sorry you feel that way:Banghead.... but most likely you are going to go to school for 1 year to hold a grade stick, or be a flag person just like me untill you get your chance. Its been 3 weeks now and I am averaging 7 hours a day IN a machine 6 days a week and am learning a ton from the instructors....who are all owner operators. Dont kid your self about school lasting 1 year and making you anymore employable than the next guy. It all comes down to how well/quik you learn and having the right attitude about what you will actually be doing once you are done school. Alot of the class room time is to teach you what the machine does mechanically, how to maintain the equipment, hydrolics and so on. So if you dont know much about the other aspect of being an op..... spending a whole year might be good for you, but I dont need that. I will have 200 hours in just seat time once I am done my little 13 week coarse, and I will not be to proud to hold a grade stick or use a shovel untill I get my chance to show my skills.
You would be amazed at what a 1 year course can teach you. Like Oriden said I attended the longer course. Oddly enough it was about 1/3rd the price of the course you are attending. We learned a lot about equipment, got excellent training from very knowledgeable men and yes there was a pretty wild in class program. We learned a lot of maintenance, learning the various kinds of equipment, safety and mechanics/maintenance. What some of the "other" courses in ontario teach is different. When I went back in 03 I looked around at OTDS, Fifth Wheel and Fleming as well as the mining course at Cambrian.
Staying in school longer can make you more employable believe it or not. I don't know what the courses in the U.S. teach you but we had a great instructor that taught us about bidding jobs, selecting the right equipment for the job and learning that the real bible is in fact the Caterpillar Performance Handbook. I haven't used my bidding skills until recently but I have found them very useful. I went into work last week with my binder from my Earthmoving Engineering course from 6 years ago. I'm not saying the shorter courses aren't as good as the longer ones. But if your just breaking into the industry take all the learning you can get.
Anyone one on this forum can tell you what I am about to repeat right now.... Operating is an old mans game. Most of the time us younger characters won't get the respect until we have gone 150% of what is normally expected. A lot of the time the older operators won't like you, and they don't want to teach you anything. Around here would be different because the members of this forum are obviously into this for more than "just another job". I will be 24 this year. I have a ton of hours, lots of experience and I grew up around backhoes and excavators, but I am still the young lad on site to most of the older guys. The more you can learn and diversify yourself the better off you will be. Yeah you might be holding a grade stake working a parking lot or be a traffic control engineer. But if you have the skills to understand whats going on around you... You may end up an operator faster than you thought.
And oh yeah.... college life mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm. The Nursing class....mmmmmmm
I'm done my novel now :bash
Oh I know I probably wont be operating right outta school, I'm ok with that. I think it's a good idea to do labor on the ground so you know what it's like when and if you do get in the seat. I looked into a 13 week program don't get me wrong they teach you heaps and heaps of information in those 13 weeks haha. It was the ATS school the one in NH. But that's what scared me, I looked at their courses that you do in 13 weeks and it was like 
