.
Q: If you could say one thing to every technician in the industry, what would it be?
Phillip Johnson: Teamwork. Be there to help each other and lift each other up.
What you see too often is people tearing each other down. But when everybody shows up with a positive mindset, communicates well, and genuinely tries to support the people around them, everything gets better. Production improves. Safety improves. The workplace becomes somewhere you actually want to be.
A lot of guys just want to come in, do their job, and go home. That’s fine. But there’s always more going on in a department than you can see from the outside. People are dealing with things. If everybody could just give each other a little more grace and a little more support, the industry as a whole would be better for it.
And there’s a fine line between the kind of ribbing that builds camaraderie and the kind that tears someone down. You can feel when you’ve crossed it. Stop before you get there.
Work Where Your Skills Are Valued
Phillip’s story is an excellent example of what Skillwork is all about: skilled tradesmen who bring real expertise, a strong work ethic, and the kind of professional character that makes a difference on any job site.
If you’re a technician looking for your next opportunity, or if you want to learn more about how Skillwork connects skilled workers with great employers, we’d love to connect!
Interview Date: Jan. 15, 2024