Humble beginnings
I’m an industrial mechanical maintenance technician. That’s a fancy way of saying I’m a “jack of all trades”. I became a mechanical maintenance guy back in the summer of ’96, but I believe my course was set when I was but a young lad back on the family farm, where my dad, intent on doing his fatherly duty to teach me to be — in his idea of one — a man, intimately involved me in just about every kind of maintenance and repair work that he could find: fixing cars, farm machines, lawn mowers, major appliances, plumbing, electrical circuits, the house, the farm buildings, working on chainsaws, and on. You name it, we probably tried to build it or fix it. Neither he nor I had much interest in academic subjects. Home work from school threatened to interfere with far more important matters, like farming, fishing, hunting, and trapping, so I avoided it as best I could. Thus, instead of taking classes in high school in preparation for a college education, I enrolled at Erie County Vo-Tech as a sheet metal fabrication student.
The path that led me here
My first technical job was with a union sheet metal shop as a helper. This was a 90 day trial position that would’ve gotten me into the union apprenticeship if I’d passed the trial, but I didn’t. I guess I wasn’t man enough yet. My next step toward becoming what I am was taking a job as a welder/fabricator apprentice with a small non-union shop. It was here that I learned to weld and got certified. I worked at this a few years, but the pay wasn’t that great and it was a bit of a commute. After a couple more of my kids were born, I needed to earn better pay so I started as a temporary production worker at the local steel mill. I was hired on permanently over a year later, and bid on every maintenance job that came along. In the following year, because I’d shown myself to be a hard worker with prior welding experience, I landed the position that I now have.
The pay-off
Since taking this job, I’ve had opportunities to work on more kinds of equipment and different projects than I can recount. My job responsibilities include but are not limited to the maintenance, troubleshooting, repair, and installation of hydraulic/pneumatic systems, belt conveyors, pneumatic conveyers, mechanical power transmission systems, pumps, roll conveyors, overhead cranes, industrial piping systems, bag house and other environmental equipment, and process water cooling and filtration systems.
In addition to learning a great deal, I also get paid a lot. I’m often bewildered by how much I’m paid without ever having graduated college. What’s more, I’ve been able to apply the knowledge and skills I learn at work in other ways that have strongly benefited me and my family. I know if I tallied up all the money I’ve saved over the years by fixing our vehicles and everything around the house, plus the extra income I’ve earned through moonlighting, the total would be substantial.
Things to contemplate if considering this career
Are you afraid of heights? Are you scared to get your hands (and every other imaginable part) dirty? Are you especially bothered by extreme heat, cold, grease and grime, dust, loud noise, wearing all sorts of personal protective clothing/equipment, wearing fall protection, filling out all sorts of safety permits and having to know and follow all kinds of safety rules? If you can answer “yes” to any of these things, then you should look for another job. As an industrial maintenance technician, you will undoubtedly be exposed to all of these things, plus many other difficult conditions and circumstances.
The most important part of the job
Make no mistake; this can be a hard and dangerous job. It can often require a seemingly superhuman attentiveness to personal safety risks and a heroic ability to adhere to the safe work practices required to eliminate these risks. There are many examples of those who either weren’t able or weren’t willing to do this and were maimed or even killed as a result. The equipment you will be working with has no conscience. It doesn’t care who you are. It doesn’t give a darn that you have a wonderful wife/husband and sweet little children at home waiting for their mommy/daddy to come home and read them a bedtime story. It will kill you in the instant you least expect it, without warning, and without a hint of remorse. Thus, safety is absolutely the highest priority. I must honestly say that I’ve had some close calls, and have even been hurt pretty bad once or twice (like when I accidentally stuck the live tip of a cutting torch inside the cuff of my work glove and nearly burned my hand off.)
On the other personal benefits of being a mechanic
For the right person with a proper mental attitude, being a mechanical maintenance technician can be a terrific career. Sure, the money’s good if you work for a strong company, but the work itself can be of the most intrinsically rewarding kind, frequently offering the ambitious and conscientious worker a powerful sense of achievement. There are those in this world who have faced difficult challenges, worked hard to overcome them even in the face seemingly insurmountable obstacles and doubt, and ultimately triumphed victoriously through perseverance and problem solving. Perhaps you are one of these. If so, you’ve come to know the exhilaration of success. Such exhilaration is what being a mechanical maintenance technician will give to the one who ‘s willing to earn it.
