Re: calling all plumbers and equipment operators

Posted by Billy NY on July 22, 2006 at 04:35:02 from (64.12.116.74):

In Reply to: calling all plumbers and equipment operators posted by Rich Iowa on July 21, 2006 at 19:02:06:

I think you reveived some top notch advice, and also think you should credit yourself for having the instinct to do better and avoid the go nowhere kind of a job. This is one of those questions where we all would probably relate our own experiences in life to help with some advice for you to consider, I'll share a little of that as well.

Ironically, at the same age I too drove for a lumberyard, 4 years 6 days a week, perfect attendance, at a job I hated, why did I hate it, pay was low, started at $5.00/hour, 4 years later $7.44/hour and I was driving tractor trailer, hauling lumber from the rail yard and delivering the roof trusses we made, some of which I think I hold the record for delivering the longest ouf of the plant, 54'-0" and a set of 60'-0"s. I've had a lot of jobs I've hated, matter of a fact even found some of the big construction projects I worked on to be less than rewarding because of the jerks involved.

Well that is some neagative energy too, yep hated this job, that job, worked for over 18 companies since in high school, almost a month's worth of a first day on the job.

Now for the positive. Even though I hated the jobs, I made sure I learned everything I could from every old timer I worked with, until I was absolutely bored with the job. The lumber yard allowed me to self teach myself about all kinds of great things, when I had no deliveries in the winter, and because we got friggin peanuts for what we did, ( yeah unload sheetrock, shingles, gravel mix bags and other materials by hand ) we would still go to work, We had a glazing shop, a very nice millwork shop and a few good craftsmen. I learned how to fix, repair, glaze and re-glaze wood and metal sash, do a fair amount of millwork, learned this area of construction materials and also carpentry, because I did that on the side, specializing in stairs. I also went back to school at night, for civil engineering.

I got my class 1 ( now class A - no restrictions, no endorsements ) at the lumber yard and I owe that to an experienced driver who stayed 1-2 years just to hold a job, you need a licensed person to take you down to the road test in NY when you only have a learners permit.

I moved on to sitework and excavation locally. I grew up on a farm, dad ran a Ford tractor dealership, biggest in the area at the time and I was good with equipment grew up around it. My first job was with an outfit that formed after there was a bitter falling out with the family owned heavy highway constrcution firm they were part of, big company and I think it was a sad thing, but he's still in business today as is the big company they had shares in. The father, who is still working with his son, is a great guy, he checked me out when I first hired on, driving the lowboy, then on the equipment. Well when I spoke to them about work, I was getting fill from them on a job another friend was doing and I was running dozer, so they knew I was a decent operator. I knew nothing about excavators, and one day we started a big pond job and Robert ( father ) says jump on that excavator and I'll push the fill off, I said I never really ran one of these before, he says but you have run a rubber tired hoe right ? Yeah, but...... go ahead climb up in there and you wil figure it out, and I did after awhile, and also watched everything he did when he ran it,learning more all the time.

Now both of these situations and more like them afforded me some good skills that get some decent pay, but evne then I knew I had more in me, more than that and I went into construction management, and went back to school again, this time NYU in Manhattan, while working days, I then built a career based on a lot of vocational experience, education and project experience. Yes, I had to travel for about 15 years or so, no money locally or work, out your way not sure how the urban environment is and the amount of work going on is, you may have to travel.

All of the jobs I had, the first one out of highschool was the worst, a bottle recylcing plant, night shift 2nd shift. Although I mastered every posistion there I could, was a local 669 teamster then, and yard foreman at 18, it was grueling as I was going to school days then. There was a lot of drinking and drugs going on there, as well as many convicts out of prison, former yard foreman was crashing trucks and trailers left and right. When they saw the clean cut kid come in for the job when first hired, they got inside information that I was to be a foreman, did not like that, well I still got the pay, but got put on the conveyor line dumping boxes of glass bottles stacked 3 cases high, I was at the end of the line. They said amongst themselves well make him quit in 3 days, yeah buddy, I outlasted everyone 1 year later. It was so bad, that I never knew when one of them was gonna start a fist fight with me or try and assault me. When I took the foremans job, just like out of a movie at lunch they had conjured up with the biggest guy there to put a hurting on me, to be honest I knew I could get killed in a place like this and I hid weapons everywhere, had a pipe stashed inside another pipe, with a lynch pin, it dropped down into your hand off a catwalk rail upright from the bottom where it was stuffed in. This guy was over 300 lbs, I was 180, he came after me and tried to clobber me and wrap me up, I kicked him in the groin 6 times and hit him in the jaw as hard as I could several times, I blocked his punches and then it ended up on the ground, until the supervisor broke it up. Another guy came after me with a wooden ax handle or some damn thing, he took a swing at me and I avoided it, grabbed his forearm and got it away from him and beat him with it, from one end of the warehouse to the other, I wanted to kill the guy and lucky I did not. Then they started foolin with the trucks' pulling the 5th wheel pin so the trailer would drop when you took off.

From then on after that last skirmish, I had no more trouble and although I had no brothers or sisters, I did find a need to be a nasty fighter sometimes, and I had and still have one best friend who was and still is a brother, he taught me many self defense tactics, and much of what he learned in karate, to help me become a better person and have an ability to be able to defend myself much better than I could, we sparred daily for years. Had no idea I'd have to use what I learned, and at that I was not the master at it like him, but it helped immensely, with discipline, respect, and also actual situations. Someone was looking out for me, I'd have been dead in that place. Again, it was another learning experience. These people were so out of their minds, they wanted more overtime, so what did they do, they burned the main crushing plant, stuffed it with cardboard and set it on fire, burned a hole in the roof and we worked months of double shifts, thats when all the madness occured in the plant.

Lesson learned, go nowhere jobs are just that and can be hazardous to your health.

I like having my class A, although driving is not for me, I dorve last year a little, for the farm we are associated with, hauling expensive show horses, and if I get pulled over, for some reason the police have been nice to me, I don't get pulled over much but when I have that Class A carried some clout, stopped at the pub for 1 beer,after work and went home, got pulled over and the breathylzer, nothing registered and the sherriff says I see you have a clean Class A and was a gent about it, told him I was 1 mile from home, was late needed some chow and had 1 beer, he knew I was not lying and said I'm sure you need this license for an income, I agreed on that. Have to be very careful, good to keep a clean abstract if you have a CDL.

I know several plumbers, it can be hard and nasty work, on some repair jobs, out in the cold on new jobs, not much different than other trades, gets decent to excellent pay and many do a lot of sidejobs that pay well, have a good friend been at it almost 15 years now, same company. Not bad, being a fitter on a big construction job may also pay well, but as mentioned, what do you do when laid off.

Well it was early, and I'm gone to far into it AGAIN ! LOL Was in the same boat, no idea what I wanted to even do but kept working at my construction career, at least the pay was good eventually. You do get wiser as you age, and the best thing you can do is do something you like, learn and do as much as you can, keeping in mind to build your resume strategically with things that add to your worth as an employee, don't waste too much time with dead end jobs, they do nothing for the resume.

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