• Thank you for visiting HeavyEquipmentForums.com! Our objective is to provide industry professionals a place to gather to exchange questions, answers and ideas. We welcome you to register using the "Register" icon at the top of the page. We'd appreciate any help you can offer in spreading the word of our new site. The more members that join, the bigger resource for all to enjoy. Thank you!

Finding an Honest Employer

92U 3406

Senior Member
Joined
Jan 3, 2017
Messages
3,099
Location
Western Canuckistan
Occupation
Wrench Bender
Dealership technical training and access to the resources. That can make a huge difference in technician development. Especially for a young fella. Five or six good years. Most guys can handle dealership politics for that long.

Coincidentally, that magic 5 year mark coincides with the point of wage stagnation. Then, it’s time to pack up your game and whore yourself out to a customer you met while working at the dealer. Make a few bucks.
What is this technical training you speak of? Besides the Cat dealer, not one of the other 2 dealers I've worked for ever offered anybody any kind of training.
 

92U 3406

Senior Member
Joined
Jan 3, 2017
Messages
3,099
Location
Western Canuckistan
Occupation
Wrench Bender
As it should be. Far too many employers cry that they cannot find anybody decent but offer nothing to retain the good employees they do manage to find and allow them to grow their abilities.
 

MarshallPowerGen

Senior Member
Joined
Nov 26, 2017
Messages
442
Location
Northwestern USA
Occupation
Generator Technician & Equipment Mechanic
It's the corporate chicken & egg of an employer that won't invest in their guys for fear they'll take that training and move on, versus the guys that move on because said employer won't invest in training for them to do their job.

Started out through a family shop and smaller dealers that wouldn't let you in the field without getting their factory training first. Then the two big dealer rental outfits I worked for never offered any training over the last 4 years. Bailed on that an now looking to get back on with a smaller outfit.

To the OP; If you need to move, do it for the sake of getting ahead and not solely for a job that will lock you in with a $5k signing bonus and moving package. Everyone is desperate to hire right now, so it's not hard to name your price depending on what you do and where you want to be.
 

JD955SC

Senior Member
Joined
Mar 13, 2011
Messages
1,349
Location
The South
Unless you just love commodity style retail wrenching, overall it’s a poor life decision. Go fix elevators, become an electrician (IBEW), fireman, repair medical equipment (bio-med), go into commercial HVAC.

if you are good at troubleshooting you become the guy that gets called to save the day when no one else can figure out the issue instead of being the rote “take this out and put it back in” guy. much more satisfying.
 

John C.

Senior Member
Joined
Jun 11, 2007
Messages
12,865
Location
Northwest
Occupation
Machinery & Equipment Appraiser
I had plenty of mini courses at the three big dealers I wrenched for. Most is training now is distance education but really only works for motivated people. The small dealers can barely afford service manuals. I vote for a move if possible as well.
 

barrelroll

Well-Known Member
Joined
Mar 16, 2016
Messages
90
Location
Alaska
Occupation
Mill Mechanic
Want to do remote camp work 2 weeks on 2 weeks off live anywhere? I actually left Denver for Alaska and work with another guy who still lives there though works up here to be able to afford down there. Not sure I'd recommend where I work now though the money is decent and we are always hiring mechanics.

I used to work here, depending on where you live in Denver the commute can really suck. The pace was pretty slow, typical BS though could be much worse, decent benefits, underground shops were better than some surface shops, worse than others, it's either 2 weeks of days 2 weeks of nights or 4 weeks of days 2 weeks of nights, typical schedule was 14 days a month 4 on 2 off 3 on 5 off, some OT available though usually not mandatory.

https://jobs.fcx.com/Climax-Molybde...pment-Diagnostic-Mechanic-CO-80438/941633000/


Good luck, the places worth working at that pay well though they are very rare.
 

Coaldust

Senior Member
Joined
May 9, 2011
Messages
3,287
Location
North of the 60
Occupation
Cargo Tanks, ULSD, RUG, Methanol, LPG
I gotta make that kind of money to pay for the physical therapy I need to get out of bed and up on another tank. Plus, my service truck payment is more than the sh$ty single wide I live in. Which, I’ll probably loose in a couple years anyways, when I eventually go into rehab. Hopefully I can keep the rubber truck nuts hanging from the hitch. :( .
 

John C.

Senior Member
Joined
Jun 11, 2007
Messages
12,865
Location
Northwest
Occupation
Machinery & Equipment Appraiser
My cousin worked at a mine in Arizona and described how to find the place he lived at. It was down a dirt road and when you find a group of mail boxes with bullet holes in them turn right and go to the single wide mobile home on the left. His place was the third double wide after that. You will know for sure because the composition roof is coated in some kind of white goop.
 

Zewnten

Senior Member
Joined
Apr 2, 2018
Messages
553
Location
Earth
Thread took off while I was away. I'm in Denver, I started with the local John Deere outfit north of Denver, was priced out of housing, college town, so I went to private companies on the south side of Denver. But most that I applied to were disasters, some couldn't even hide in the interview how much of a mess their company was. The offers right now are $28 to $32 an hour which doesn't go very far against $2500/mo rental or $3000/mo mortgage for a nothing special place in a not so great part of the city.

I've been busy over the last week applying in Colorado, Kansas City, etc and the people in Kansas City area are biting hard, apparently they're getting some of their best guys from Denver who decided to move. One called me an hour after I sent an application in. The pay is the same or better than what's offered here but a house is half what it is here so seems like a win.

Also had a chat with someone from Cripple Creek mine, the 2 weeks on 2 weeks off would be kinda sweet being able to have lots of time with the kids. Right now I'm gone before they wake and home when they're asleep, so other than weekends I don't see them and sometimes I'm so tired from the week all I want to do is rest. My tool guy joked about the alaska/antartica jobs but I don't think the misses would keep me if I disappeared for 6 months at a time. The 2 weeks seems about max, but this one ad for cripple creek is the only one I've seen that doesn't want 2 years experience with underground equipment, of which I've got none.

As far as training all the private companies have the good tech's out in the field and the knuckle draggers in the shop. That turns out pretty much as expected. No factory training to be found. Also the shop foreman is usually buddies with the CEO or operations manager and that's how they got the job so no one actually has a clue how a real shop works. Vtech's thread is pretty typical for how too many companies operate around here.
 

barrelroll

Well-Known Member
Joined
Mar 16, 2016
Messages
90
Location
Alaska
Occupation
Mill Mechanic
Also had a chat with someone from Cripple Creek mine, the 2 weeks on 2 weeks off would be kinda sweet being able to have lots of time with the kids. Right now I'm gone before they wake and home when they're asleep, so other than weekends I don't see them and sometimes I'm so tired from the week all I want to do is rest. My tool guy joked about the alaska/antartica jobs but I don't think the misses would keep me if I disappeared for 6 months at a time. The 2 weeks seems about max, but this one ad for cripple creek is the only one I've seen that doesn't want 2 years experience with underground equipment, of which I've got none.

As far as I know cripple creek is surface and wasn't planning on going underground though it's been 2 years since I've been in Colorado. I had an interview there a while back though didn't get the job. When I was at Henderson almost none of the new hires had underground experiance so if you are interested apply. Climax is surface as well though you pretty much need to move to leadville or BV. If you are interested in Alaska shoot me a PM and I can give you a run down of the different properties. I believe where I'm at is hiring underground mobile guys without underground experiance though I could be wrong. I do know of one surface mechanic at an underground mine (smaller surface construction equipment) job currently posted.
 

Tyler d4c

Senior Member
Joined
Mar 2, 2016
Messages
1,750
Location
Salix Pa
As far as I know cripple creek is surface and wasn't planning on going underground though it's been 2 years since I've been in Colorado. I had an interview there a while back though didn't get the job. When I was at Henderson almost none of the new hires had underground experiance so if you are interested apply. Climax is surface as well though you pretty much need to move to leadville or BV. If you are interested in Alaska shoot me a PM and I can give you a run down of the different properties. I believe where I'm at is hiring underground mobile guys without underground experiance though I could be wrong. I do know of one surface mechanic at an underground mine (smaller surface construction equipment) job currently posted.
Would you mind sharing a link
 

Elvenhome21

Member
Joined
Mar 12, 2021
Messages
8
Location
Wi
Have you looked at industrial maintenance jobs. Factory/manufacturing/foundry. Pay is good and consistent. Some places are death traps but I preferred wrenching on industrial machines instead of cars/and yellow equipment. In the Midwest housing is cheap and a lot of good companies are union. Not banging the unions are best drum but the pay/benefits are almost always better.
 

Nige

Senior Member
Joined
Jun 22, 2011
Messages
28,979
Location
G..G..G..Granville.........!! Fetch your cloth.
It's the corporate chicken & egg of an employer that won't invest in their guys for fear they'll take that training and move on, versus the guys that move on because said employer won't invest in training for them to do their job.
Easy trade-off. Company provides training, employee signs on the dotted line to stay for "X" amount of time after his/her last training course was completed or incur financial penalties for quitting earlier. Win-win.
Different industry but #3 son is now a fully-qualified accountant and his employer paid for every cent of his training in return for him agreeing to stay at the company for a specified amount of time after qualifying. If he left earlier there was a sliding scale of his class fees he had to repay.
 

Vetech63

Senior Member
Joined
Aug 10, 2016
Messages
6,362
Location
Oklahoma
First off, you live in one of the most expensive areas of the country outside of California. I would get away from the big city areas as fast as I could........I'm a country boy anyway. I know here in Oklahoma you can live like a king off of a $125K paying job. The housing is reasonable, plenty of work, and everything you will ever need is a short commute. I think journeyman pay at the Cat dealer here is over $40 an hour. ......the other dealers are less but decent.
The midwest and the south seem to be the most affordable areas to work and live......and mechanics/techs are in extremely high demand.
 

John C.

Senior Member
Joined
Jun 11, 2007
Messages
12,865
Location
Northwest
Occupation
Machinery & Equipment Appraiser
Contract labor isn't much of a thing here. Probably some laws somewhere that limit it or prohibit it as all outside training seems to be done as an added employment benefit. Even training at the dealerships was paid for as regular working hours.
 
Top