Are crane operators well paid? According to the Wall Street Journal they are. At least, some crane operators in New York City are. The report suggested that some crane operators in the city were earning up to $500,000 each year in wages and benefits. And no, that’s not a misprint; they are collecting a half million each year.

Of course, the majority of crane operators are on far less than that – probably more like 10%, but $50,000 a year is still nothing to sneeze at. If you make it to a high rise crane operator’s position, your wage will be significantly more. Still, statistics show that crane operators in general are amongst the highest paid workers on construction sites.

If you consider the responsibility that sits in the hands of a crane operator, then you can understand why they are well paid. If you look at mobile crane operators, they still have a lot of responsibility in their hands. Their job can be dangerous, especially to others, and as such need to be very competent, very reliable, and very safe in the way they work.

Because of those demands on crane operators, it is hard to get reliable and skilled workers into the profession. This is one of the reasons why they draw larger paychecks than most others – employers have to offer better wages, benefits, and conditions to attract those good operators.

It takes several years experience before you can attract those higher paychecks, and that experience needs to demonstrate your reliability and skill. The only way you can ever hope to build a good long term career as a crane operator is by having a good skill foundation to begin with, and that requires quality crane operator training through a well respected training organization.

Undertake training today to become a crane operator, and who knows, in ten years time you could be operating one of those high rise cranes and taking home paychecks that most of us can only dream about.

There are several factors that need to come together that will ensure you have a long and happy heavy equipment operator career. The first of these factors is you. How keen are you to really work in this industry? If you are keen, then the rest can be fairly easy to work on. The second most important factor is your training.

Training to become a heavy equipment operator needn’t be long. Your training should provide you with a good grounding in heavy equipment operations along with workplace safety obligations. Your training should combine in-class training and actual hands-on operator training. Heavy equipment operations is one of those careers where you improve with experience – provided you have the good grounding to begin with. ATS Heavy Equipment Training Schools has developed a good reputation for providing industry with graduates who have that good grounding – there are thousands of successful heavy equipment operators now working successfully following our training.

The third leg of a successful career as a heavy equipment operator is just as important as the first two. That third leg is your first job. After graduating from your training school, you need to find employment that you are going to enjoy, employment that will allow you to continue learning, and an employer that understands you’re a rookie, someone who needs to find their feet in their new career.

We can never promise to find you employment. No one can – at least, not the ‘perfect’ job. We do have a specialized department, our career services department, whose only aim is to help you find that first job. We work with you to sift through all the potential employers in your region to find those that are best suited to you. More importantly, we have worked with many of these employers for a long time. They understand the difficulties that new graduates face, and often work with them to develop their new skills.

To become a successful heavy equipment operator, you need commitment on your part, training that provides a good grounding (and we provide that), and a good job to get you started – and together, we can work on that. You too can join the thousands of successful graduates who have entered the workforce through our training – you just need that commitment.