What's up FTE!?

Over the last couple months I've been thinking hard of going back to school. Namely in the Heavy Equipment Operation industry.

Been looking into the oil/gas fields. It's still kind of a grey market yet being somewhat new here in OH but the money is there and stability. I've taken an interest in heavy equipment but never really exposed to it to learn anything. Only thing I am certified in is driving a forklift/cherry picker. Big deal.

I went to visit a school today that offers such training. Specifically Great Lakes Truck Driving School in Columbia Station, OH. About 1 hour east of me. I'm impressed with the courses and training they offer. Hell they offer NCCER training which is outstanding IMO. Very simple facility which is also a big plus for me. Not looking for a full blown university.

Before I get too long winded here, I've been applying to the railroads consistently for the last 4 years, All I get is no from them. Hence another reason why I want to go back to school.

For those of you who work in the oil/gas industry, I'd like to hear your take on it. For the record, I'm 30 years old, married and no kids (not yet anyway

 

Not the same industry, but I started running heavy equip pretty young, actually paid for college with it as a summer student. Parents pushed me to finish school and I got my papers and went straight back to running heavy equipment. Anyways, long story short, I have been doing it for a quite few years now and still love it. Seems your like me and know its what you want to do, so I bet you will be good at it.

Good luck.

 

I inquired at one of the local community colleges that has a pretty good program. Guy that ran the program told me that they had cut their training back because of a glut of operators in the workforce that couldn't get a job. Lots of them laid off in the last downturn and still excess capacity so no jobs for the newer guys coming out of school. Wages were fairly flat because of all the unemployed guys willing to take anything to get back in. Take it for what's its worth but he didn't have a reason to mislead me.

He did say they couldn't turn out enough of the guys that work on the heavy power lines and such. Utility companies snatching those guys up and not only did they place all their grads but the utilities were checking in periodically looking for more.

Again, just my experience in the Carolinas. Good luck with your decision.

 

northern ohio ...union state... id look to see if they can help out ...but the way its going here its tough... good luck

 

So what exactly do you learn in equipment operator school?

In my time, if you could figure out how to start it, you were qualified to run it.

 

Lol, company I work for is pretty strict with the first couple pieces of equip they "sign" you off on. Have to record your hours, etc. After your signed off several pieces and they know your not completely haywire, trainers start pointing at equip, see that, your signed off.

 

Probably insurance regs dictate a lot of that stuff these days.

 

One of the first times I ever ran a Bobcat for any length of time, it had a 7.5' plow blade on it, and I was backdragging empty parking spaces (as in single spaces between two cars) in a busy grocery store parking lot. That was with only some basic instruction and an hour or so of driving around a safe area to get the feel of it. Talk about pucker factor...

Jason

 

UNIONS in northern ohio