I have zero construction experience but Im interested in a career change to some sort of crane operator. I was looking into various crane certifications from NCCCO and wanted some guidance. Do you guys have any advice about the various certifications and different crane jobs such as typical day, starting pay, job availability, difficulty, etc? Thanks appreciate it
What do you currently do and what have you done in the past? Just asking to see if there's any cross over skills beneficial to operating a crane. Like a someone who grew up on a farm looking to get into operating heavy equipment. Lots of transferable skills. Someone who was an accountant would likely have a steeper learning curve.
Just getting the certification isn't a sure shot at a job, with no experience. Being in texas, your best bet is to get the certs, and wait until some turn around/ shut down in a refinery, is desperate for night operators. You'll probably start out in a small carry deck/ Broderson, putting pipe in a rack. Shut downs will run 7 days a week, 12 hour shifts for usually a couple weeks to a couple months. The other area where some new guys get started, is some of the wind farm work, running one of the smaller RT's setting rebar. That's usually travelling work, somewhere in the middle of kansas/texas/ nebraska/ wyoming, for months on end. Living out of a motel. Which means they can be hard up for help, hard up enough for help, that they will sign up someone who went to trade school with no other real experience.