Assuming you want to learn to operate heavy equipment, I’ll ask a silly question. Why?

I said it was a silly question, since most people learn to operate heavy equipment so that they can find a career working on that equipment. Fairly logical, I know. However, there are many people who graduate from heavy equipment operator schools and find themselves in a vacuum. Where are the jobs? How do they apply for them? Who are the best employers? Brand new skills, raring to go, yet no place to put those skills to good use.

Whatever you do, don’t put those newfound skills to waste. In fact, here’s a suggestion, when researching a heavy equipment training school, check on their career services department. Some schools don’t even have a career services section, so eliminate them immediately. Career services form that vital link between a graduating student and that all important first job.

I won’t get your hopes up too high – we will not guarantee finding you a job. After all, you may be a complete rat bag who totally unsuited to heavy equipment operations. Hopefully we can weed you out before you graduate. Whilst undertaking your training, we will work with you to find the most suitable employers for you to approach. This will depend on where you want to work and the type of work you want to do. We will also work with you to ensure your resume and application letters are up to standard.

Students and graduates from ATS Heavy Equipment Operator Schools also have access to a our job site. This site is used by employers to list job vacancies when they arise. Students can also post their resumes for potential employers to check over. Every Saturday we list (on this site) some of the latest jobs available for heavy equipment operators (and truck drivers and crane operators). That’s a lot of help over and above your training – we do everything possible to ensure your new skills are not going to waste.

We often talk about grader operators and the need for accuracy in the work they do, however, they are not the only operators that need to work with accuracy. In fact, almost every piece of heavy equipment has a role that requires accuracy. Excavator operators are often under more pressure than most other operators; but then, they are venturing into delicate territory.

There has been a real push over the last decade to bury services. When you consider those services, there is electricity, gas, telephone, cable TV, and the latest – fiber optic cable. One false move by an operator and you have a gas leak, or the operator is being zapped by thousands of volts. Even worse, everyone loses power, or loses their internet connections and telephone. For the excavator operator, they only need to be out by an inch, and there’s problems.

Fortunately, most excavator operators are well trained so we rarely hear of incidents – and when we do, they are often big incidents. The key to working to precise measurements comes from the original training. Part of that training often includes learning to read site plans. It also includes heavy equipment safety training. In the past, the operator’s mantra was always ‘look up first’ – this was in reference to overhead power cables. Now, it also applies to ‘look below’.

It doesn’t matter what type of heavy equipment you are operating, safety is always going to be an issue. For some operators, such as excavator and backhoe operators, digging in areas where underground services are located is always going to be a tricky and delicate operation. When working under pressure in these situations, a cool head on the shoulders of a well-trained operator will always win through. Can you handle that pressure? Do you have a cool head? If so, have you considered a career as a heavy equipment operator?

As winter approaches, many feel that work for heavy equipment operators would start to dry up. While winter may stall some construction projects, however, there’s still plenty of alternative work available. This weekend’s job listings are varied, however, they do once again highlight the need for multi-skilled workers, especially the combination of a commercial drivers license and heavy equipment operator experience. If any of these jobs interest you, visit our job site for more details.

• Excavation Operator – Missoula, MT
  Looking for an experienced heavy equipment operator. This is a full-time position Monday to Friday starting 8am and finishing around 5pm. Applicants must have a drivers license, however, preference will be given to someone with a commercial drivers license. The position also involves manual laboring as well as equipment operation.
• Transload Operator – East Chicago, IN
  Seeking a dedicated, hard working, career-minded individual for our dry and liquid-bulk transload facility in East Chicago, IN. The ideal candidate must be detail oriented, able to work outdoors year round in all conditions.
• Light Equipment Operator – Ludlow, MA
  Looking for light equipment operator. This is a permanent, full-time position, 40 hours per week. It involves the operation of various trucks, heavy equipment and manual operation duties.
• Skidsteer operators – Huntsville, AL
• Truck drivers – Huntsville, AL
  Employer is hiring drivers with experience in tri-axle dumps. Also hiring Ready mix trucks drivers.

Don’t let anyone tell you there’s no work for heavy equipment operators or truck drivers. There is, and there always will be. If you’re interested in a career driving trucks, or operating heavy equipment, then your first step is to seek out training. Associated Training Services has a long and proud history of training truck drivers and heavy equipment operators, and you could be one of our next graduates to start a great career.

I know there are some in the construction industry who consider mobile crane operators to be second class operators – real operators drive huge fixed construction cranes. Let me let you in on a couple of secrets – first, there are three times more mobile cranes than fixed cranes; second, mobile crane operators have a more diverse career; and finally, operating a mobile crane takes more skills compared to operating a fixed crane.

One of the benefits enjoyed by mobile crane operators is the flexibility they provide. An urgent job comes in that requires a crane, send in a mobile crane. A fixed crane is just that – they are often assembled on site (at least in part) and can take weeks to move. That makes them fairly useless when it comes to urgent worked required on another site. All cranes have their uses, and that does include fixed cranes, however, that doesn’t make mobile crane operators second class operators.

When it comes to diversity, you just never know what your next job is going to be when operating a mobile crane. Simple lifts on a building site, complex lifts at a factory, or hazardous jobs such as pulling vehicles out of rivers, or righting overturned trucks could on your agenda – and that’s in one day.

If you pay attention while out driving, you’ll notice mobile cranes on the road. Some of these cranes are huge, at least the length of long distance trucks, sometimes even longer. Simply stabilizing these large mobile cranes can become complex. A career as a mobile crane operator starts with good quality mobile crane operator training that includes plenty of in-the-seat training. Get that training right, and you’ll have a long and happy career – you’ll certainly not be a second class operator.

Here’s a question to test your memory. Have you ever seen a woman operating a bulldozer?

I guess the majority of people would say “no” to that question. However, let me follow up with a second question. Have you ever really looked at a bulldozer operator?

Most people are fascinated by the bulldozer. The operator is almost unnoticeable. If you have looked a little closer, you may have been surprised since there are a lot of women now operating bulldozers.

It’s not just bulldozers. Women are training to operate heavy equipment in increasing numbers since it a job that relies more on skill and hand-eye coordination than it does strength. Once you put on work clothes, hard hat and gloves, the gender of the person in the operator’s seat is almost impossible to determine. Just as importantly, if you check any of the job ads for bulldozer operators (or heavy equipment operators in general), there is never a reference to gender. The selection criteria is, ultimately, very simple – can you do the job?

Heavy equipment operations is one industry in which new recruits are welcome. Industry in general acknowledges the need for new operators, especially when you consider the average age of operators is now quite high, and many of those operators will be looking at retirement in the next five or so years. Factor in the increase in road and bridge construction and the need for new operators is becoming urgent in some regions.

It’s interesting to note that the percentage of jobs listed in our Saturday jobs guide heavily favors heavy equipment operators. Not only that, they heavily favor operators who can operate a wide range of heavy equipment. If you’re interested in becoming a bulldozer operator, start by attending a heavy equipment training school that doesn’t discriminate, and which offers training on a wide range of heavy equipment. Whether your male or female, all that matters is being capable of doing the job, and that starts with quality training.

Training to become a truck driver is fairly straightforward. A couple of weeks in the classroom and behind the wheel and you’re ready to pass your commercial driver license tests. In most cases, students come to training with a preset notion of the type of truck they want to drive. Some students choose dump trucks while others may have a desire to haul long distance freight. Our suggestion – broaden your horizons, holding a commercial drivers license really does open the door to a very diverse truck driving career.

In theory, you can drive any truck that your license and its endorsements permit. You may prefer dump trucks, and we’ll never dissuade you from seeking a career as a dump truck driver. We will suggest you jump at any opportunities to drive trucks other than dump trucks. The more experience you have on a broad range of trucks, the more opportunities you will have in the future. Why? None of us have crystal balls.

Right now, there is work available across a range of industries for truck drivers. However, we don’t know what next year, or five years from now, has in store for us. Construction may take a huge dip and this will reduce the number of truck drivers required. If you have skills in a wide range of trucks, you can easily switch your focus to alternative trucks until the construction picks up. We do know that truck driving opportunities run in cycles with some years and/or some industries having large peaks and troughs.

With a diverse career in front of you, you may find that alternative work is more interesting and more challenging than your original truck driving choice. The bottom line? When undertaking training to gain a commercial drivers license, don’t be too restrictive in your choice of driving options. The wider your choice, and experience, the more successful your career will be, and you’ll rarely have quiet times.

Have you been looking for employment opportunities in the fields of crane operations, truck driving, or heavy equipment operations? If so, you’ve come to the right place. Each week we feature some of the best jobs that have been listed by employees on our job site, and there have certainly been plenty of them. Jobs that have been listed over the last couple of weeks include:

Highway Equipment Operator – Clinton, KY
Equipment Operator II – Tampa, FL
Finish Grader Operator – Polk County – Bartow, FL
Heavy Equipment Operator II – Walker, LA
Heavy Equipment Operator – Rhinebeck, NY
Heavy Equipment Operator/Yard Associate – Benton Harbor, MI
Heavy Equipment Operator – Laney, M.T.
Heavy Equipment Operator – Milpitas, CA
Operator – South Charleston, WV
Motor Vehicle Operator – Gatlinburg, TN
Equipment Operator/Truck Driver – Leesburg, VA
Heavy Equipment Operator – Dallas, TX
Equipment Operator – Portsmouth, VA
Heavy Equipment Operator – Sulphur, KY
Backhoe operators with CDL-A – Bryan, TX
Crane Operator – Baltimore, MD
Spray Rig operators with CDL-A and hazmat – Campbell, NE

If you have been considering a career change, don’t let anyone tell you there are no jobs in heavy equipment operations. As you can see from that list, there are plenty of jobs for heavy equipment operators spread all around the nation. Your first step is to seek out heavy equipment training, and who better to ask than those that specialize in both training and helping graduates find work?

It used to be said that when it came to heavy equipment operators bulldozer operators where a dime a dozen. These days, the opposite is almost true with most new operators looking at the more technical equipment such as excavators and road graders. There are still a lot of good bulldozer operators out there, and their ranks are slowly growing as new operators join them. Great operators are harder to come by these days, especially as our older operators start to retire. So if there are good operators around, what makes a great operator?

There is really only one way to become a great operator – and that’s through experience. However, experience alone will not suffice unless that experience has been one long learning curve. And that really is what makes a great operator – someone who treats every job as a learning experience. Every piece of dirt reacts differently. There are buried rocks, tree stumps, and all sorts of odds and ends. A recent story was more than interesting – a bulldozer unearthed a buried car, and yes, it had been stolen ten years earlier and buried – that was certainly a learning experience for that operator.

It’s true of most heavy equipment now. Every job has the potential for a new experience and that alone offers the opportunity to learn something new. A good bulldozer operator starts by laying a good skills foundation. This can only be achieved by completing a good quality heavy equipment training program. Follow that up with relevant work that allows you to build on that training and you’re well on the way to becoming a good bulldozer operator.

If you can continue to learn, rather than just turning up each day to do a day’s work, then you’ll quickly become a great operator – someone who can work on a variety of different surfaces, under a variety of different conditions, using different bulldozers each time. That’s experience that’s been put to good use – and a great operator in the making.

It is interesting to note one of the jobs that we listed on Saturday and its reference to winter work. While heavy equipment operators traditionally work in the field of construction, they are not limited to construction. Mining and agriculture rely on heavy equipment while in winter, state and country authorities rely on heavy equipment operators to keep roads open. What caught my eye from Saturday’s job listings was the following:

Operate dump truck with snow plow and salt spreader working snow and ice. Learn to operate with supervision frontend loader while loading trucks with materials & load salt during winter months.

Most snow plow operators come from heavy equipment backgrounds, commonly (but not limited to), bulldozer and grader operators. Salt is no different than dirt and sand in the way it is handled. It requires a front end loader to load it into trucks or salt spreaders, however, where it does differ is in its corrosive effect, so cleaning equipment regularly becomes important.

Heavy equipment careers are now year round careers. Operators can often find alternative work in the northern states helping to keep roads clear. Others find that their career is a perfect excuse to escape the winter chill as they work on projects in the warmer southern regions. Some operators even gain the ultimate escape by finding employment overseas – and yes, U.S. trained operators are well regarded and sought after internationally.

If you are interested in a career as a heavy equipment operator, don’t let the thought of winter unemployment deter you – there will be work, and the best time to gain experience is now. We can have you trained and work ready in as little as three weeks – well before the winter chill arrives.

New OSHA Crane Mandates now make it compulsory for all rigging and signal person personnel to meet certifying or qualification standards. For many workers, this involves training and assessment to ensure they meet these standards – and that may include workers who have been in the job for many years. This is a direct effort to increase safety awareness in workplaces, and to ensure there is a minimum standard across all workplaces in the United States where cranes are in use.

Associated Training Services (ATS) has two training programs that are designed to meet these standards. These training programs are:

Rigging / Signalperson – Qualification Program

• Meets OSHA qualification standard for rigging and signal person.
• Includes written and practical training and testing.
• 8 to 12 hours depending on number of candidates

Rigging / Signalperson – Certification Program

• Exceeds OSHA qualification standard for rigging and signal person.
• Includes written and practical training and testing.
• 32 to 36 hours (4 days) depending on number of candidates.

The ATS training programs are flexible and designed to be delivered in the workplace. We come to your site where we deliver a combination of classroom/written subject matter and testing, along with practical instruction and testing relevant to the training programs requested. Upon completion of the rigging/signalperson training program, participants who have successfully completed the required components will receive either a Qualification Compliance Card issued by Associated Training Services (Qualification Program) or NCCCO Rigging Level One and NCCCO Signalperson Certifications issued by the National Commission for Certification of Crane Operators (Certification Program).

If you have any doubts as to whether or not your employees currently meet the new OSHA Crane Mandate, contact us. We can assess your situation and determine what training your employees require to comply with these mandates.