There are many reasons why it’s a good idea to get your heavy equipment operator training at ATS, but high on the list are the Career Services offered to every student. These services are important because they give you the skills and the support to find jobs, apply with impressive resumes, and interview well. If you don’t get through the hiring process, you don’t get the job even though you are qualified.

Job Leads Database & Website

Every ATS graduate has FREE access to a database with the contact information for openings all over the country and is consistently updated. That means a student can search for a job in a specific location or a particular occupation

In addition to the database, ATS graduates have been taught how to use the Career Services website, where potential employers search for new hires. This point of contact lets companies and job applicants make direct contact.

Individual Career Counseling

Early in training, you will meet with the National Career Services Coordinator. By graduation, there will be a packet of helpful items prepared based on that interview. It will include a list of potential employers in your target area and documentation on your specific skills and training.

The Coordinator is available to all students and graduates who need help with their job search, no matter how long ago that graduation was.

Soft Skills

The ability to network, write a resume, navigate the application process, and impress at the interview are “soft skills” that get you smoothly through the hiring process and on the job. Many ATS instructors have been in the industry as foremen, superintendents, and small business owners. Because they have been on the hiring side, they know what your potential employer is looking for.

The Career Services Department gives you the advantage of tools, resources, and skills so that you get the job you are trained and qualified to do.

Who doesn’t want to increase their income and make more money? It’s the American dream in action on the job site. You apply for a job, get hired, and negotiate your salary. In time, you should see your income go up. But there’s more than one way to skin that cat.

Here are 4 ways to ensure your income from operating heavy equipment goes up, not down:

1. Get promoted – The most obvious way to see your income go up as a heavy equipment operator is to get a promotion. Once you enter management, you’ll get a substantial raise and likely an increase in benefits, too. Get promoted into a supervisory role as soon as you can.
2. Establish seniority – Another way to ensure your income goes up is to stay employed with the same employer for a while. Longevity produces cost-of-living income increases. Plus, many employers reward excellent employees with pay raises, safety bonuses, and other monetary perks.
3. Multiple certifications – You can increase your income just by obtaining additional certifications. Get your CDL, mobile crane operators certification, or riggers certification and you’ll instantly be in more demand. You can then ask for more money for your skills.
4. Freelance – You’ll make a lot more money if you work for yourself. If you can afford to buy your own equipment, you can hire yourself as a freelance heavy equipment operator. This is the best way to earn top dollar, but you will be responsible for your own insurance, marketing, and ongoing training.

What ways can you think of to increase your income as a heavy equipment operator?

There are all sorts of heavy equipment careers. What kind of career you want if you’re willing to work hard for it. The first step is training, and you want to be trained by the best, I’m sure.

Have you done a career outlook study yet? If not, the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) publishes an annual outlook on careers in the U.S. A quick look at the construction industry shows that the median income for construction equipment operators in 2010 was $39,460.

That’s the median, which means half the salaries were above that.

Tractor-trailer truck drivers made slightly less than that. But if you look at the number of jobs in 2010, there were over 1 million. Growth expectation is 21%, higher than average.

The BLS website is a wealth of information on all sorts of careers. You should check it out and chart the kind of career in heavy equipment you want to have. What the information doesn’t show is a specialization within these fields. If you have your crane certification, for instance, you can command more income. If you have crane certification and a commercial drivers license, then you can earn more.

Talk to a few heavy equipment operators in your area and find out how much they earn. Different parts of the country have different costs of living and therefore different salary expectations.

One thing is clear. You can have the career you want with the proper planning.

When considering any career change, it’s important to look at the bigger picture, and this includes employers. If you’re looking to enter the field of heavy equipment operations, one key element is job vacancy – what, exactly, is an employer looking for? It may sound very simplistic, and it is in terms of social skills – for example, reliability. However, you need to look a little closer.

If you look back over the job vacancies that have been posted on these pages each Saturday, and on our jobs website, there is one characteristic that should stand out – employers are looking for heavy equipment operators. They are not looking for bulldozer operators or road grader operators – they are asking for multi-skilled operators. Sometimes they will list the range of equipment that an operator could be required to operate, however, it stills boils down to a requirement for a multi-skilled operator.

That doesn’t mean you cannot specialize in one piece of heavy equipment. It does mean that opportunities may be limited if you do specialize. Sometimes, the key to specialization relies in the old-fashioned ‘foot in door’ theory. Get a job with an employer who is looking for multi-skilled heavy equipment operators, then work your way into becoming their main bulldozer operator, or grader operator (or whichever equipment you want to specialize in).

Like all careers, undertaking training that meets the needs of employers is the first step to success. Being willing to meet those needs in the short term will help to further your career. Once you have the experience and reputation, you can then start to dictate the direction of your career. Your first step is to find a heavy equipment operator training program that exposes you to a wide range of heavy equipment. The wider the range, the better your chances of a successful career.

There is a big difference between training for a one off job and training for heavy equipment careers. A one off job is just that – one off. This means you are often trained on only piece of equipment and you are trained to do the job in one specific way. Training for a career should be undertaken on a range of equipment doing a range of tasks.

Is there one off training? There is actually and this is often done by industry itself. If you are employed by a specific industry, or by a business that uses heavy equipment, you will be trained to do the job their way. What is missing is the broader training in safety along with broader training in what each piece of machinery can do.

By undertaking training through a heavy equipment training organization, you get that broad level of training. This won’t prevent you from working in industries that require specific training – in fact, you could be more employable since you have the basic skills required. You would only need to undertake the job specific component, meaning you would be productive far quicker than someone who has to do all the training.

Crane operator training is one area that has a significant number of operators who have only been trained to do one particular job. Those crane operators often struggle when trying to ply their skills in others areas.

If you’re considering a career as a heavy equipment operator and you don’t want to be restricted to one type of machinery, ensure you undertake training for a heavy equipment career – not for a one off task on one type of equipment.

Heavy equipment careers are not quite the same as many other careers. Sure, most careers offer a lifetime of employment opportunities. Many also offer advancement opportunities, sometimes to the very top of a business empire. A career in heavy equipment does offer a lifetime of employment opportunities, but it goes far beyond that.

For starters, qualified and experienced heavy equipment operators can work just about anywhere in the world. You may have to learn some of the local safety aspect, but otherwise, heavy equipment is heavy equipment.

Many operators decide that rather than relying on someone else for employment, they will buy their own equipment and start working for themselves. This can be particularly lucrative if you start out with one of the smaller machines like a bobcat or small backhoe.

A career in heavy equipment goes beyond all of that. Being part of a construction team is a little like being in the military. You develop a strong sense of camaraderie – you’re prepared to go into battle for one another. Construction teams develop these strong bonds as they work together day-in and day-out, often in potentially dangerous situations, and become well oiled units that complete projects with little problems.

Even when a team splits up, for instance, when a project finishes, those bonds remain. You can see it, even years down the track when they meet up again on a new job. You can see the effect these teams have when you watch a new arrival – particularly a young person. As they become a part of the team, their confidence grows and with it their ability to get a job done well.

Heavy equipment careers are not just careers for life. Heavy equipment careers become your life – but not in a negative or overpowering way. For the tens of thousands of operators out there, the life of a heavy equipment operator is second to none. They love the work, they love the hours, and they love their work team. There are not many people in careers who can say that – for the whole career.

One popular misconception when it comes to heavy equipment is that excavators simply dig trenches. In fact, you could almost say the opposite was the case. Excavators do dig trenches, however there are other machines such as back hoes that can also do the job.

Excavators have a wide range of tasks that they can perform and they are not just restricted to the construction industry. Excavators often play a huge role in the transport of large trees. The excavator may be involved in digging out the root ball, helping to lift the tree onto a truck and, at the other end, digging the hole to take the root ball, then helping to lift the tree into that hole, The complete all around performance.

They can also be employed as part of a demolition team. Their role is varies ranging from helping to knock down walls to helping with the clean up and loading large sections of rubble onto trucks.

Excavators may also be involved with general grading and landscaping; heavy lift, particularly the lifting and placing of pipes; they have also been used in river dredging, open-pit mining and, using special hydraulic attachments, brush cutting.

The role of an excavator operator is a varied one. You can work in just about any environment from the concrete jungle of the city to the wide open spaces of the desert and everything in between. You could be digging holes today, planting trees tomorrow and involved with the precise laying of pipes the following day.

Fancy yourself as an excavator operator? The first thing you need is training, the second, a secure job. We can deliver the first and if you successfully complete your training, we may be able to help with the second. Contact ATS Heavy Equipment Operator Schools for more details.

Occupation descriptions, or job descriptions, come in many formats and some are quite deep in their requirements. Others can be brief and often make it sound like any one could apply for a vacancy.

An occupation descriptions is often broken into three or four parts. An overview, task description, required skills/training and personal attributes.

Description:

Operate mechanical boom and cable or tower and cable equipment to lift and move materials, machines, or products in many directions.

Tasks:

• Clean, lubricate, and maintain mechanisms such as cables, pulleys, and grappling devices.
• Determine load weights and check them against lifting capacities in order to prevent overload.
• Inspect equipment, structures, or materials to identify the cause of errors or other problems or defects.
• Running, maneuvering, navigating, or driving equipment.
• Using hand and arm signals for installing, handling, positioning, and moving materials, and manipulating things

.

If you don’t have those skills yet would like a career as a crane operator then perhaps you check out ATS Heavy Equipment Training Schools to see when your next course begins.

There are many individuals to whom a career as a heavy equipment operator sounds appealing. The big problem for many, or the fear, is that after training they wont find a job to use the skills learned. For these individuals, a job placement service may be just what they need to get started.

The job placement service developed at ATS Heavy Equipment Training Schools has an excellent success rate with both employers and former students happy with the results. The school’s placement database contains thousands of employers who hire graduates on completion of training. In some cases, graduates are find employment before even completing their training.

Once you start your training the job placement service starts working with you helping you to locate potential employers. With thousands of employers in the database, finding the right one for you is not going to be all that difficult. In fact, you may have trouble selecting which employer you want to work for.

If you are employed through the job placement service they will continue to follow up to ensure that both you and the employer are satisfied and that the position is working well for you both. If employment is holding you back from undertaking training then speak to a representative from ATS Heavy Equipment Training Schools to see what assistance is available to get your career started.

Most people look at an excavator as a trench digger, or perhaps as a piece of heavy equipment capable of digging holes. Excavators are actually very versatile pieces of equipment that can do a lot depending on the attachments that are available.

Excavators have been used in a wide variety of situations from demolition work through to brush cutting when operators use hydraulic attachments. Some of the task involving excavators include:

1. Digging of trenches, holes, foundations
2. Demolition
3. General grading/landscaping
4. Heavy lift, e.g. lifting and placing of pipes
5. River dredging
6. Mining, especially, but not only open-pit mining
7. Brush cutting with hydraulic attachments

Learning to operate an excavator is not difficult, however learning how to do the more specific tasks such as river dredging may require more intensive on the job training. However, if you don’t have the basic skills then learning some of the more advanced task could be very difficult.

ATS Heavy Equipment Training Schools has a full range of heavy equipment training including excavators. Pay them a visit and see if becoming an excavator operator is a career for you.