The Top Three Heavy Equipment Jobs That No One Knows About
The Top Three Heavy Equipment Jobs That No One Knows About
Guest writer Isaac Rollor is back this week with a blog post on the top three heavy equipment jobs that no one knows about – other than technicians!
Most of my blogging in the heavy equipment world focuses on issues related to heavy equipment technicians. However, recently I was speaking with an industry insider who complained that any college aged worker looking for jobs in the heavy equipment world is bombarded by marketing towards technicians and operators. There is truly little focus on filling other technically focused heavy equipment positions that are currently in high demand. This really piqued my curiosity because it’s a true statement. Open any search engine and type “Heavy Equipment Jobs” what will you find? Jobs for operators and technicians, training for operators and technicians. Millions of dollars in search engine optimization focused to make sure that anybody who wants to be around yellow iron becomes an operator or a technician.
To be honest, this is something that was never obvious to me, though it should have been. As a subject matter expert, I always knew that there was opportunity beyond working as a technician. I didn’t promote these opportunities because I was busy making sure every knew how great being a technician is. To investigate the matter, I called up a college aged family friend who is currently considering a career at the OEM dealer level. I was quite sure that even though I had never evangelized opportunities beyond being a technician, people must know that other opportunities exist beyond the role of technician. Surely, they did, right?! My assumptions fell flat when my contact couldn’t name any other position beyond “master technician.” When I pressed him for more detail he said, “I guess a technician could work for the parts department or maybe move into sales.” No mention of the service department, no mention of failure analysis, no mention of remarketing……. because he didn’t know. No one ever told him that there were many other jobs that a highly technical heavy equipment expert could move into during a career in the industry.
As I thought more deeply about this, I realized that for many years I was like a doctor who was prescribing a particular medication because there was currently a surplus of that medication. Okay, so that’s a little over top but it makes my point. Just because there is a massive need for technicians doesn’t mean that everyone who shows interest in heavy equipment is a good fit to be technician, even if they have the aptitude or ability.
Right now, there are a lot of talented people who think that technicians and heavy equipment operators are the only positions in high demand with the heavy equipment industry. I still think that being a technician or operator is a distinguished career choice, but I would also like to offer up my top three job title picks for 2023 not including technician or operator.
Product Support Manager:
As a Product Support Manager, you will collaborate with multiple teams to deliver the best possible experience to the end user of your OEM’s product. This position can be found at the manufacturer or dealer level. Many Product Support Mangers were technicians prior to taking on this position. Having a technical background is greatly beneficial because in this role you will be guiding warranty repairs, serving as the subject matter expert for failure analysis questions and directing teams from service, parts, sales, and warranty to get a customer’s machine running again. One of the great parts about the role is that you get to travel and see a lot of interesting construction, forestry, and mine sites. All this travel requires a 4×4 vehicle and it is customary for most employers to provide you with a company vehicle.
Here are the typical qualifications/requirements for this role:
- Work independently.
- Possess basic mechanical skills for equipment setup and operation.
- Equipment sales experience.
- Effective communication and people skills.
- Excellent customer service skills.
- Excellent computer skills.
- Expected travel within the area of responsibility, minimum of 50% of the time.
Parts Sales and Service Representative
As a Parts Sales and Service Representative you will be responsible for forecasting the parts and service that a fleet of machines will need over its lifetime and then building a strong relationship with your customers so that they buy parts from you and set up service contracts with your dealer or manufacturer. Having a technical background is always helpful when working in this position. This experience will help you connect with your customers. The parts sales and service representative (PSSTR) can work at the manufacturing level or dealer level. The PSSR will frequently bridge the gap between the service department and sales department. A lot of times the PSSR spends more time with the customer than the salesperson who sold them the fleet of machines in the beginning.
Here are the typical qualifications/requirements for this role:
- Previous customer service experience.
- Certification in office management, or related programs is beneficial.
- Communicate effectively with customers and internal team members.
- Travel if required.
- Demonstrate aptitude for problem-solving.
- Initiative-taking; adaptable to change with strong organizational skills.
- Purposeful and able to work both independently and within a team.
- Fluent in computer literacy. Proficiency in Microsoft Office and a DMS system experience.
- Candidate must be detailed orientated and have an important level of accuracy, able to adapt to a challenging environment.
Technical Trainer
As a technical trainer you will be responsible for training technicians and service personnel to troubleshoot, diagnose and repair equipment. This position isn’t a good fit for anyone with stage fright. It’s common to have 10-15 highly technical learners in your classroom ready to learn about a new product/technology. This is a highly visible role, and this position is available at the dealer and manufacturer level. As a technical trainer you will typically work for the training department, but you will frequently work with the service department, publication department and warranty department to develop content and deliver content.
Here are the typical qualifications/requirements for this role:
- Must have a high school diploma at a minimum, BS or BA degree preferred. Minimum of five (5) years of industry experience or equivalent experience in the areas of Adult Education, Training and/or Continuing Education.
- Previous training with College/Technical School programs and courses supportive of proficiency in mechanical aspects of construction/mining equipment preferred. Prominent level of technical knowledge, competency, and aptitude on construction/mining equipment that includes but is not limited to repair experience/knowledge, with on-the-job training/experience with great emphasis on machine troubleshooting. High degree of industry knowledge relative to best practices with training development and delivery.
- Well versed in training curriculum design and development. Experienced with presentation, classroom, and material preparation skills. Should be intimately familiar with Instructional design as well familiar with best practice teaching methods.
- Excellent computer and software skills pertaining to business systems, training development and training delivery required. Proficient in the use of Power Point, Excel, and Word. Preference of knowledge concerning media development software products utilized in course ware development. Capable of assimilating into or learning any software application needed to perform development and delivery of training programs.
- High degree of motivation, creativity, innovation as well accept empowerment to ensure training classes are best practice, productive and training results are recognized as a “value add” to the participants and to their customers.
- Excellent classroom presentation skills, demonstrating outstanding classroom and shop demonstration/instruction technique.
- Ability to understand and support company training strategy.
- Ability to think outside of the box, challenge the status quo and encourage continuous improvement with all training classes.
- Establish effective relationships throughout the organization. Ability to be objective, show and foster respect for all individuals, and ability to foster collaboration among team members to create a positive work environment.
- Excellent verbal and written communication skills required to communicate with all levels of the organization both internally and externally. Ability to convey sensitivity to others and share appropriate information to resolve issues (inside & outside the organization) cooperatively and fairly. Demonstrated ability to be adaptable and receive constructive criticism and modify behavior as a result.
- Set ambitious standards of performance and deliver work products and service to meet or exceed quality/quantity standards.
All these jobs are currently in high demand. It’s hard-to-find people with the skillset necessary to perform these roles at a level of excellence, but anyone who has a passion for heavy equipment can excel in these positions. If you would like to learn more about these positions, I encourage you to visit OEM websites and search for these titles. The big three heavy equipment manufactures will have immediate openings for these positions. If you want to discuss these roles in more detail, please email me directly at isaac.rollor@gmail.com and I am happy to point you in the right direction.