Hey guys been reading posts on the forum for a while, but a new member now. I am a high school senior, and graduate next month. I live here in West Virginia, and got my Surface Miners Apprentice Card back in March. I am hoping to be working on a strip this summer if my girlfriends dad can get me a job. I don't have much experience with equipment yet, but I want to go into this field. I applied to the IUOE as a mechanic, but couldn't get in. I want to start an excavation and maybe paving company eventually, after learning the equipment while working the mines for a while. I wouldn't know where to begin. I have a few questions like, How much can I expect to make? What will it cost to start up? What equipment will I need? Any advice is appreciated.
First some basic ideas if you do get hired. Show up and be ready to work BEFORE the starting time! Starting time means that not the time you drive through the gate! Second listen to what you are told and follow the rules. Most of those rules about safety were as the saying goes "Written in blood!" Don't try to tell guys who have been on the job for twenty to forty years they are doing it wrong. If there are any opportunities for training take them and don't just sit in the class filling a seat learn stuff! Treat the equipment whether it's a hand shovel, sledge hammer or large front end loader as if your job depended on it because it does! No tool no work is going to get done and they don't want to pay you to just take up space.
"If there are any opportunities for training take them and don't just sit in the class filling a seat learn stuff!" The best advice, ever! Welcome, by the way!
Guess maybe that advice was not what the guy was hoping to hear as his first post appears to be his last post. I could say I'm sorry about being so blunt in my reply. But if my response hit him too hard then I guess it might be a good thing because from my experience in the industry for 45+ years most guys would not be so nice! He says he is just now graduating from high school and has a problem understanding why he was not able to walk in to the IUOE as a mechanic. Well the morning after I graduated from high school in 1968 I showed up at the quarry to start work. I did have an "in with the company" as my dad had worked for them since I was something like 5 years old. First thing they did was hand me a wooden handled shovel and point to the pile of dirt under a conveyor and say go to it! That was more or less my job for around three years. Then I got the job in the new shop they were starting and my job changed to here's a broom and shovel clean up the shop and when done get your rain gear on and wash that machine so Ed and Stew can work on it! Eventually I got to be classed as a "master mechanic" and through changes over the years shop was cut back from around 20 guys working on equipment from all over the state and beyond to just repairing and maintaining the equipment for the one quarry. Guess who was the last man working full time in the shop? And 98% of the time know who swept the floor and carried out the trash when not repairing the equipment or working up the spreadsheets for the boss to take to his manager for the winter work reports?