9ball
New member
my background is blue collar. i spent 3 years in the navy as a steam/propulsion plant machinery operator/mechanic, 5 years on a casting floor here at a local metals manufacturer operating overhead cranes and melt furnaces, 3 or 4 years as a truck driver, recently i graduated this last may from a technical college in st louis for HVAC(with an associates degree cum laude by the way lol), and am still unemployed.
i can't believe with all of my navy experience that i've found it so hard to find a job, but that's just how it is. people like to thank you on november 11th, but that just doesn't pay your bills man.
in this economy there are so many people out of work that contractors (who don't hire out of the sheet metal/pipefitters union halls which have hundreds of people laid off right now) can be very picky about who they hire, and are for the most part demanding 5+ years experience.
i have recently had several leads/opportunities come up though.
i took a test for an operator position at 2 different oil refineries here within the past 7 days, and at a heavy equipment manufacturer in peoria, IL that i'm sure everyone has heard of before earlier in the week (they make the yellow and black equipment lol) and have been called back for an interview for a fabrication welder job.
i had an interview yesterday at a small bio-diesel manufacturer here, and another couple of jobs i'll interview for next week through a temp service, but i'm thinking i'll be moving up north pretty soon to become a fabrication welder lol.
it's definitely tough out here dudes. i would have liked to have worked for some other hvac company for a few years and then gone into business for myself, but the market is flooded with techs out of work. maybe sometime. all the refrigeration businesses hire out of the unions and they've got so many people on the books i've been told it'll be years before they take on new apprentices lol.
i can't believe with all of my navy experience that i've found it so hard to find a job, but that's just how it is. people like to thank you on november 11th, but that just doesn't pay your bills man.
in this economy there are so many people out of work that contractors (who don't hire out of the sheet metal/pipefitters union halls which have hundreds of people laid off right now) can be very picky about who they hire, and are for the most part demanding 5+ years experience.
i have recently had several leads/opportunities come up though.
i took a test for an operator position at 2 different oil refineries here within the past 7 days, and at a heavy equipment manufacturer in peoria, IL that i'm sure everyone has heard of before earlier in the week (they make the yellow and black equipment lol) and have been called back for an interview for a fabrication welder job.
i had an interview yesterday at a small bio-diesel manufacturer here, and another couple of jobs i'll interview for next week through a temp service, but i'm thinking i'll be moving up north pretty soon to become a fabrication welder lol.
it's definitely tough out here dudes. i would have liked to have worked for some other hvac company for a few years and then gone into business for myself, but the market is flooded with techs out of work. maybe sometime. all the refrigeration businesses hire out of the unions and they've got so many people on the books i've been told it'll be years before they take on new apprentices lol.
