I grew up like most kids in our trade, a sandbox full of Tonka trucks, dirt bikes, and a dad who could take apart almost anything with a screwdriver and an adjustable wrench.
All through middle school and high school, I knew I wanted to be some kind of engineer, I just didn’t know I’d land as an operating engineer.
I wasn’t a bad student in school by any means, I was an A- type of guy my whole school career, but I knew college wasn’t gonna be for me.
So like a handful of my other classmates, I turned to the trades.
I got my first “industry” job with A&A Crane and Rigging out of high school.
I was a blank page, ready to learn, and the crew there became my family for the next two years... They still are to this day, even after leaving the company.
I walked in as a kid fresh out of high school, and I left knowing the basics of crane operation.
But there was only so much I could do at A&A without a crane license, and the owner, John, knew this as well.
In June of 2019, he told me to take the apprentice application test with the local operating engineers union, IUOE local 478.
This is where the next very important step of my career began.
I entered my apprenticeship in May 2020, knowing absolutely nothing of the dirt world.
I could run circles around my classmates on a forklift or a crane, but I looked like a newborn in a dozer or excavator.
But that’s the great thing about being an apprentice, I get to learn and refine my skills both on a job site and at the training facility.
I know everyone has their likes and dislikes of unions and whatnot, but personally, in these three short years, I’ve had so many unique experiences running equipment.
I look back, and joining the operating engineers was probably the easiest decision I’ve ever made.
I've dug trenches on a mini excavator no larger than your office chair in the hallways of a high school, I've pushed piles of defective bullets from world war 2 in a D6 dozer, and I've built some of the most expensive houses in the country...
But I’ve only just started my journey, and I couldn’t be more excited to continue it.
