November and December can often be quiet times when it comes to employment opportunities in the heavy equipment field. In northern areas, construction grinds to a halt as weather makes life difficult, however, many of these jobs are replaced by winter work operating snow plows and other winter-related equipment. Construction work in the south doesn’t grind to a halt although vacancies are often snapped up quickly by those from northern areas who follow the sun. That doesn’t mean there are no jobs on offer – on the contrary, we have already had the following opportunities listed on our job site in November:

Heavy Equipment Operator – GA
An employer is looking for a Certified Heavy Equipment Operator for GA Power project.

Heavy Equipment Operator – TX
If you’re looking for challenging work, then this Texas-based outfit is looking for heavy equipment operators.

Lattice Crane Operators – Radford, IA
Employer looking for certified lattice crane operators

Paving Equipment Operator – Miami, FL
Miami is a popular winter destination so enjoy the sun working for a Paving Company operating graders, dozers, and pavers.

If you are looking for a career in heavy equipment operations, don’t be put off by the winter chill. There are often jobs appearing, especially in areas that haven’t been affected by heavy snow and ice. Our heavy equipment operator schools offer training all year round.

We are proud of the reputation we have gained over almost half a century. That reputation doesn’t just stop at training people to become truck drivers, crane operators or heavy equipment operators. We have developed a reputation for working with industry to provide job ready drivers and operators – graduates who are ready to hit the ground running. We have also developed a reputation for working proactively with students and graduates to turn their training into an actual career.

Bragging? No, just stating facts. It’s hard work starting a new career. Just making that life changing decision is hard enough. Then you have to finance your training, then work your way through that training, all under a cloud of doubt – how long will it be before I can actually start work? That’s where our career services department earns its keep. No one can ever guarantee you a job – we’re trainers, not contractors who employ operators. However, we can work closely with you to find and secure that first job.

Our career services personnel have several aces up their sleeves. The first, contacts with thousands of employers. The second, and most important, is knowledge of what employers are looking for in new recruits, and how employers want to be approached. Some appreciate cold calling, others resent it. Our reputation is such that employers come to us with job vacancies – you can see some of those jobs listed here each Saturday, or you can take a short cut and go straight to our job site.

Having a dream to operate a bulldozer, grader or loader is really quite common. Turning that dream into reality is not that easy. Our career services department work with every student helping them to do just that, secure that first job and to turn that dream into a reality – and that’s why we have the reputation we’re proud of – our graduates succeed.

Taking on a new career can often be difficult, and truck driving is no different. However, the real difficulty is trying to decide on the type of truck driving you want to do. There are so many different options available ranging from long distance to local – and even then you have options within those options.

For example, there are many truck driving jobs that will have you home each night. These jobs include:

• dump truck driving
• waste disposal trucks
• heavy equipment transport
• delivery trucks

When it comes to delivery trucks, the options are very broad. You could be driving a tanker full of milk or grain from the farm to a processing plant, live animals to a feed lot or abattoir, or just general deliveries from factory to bulk store, rail head, port or another business.

You have similar options when it comes to long distance driving. You can also add international driving for rigs that cross international borders. With long distance driving, you could be driving trucks with multiple trailers and when it comes to the types of goods transported – it could be anything.

There are few careers that offer so many different options based on a single training program. Three weeks of truck driver training will have you ready to undertake your commercial drivers license test. From there, your biggest decision is going to be the type of truck driving you want to do. Fortunately, most people enter their truck driver training with a firm idea of the type of truck they want to drive, where they want to drive it, and whether or not they are looking at home each day or long distance driving. If you’re looking to become a truck driver, perhaps you should consider the type of truck you want to drive first – that then is one decision out of the way.

Operating a crane can be a challenging, exciting, and somewhat dangerous job. A lot of work goes into lifting a load, especially heavy loads. In fact, lifting and moving a load is often the easy part – the hard part being the planning and setup of your crane. When it comes to crane operator training, you can undertake a three training program that can lead to certification as a mobile crane operator – you may see these positions advertised as CCO mobile crane operators. The CCO refers to certified crane operator.

If you want to move beyond your basic mobile crane, you can take you crane operator training to the next level by adding Lattice Boom (Crawler or Truck) Cranes. A lattice boom crane is so called because of the lattice work used to create the boom. A standard mobile crane has a solid steel boom that can be raised, lowered and sometimes extended. A lattice boom crane is a little more complicated – to gain a longer boom, you need to add lattice inserts. This takes careful planning to ensure your crane is set up right.

One of the big differences, from an operator’s point of view, is the operator’s pre-start inspection. Lattice work, while adding strength to a crane, can also be its weakest point. The rust tolerance level, for example, is zero. This means lattice inserts need to be handled and stored carefully to ensure they are not vulnerable to rust attacks.

Lattice boom cranes are one of the most common cranes used so there is always demand for operators. You do need to be certified as a lattice boom crane operator before you work in this field. This means taking a further two weeks of lattice boom crane operator training and assessment in order to achieve that certification. Once certified, you can work across the nation as a CCO lattice boom crane operator.

This week’s job listings continue the trend for heavy equipment operators who are multi-skilled. Being skilled in operating a range of heavy equipment is standard in today’s workplace. However, employers are also looking for heavy equipment operators who have a commercial drivers license, and/or who can work at general laboring jobs around a constructions site. Here are a few of this week’s job listings.

Multi-Skilled Equipment Operator – Alaska
The Multi-Skilled Operator is responsible for operating light and heavy equipment and demonstrates a broad-based knowledge and experience with construction and maintenance facilities and equipment.

Heavy Equipment Operator – GA
CCCO Certified Heavy Equipment Operator for GA Power project. Functions: Major responsibilities and target accomplishments expected of the position including the typical problems encountered in carrying out the responsibilities, which include service, install, repair and inspect machinery, and heavy equipment in Refinery to keep them in good working order.

Heavy Equipment Operator – TX
Offers challenging assignments on some of the world’s largest and most complex projects.

Lattice Crane Operators – Radford, IA
Crane operators required to operate lattice cranes

Dozer Operators – Lufkin, TX
Experienced bulldozer operators required

Paving Equipment Operator – Miami, FL
Operators of construction equipment for local Paving Company to include grader, dozer, paver with ability to lead a small paving crew.

If you’re looking for a career that is constantly in demand, then consider heavy equipment. The work pays well, is challenging and very diverse and it only takes three weeks of heavy equipment training to become work ready. When it comes to employment opportunities, you only have to visit our job site to see there is always work available.

Heavy equipment operators are no different to many other workplaces in that OSHA safety requirements are enforced. This includes mandatory safety training relevant to the equipment being used, the work being done, and the site where the work is being done. Heavy equipment operators working on suspected hazardous waste sites will, for example, require HAZWOPER training. If you are working on a construction site, you may need specific construction induction training.

The concept of OSHA safety training is, as the name suggests, to ensure that employers provide safe working conditions, and that employees follow the right safety procedures. When your first start heavy equipment operator training, you will notice there is a heavy emphasis on safety. There’s a good reason for this – heavy equipment is very dangerous if used inappropriately.

At ATS Heavy Equipment Training Schools, we include safety as an important component of a student’s training. Our training meets many of the OSHA and industry standards for certification compliance leaving employees to provide any further job specific training. Competent graduates from our heavy equipment training program are well received by employers because of the safety training already completed.

For those considering a career as a heavy equipment operator, it is important to understand who is responsible for safety in the workplace. If you’re not sure – it’s the employer, so when you apply for a vacancy and you have already completed many of the training requirements, your application is looked on very favorably – the employer only needs to fill in the blanks. Safety training is an expensive process so employers want to minimize their costs. When looking for heavy equipment training, be sure their is a strong safety component – it will help you get that first job.

When learning to operate heavy equipment, there are five machines that you should spend as much time on. These five form the core of heavy equipment in use around the country and are generally the machines that most new operators are likely to work with. These five also form the basis for most other heavy equipment since the skills developed on these machines are easily transferable to other machinery. The five basic units are:

• Bulldozers – learning to operate a bulldozer really does teach a number of important skills. The two most important are controlling tracks (rather than wheels) and learning about dirt – yes dirt. Moving earth depends largely on the type of dirt you are working with, and what obstacles are in your path – for example, large boulders and tree stumps.
• Loaders – loaders are generally wheeled vehicles, however, some are articulated which can take time to get used to. You will also learn perception skills when loading trucks with a bucket load of materials. You need to get it in the truck accurately, without knocking the truck around.
• Excavators – while excavators are considered ditch diggers, those ditches require real skills. Again, earth reacts differently and operating an excavator can teach some of the finer skills required to work in some environments.
• Backhoes – this has become one of the most popular machinery in use. It combines the skills of both an excavator and a loader.
• Graders – while bulldozers do the grunt work, graders do the fine finishing work. Operating a grader can be technically challenging and it is through this training that site plans and grades become important.

If you can learn to operate each of those machines well, then you’ll be assured of a successful career as a heavy equipment operator. You will also lay a solid foundation for new skills and a range of similar heavy equipment. Heavy equipment training should be the place where those solid foundations are built.