How did you get your start as an operator?

[BrianHay]

Thought it might be cool to have a thread where we tell our stories about how we got started operateing equipment.

I got mine when a road was being built near were I lived. I had a little bit of time on a packer already but very very little. I was basically 100% green. I stopped in atleast once a day to visit the boss and bug him for a job. I would hit him up with 20 questions every time. I wanted to know everything about what was going on. What each machine was doing and why. Finaly after nearly two weeks of this he laughed and pointed at were the laborers were shoveling and packing gravel around a big pipe that was being put in for a little creek that ran under the road. "grab a shovel!!" I jumped in grinning ear to ear and started shoveling. Everyday every chance I got I visited with the operators and learned all I could from them. Before long I was playn with the machines on my breaks. I showed intrest in what the mechanics were up to and helped them work on the iron every chance I got. Soon they were calling on me to do minor stuff on my own when they were to busy on other jobs to far away to get there. I also worked with the surveyors when I could, learning how the grade stakes worked and how to shoot grades. And then started shooting grades for the hoe operator. wasn't very long and I got the unofficial title or labor foreman. Boss would give me the tasks for the labor crew in the mornings and I would organize us and make sure it got done. Also started getting on the equipment more. Running the loader back and forth to the gravel pit loading trucks, skidding trees I fell off a slope stacking and burning them. Running the 815 and often using it more as a dozer then a packer. Then one day one of the cat operators that was running an old D8K quit in the morning because he was tired of running it in the heat (was stupid hot out) with the fan on suck. The blades were seized and couldn't be turned. Parts were on order but he had enough and wasn't waiting for them any longer. Boss cruised up to me and asked "you can run that cat eh Brian?" ..... "well I can make it move" he yelled out as he was driving away "good! make it move get to work!" Two weeks later the parts arrived and the cat was mine. Ran it the rest of the season dozing and helping the 627's in the mud when they needed it. Had two months off in the winter, finished that job in the spring and they took me to the next with them. When we got to the next job there was 4 next to new 631's there (some happy scraper ops) and an 8L for me to push them with. The 8 was to small and a couple weeks later a 9L arrived for me. There I was a teenager on a 9 making more money then most of my friends dads. I felt like the king of the word. Been hooked ever since.

Anyone else want to share their story? I thought some of these guys coming in asking about how to get started might realy benefit from hearing our stories. Not just stories like mine but you guys that went to school to become operators too. What school did you go to? What did they cover in the classes? How well did it prepare you for your first job? If you could do it all over would you still take the school route? Same school?

 

[Mack]

I got started by anoying the crap out of anyone that I knew to let me run equipment finally after about a month my Dad put me on a Link-Belt excavator at the farm and told me to go burry the pile of trash. So I did and have been runing machines ever since.

Now I'm mostley am incharge of finding equipment and trucks that we need, but when I'm not doing that I go look at jobs that we are going to bid on and am learning how to estimate them, I'm also learning about how to take grades, but I still love runing machines and still do quite a bit.

I guess that's not to bad for someone who is only 17.

 

[RollOver Pete]

Back many, many years ago, when Tonkas were still made of steel was the start of my career.
With a blade, loader, crane, dozer, excavator and a rock truck, I went to work on the first of many projects.
PVC pipe as my sewer main and sprinkler heads as manholes, I had quite the sub devision in my back yard.
So.....from about the age of 3 I knew that I wanted to be one of those guys who operated those huge yellow tractors.
8 years later I ran my first 2U...and never looked back.
The rest is history.
I never grew up,
I just got a bigger Tonka Toy.
:cool2

 

[Copenhagen]

I began as a laborer for Kiewit as soon as I finished high school. I did that for 2 years and decided that I had enough. I moved to Texas and went to work for an environmental company. The owner told me that he was looking for an equipment operator and I told him that I had years of experience. I actually only had a few hours in a loader.

Since I had done some time as a laborer watching machines all day, I knew their basic operation and I also knew how to move dirt the right way.

I am luck that I am a fast learner because he had me in an excavator the next week. I ran every type of equipment for him for the next 3 years.

We had a slow down and I asked if I could help locate jobs. I was soon the Estimator for the company. We went from 3 employees to over 200 during Katrina and now we are back down to about 15.

I just opened an office in Colorado and now I am starting over from scratch. I am a one man wrecking crew with the part time help of a few high school friends that didnt move away. Hooray Me!!

 

[King of Obsolete]

simple, no one else showed up and i was vollenteered to run the machine. if you can get it started, you can operate it.


thansk

 

[Steve Frazier]

I had applied to a construction company as a truck driver. I wasn't aware that when they needed you somewhere else, that's where you went. We had to load our own trucks and fill in on other machines wherever we were needed. It was like a learn on the fly experience. I had run farm tractors when I was younger, I found the transition fairly easy.

 

[d6catd]

:usa well to start off im gonna say my career started about the same as rollover pete. i had most of the real tonkas grader,loader,rock truck,and dozer. i had quite a massive mine and hundreds and hundreds of feet of good ol dirt road haha its funny when you think back that far and if you think about it thats how alot of us EO's got our start. I got on my first piece when i ws bout six or so my grandpa let me brush hog the pasture with him and just keep goin back for more. I got my first real experience on a summer job when the operator didnt show up and they asked me if i wanted to try and run the hoe (backhoe) i was really excited as wel as nervous but to tell you the truth i was a natural i was 16 yrs old and i decided right then and there that this is what a i wanted to do. I am 21 now and lovin every minute of it as im sure you guys are too.:Cowboy

 

[BrianHay]

I started my story with my first real job on the equipment but since guys are telling what motivated you to want it I will to
I had the toys as well and my dad was a logger up until we moved to Alberta from BC. My best memories of being a kid were going out to the bush with him and riding along on all the equipment. Spent several summers in our holiday trailer in camp with him. I would walk out to the landing pulling my wagon with his lunch in it everyday so I could hang out and get a ride back in the skidder...I was hooked on iron before I could talk lol

 

[CM1995]

Back many, many years ago, when Tonkas were still made of steel was the start of my career.
With a blade, loader, crane, dozer, excavator and a rock truck, I went to work on the first of many projects.
PVC pipe as my sewer main and sprinkler heads as manholes, I had quite the sub devision in my back yard.
So.....from about the age of 3 I knew that I wanted to be one of those guys who operated those huge yellow tractors.
8 years later I ran my first 2U...and never looked back.
The rest is history.
I never grew up,
I just got a bigger Tonka Toy.
:cool2

Pete - your story brings back fond memories for me. My dad would take me to the Deere dealership and buy the ERTL models for me. I had a dozer, track hoe, elevating scraper, skidder and a few tonka's. The problem I had was the Tonka's and the Deere models were different scales and it was not realistic enough for me.

I had several LF of subdivisions and highways running in the backyard. I would use PVC when I could find it for drainage but mostly used garden hose - copper wire for my phone and power lines, buried underground of course. I would fill up coke bottles full of sand and cement from the "real" jobsite and pave what I could - I would also sneak Sakcrete out of the garage for the tough jobs. I didn't have any sanitary sewer - all my lots were septic tank. I also had a landfill because I had to do something with all the weeds - I mean trees - since my parents would not let me play with fire.:Banghead (I finally gave up on fire after many sore rear ends)

I remember getting excited every time I saw those orange signs on the road. I could watch those big machines work all day long. My dad was a framing contractor then and would take me to work when they had a 955 backfilling the foundation - boy was that awsome.

My first real piece of equipment to run was an 843 Bobcat at age 12. When I turned 16 my dad had me pulling the bobcat with the F350 grading and backfilling around houses. Bought my first backhoe in '01 and it has been a steady aquisition since then. I have loved the smell of diesel and fresh dirt since I can remember.

 

[Grader4me]

I was lucky as I landed a full time job with the provincial government at the age of 16. First couple of years with the bridge crew. The foreman asked me if I would like to try the post hole digger (this was mounted on the back of a old chevy single axle truck) so I tryed it and knew that ..yup, I wanted to be a operator.
I went with the highway department after that and started out as a wingman on the plow truck. Soon I was driving the plow, sandtruck, backhoe and grader. Loved every second of it. Took the grader full time, but every summer for 3 weeks (when regular operator was on vacation) I operated the backhoe on ditching jobs. Did this just for a change and to keep up on my skills.
Now in my old age I still work for the department, but as an instructor. But..during training our people on equipment I still get to play..sometimes they have to pry me of the darn things

 

[Dustin Mason]

Ice Cream

Yep, ice cream did it for me. I suppose I should expound. Grew up on a farm, and my father and uncle also had a dumptruck and an old Case 530 backhoe for some side work. Every Saturday was ditch-digging, topsoil/shale/gravel delivery day. I loved to ride along, I am guessing I started pre-kindergarten, we weren't too worried about seatbelts and such in those days. Anyways the usual ritual was to stop for an ice cream cone sometime early-afternoon. I was hooked. Wasn't too long I was old enough to ride along with my father on the 'hoe as he loaded the truck. As I got older, I am guessing less than 10 years old or so, he would drop the stabilizers in one spot at our shale bank and I would dig shale with the hoe until he returned empty for another load. Things progressed from there.
Part of the reason also, I wasn't allowed to have a motorcycle in my youth, they were just "too dangerous" according to my mother, so I spent my time operating old, well worn farm and construction equipment, yeah, that was MUCH safer. (I certainly do not condone some of the things I did)
My first summer after I went to college I got my first off the farm job at a local construction company. "Better hire on as a laborer" my dad told me. That lasted all of two weeks, they found out what I could do with a piece of equipment, and I was assigned to a seat from then on.

Good thread, I certainly enjoy reading everyone's experiences.

Dustin

 

[Squizzy246B]

Oh, this is a bit of a long story:

I left home at 15, from the Farm in South West Western Australia to the big smoke in Sydney, did my boilermakers apprenticeship and then went on in engineering. Rose pretty rapidly to some high pressure jobs..and ended up at about age 28, burning out...running big projects, had blokes twice my age working for me, and running amok in general...failed marriage through mainly spending too much time Overseas. Fast Cars, Fast women and slow horses if you know what I mean. I was not what you would call the nicest person.

Anyway, best thing that ever happened, management decided I needed to have a break, get back on the tools, they put me on long service leave and sent me up the mines, place called Mt Newman. I spent 2 months inside 988 buckets disolving boxes of Hardfacing electrodes. I really enjoyed that, and it came to pass that I realised that all the engineering skills and abilities in the world don't mean much if you don't have the personal skills and right attitude to get along.

Anyway, one day I ran one of the 988's out of the workshop and brought in another. The pit boss saw me and asked where I learnt to drive a loader, I told him I had always been around machinery and had variously run a few machines for short periods but I wasn't an "operator". He said like hell and next day I started in the pit...he caught me doing backend wheelies in the 88's a couple of times so I always got the old 980 He was a good teacher though. This started a longer, more close relationship and fondness for Heavy Earthmoving equipment. Most of my annual leave was spent back at the mines running loaders and excavators.

The funny thing was, welding buckets I was getting $55/hour (big money then) but on the loader I only got $32/hour. For the first time in my life the money didn't matter.

 

[digger242j]

...did my boilermakers apprenticeship and then went on in engineering. Rose pretty rapidly to some high pressure jobs..

I'm going to resist the urge to comment...

The funny thing was, welding buckets I was getting $55/hour (big money then) but on the loader I only got $32/hour. For the first time in my life the money didn't matter.

I think, if we could, that a lot of us would do this for free...

 

[MKTEF]

Well i grew up in the backyard and inside my granddads/uncle and dads garrage.
My clothes had to be changed every day because of the oilstains....(from age 5)
I started inside a Massey Ferguson 33? wheel loader. About 5-6? sitting on the hand brake while the driver was mowing snow.
Later i spent a lot of time on the Ford 3000 tractor, clearing snow around the garrage and gas station in the age of 13-18.
Same time i spent hours in my dads old jcb 3D.

The real and payed job as a operater started when i was 18 in a Volvo 5350B artic. I got a couple of hours training one weekend, when we did some service work on the machinery. The following monday i was driving it fulltime on the road construction site.

Since that it has been all types of equipment and work.
Today i am the head of all education on construction machinery in the Army.
And beeing one of the guy's with a lot of competence on building military camps around the world...

 

[Ford LT-9000]

I started out as a labour/mechanic but now have a sort of a office job I don't even get dirty

I don't really enjoy the job but and rather be in the dirt again but sadly the excavation work is seeing a down turn in my area its going back to normal levels again. The demand for equipment operators isn't a issue there is too many equipment operators now.

Many of the older generation operators are unable to retire because the cost of living is skyrocketing some of these guys are 65 and older. If the older generation can't afford to retire then there are no openings for the younger generation. The older generation can't afford to live off of old age pension they have investment savings but they can't be dipping into those they need that for when they are too old to work.

Then company attitudes are getting worse they want guys with experience for McDonalds wages. The highways maintenance contractors are like that they expect to pay a truck driver 15 dollars per hour. Don't work that way because at 15 dollars per hour thats poverty level it should be minimum wage for B.C.

If your with a good company stick with them the gravy train days are gone the attitude with some employers now is fill their own pockets the employees are just a number to them your the ciggarette butt they step on.

The days are disapearing when a contractor would take a green horn on and train them most contractors are not interested in that anymore. When the baby boomer generation and the generation before that had a much more easier time to get a job. It was on the job training now employers want experienced employees. How is a person supposed to get experience if they can't get hired.

 

[BrianHay]

Go with the work. Up until reacently Southern Alberta was the same way. Next to noone I know that is an operator gets to stay home we all travel and get paid very well to do it. I get all my expences paid for and then some. I make as much of off my living out allownce as lots of people make for their wages alone. And loa is tax free. Every job is a new adventure in a new place. And work has never been a problem to find. The down side to it is its no life for a family man I have an ex wife that raked me through the coals and 3 kids I barley know. Most that I have worked with are in the same boat.

 

[nedly05]

I Grew up on equipment, my Mother has pictures of me sitting on my Dad's lap on the backhoe when I was a baby. Now I run the backhoe, I just don't sit on Dads lap anymore.

 

[RonG]

This topic was just about duplicated a couple months ago,I will include the link for those that may have missed it.Ron G
https://www.heavyequipmentforums.com/Forum/showthread.php?t=2925

 

[mflah87]

I started off harassing my uncle who worked for a sewer and site company. I'd go with him on saturdays and during the summer. After that I bought an old dynahoe and mack six wheeler and started paving driveways. Now I very rarely get to run a machine. I do miss though digging around phone, electrical, gas, water.

 

[IndySKS]

Well being a new guy here...I'll chime in and give my history.

I grew up on a small farm on the edge of town. Dad had an old Massey tractor with a hoe on it. I used to sit for hours pretending to run in it. As i got a bit older I got braver and learned to start and operate it...I don't think dad ever knew what kept causing the mess behind the barn...yea right. As i got older I was given a few opportunities to dig some post holes with it.
My brother who is 11 years older worked for a local contractor, at the ripe age of 13 i begged him to take me to work with him. It took time but eventually i became the guy who parged the CB's for $2/hr ...hey at 13 it wasn't bad.
Opportunities came for other duties and I grasped them. I spent 4 summers and many weekends with them. The company shut down and my brother started his own business, within a month at the ripe age of 17 I became his first full time employee. I worked doing what ever i was told and got be in the machines whenever I could. By fall I got put on a crawler loader on a big site to level gravel. I spent a number of years on that machine and eventually onto 6 way dozer's, all while doing labor or mechanical work when needed.
The company grew, although my passion was dozer's, I had the chance to be the main excavator operator...a very intimidating time since i had spent very little time in the seat of one. Time passed and i operated /shoveled/ drove /fixed or did what ever was needed. Eventually I gave up the main operator seat for more of a supervisor/ lead hand job. I worked winters for the local municipalities running road grader/dump-plow trucks and loaders.
We got into more of road reconstruction projects and I took over looking after these and many other projects...still while being the guy in the hole more often than not. I spent 21 years there before an auto accident caused a significant change in my life and as a result i took a job as a Public Works Supervisor for a town of 6500. I know have a staff of 9 of the best guys/gals i could ask for and look forward to spending many years with them while helping to educate the younger ones and learning from the senior citizens.....lol