Challenging Traditional Career Norms: A Dive Into Technical Skills, Workplace Efficiency, and Work-Life Balance

Yeah, you know, it's kind of been a long time coming, I think. Probably with a lot of writers that you bump into are... or industry people you work with, I think a lot of the things that they write or communicate are a culmination of their experiences over a long time. And so this is probably something I could have written years ago and focused more on years ago, but I don't know that I necessarily had the right perspective necessary to do that at the time, if we were to rewind even just a few years ago. I've just had some interactions over the past year, really, with younger people. So I'm, you know, I'm 35. But when I say younger, you know, working people, I'm talking about high school graduates, right? Going to these graduation parties and talking with them or, you know, soon to be college graduates, right? They've not experienced the workforce yet. You know, they've, They know what their university has told them, right?

They know kind of what their high school maybe talked to them about or some recruiter at a job fair, but they've not really experienced it. And so in some of these conversations that I've had, I think that there's definitely a messaging issue directly from OEMs. even from dealers, and I would call this the sort of like the heavy equipment business, the heavy equipment industry, right? That there's no clear track or message that can be clearly stated, easily articulated, that offers an alternate path. to the university system, right? So in my conversations with these, you know, soon to be workers, when I talk with them about me becoming a technician or I talk with them about working for one of the big names with an OEM or even a dealer, I think they've missed out. on an opportunity to learn about career tracks, specifically, you know, being a technician, that's kind of where my background is.

So I kind of, kind of navigate those waters and talk to them about that. But what I, what I have learned is that there, there now is a, like a, a divergence happening from the typical university track. Students now coming out of, I've talked to many of them, they will say, Even if they are still going to college or to university, they will acknowledge the fact that there is another option. There's another option to move into a career without going to a university. There are some that go even further than that who have not made a choice to attend college yet. And who's maybe even whose parents. or some significant sort of person guide in their life is moving them towards this alternative, which is not university. Let's not spend $100,000 going to college. Let's not spend $50,000 going to college. In fact, let's learn a skill. Let's have you learn a skill where you have zero debt, right? You and I were just talking about this earlier.

It's like debt is going to become a huge issue. in a very short window here, right? We're going to see that happen again. That's going to be a big factor that affects families, it affects individuals, it affects huge segments of business. And so that's why I wrote this article, I titled this, the top three reasons to skip the university system and pursue this heavy equipment career. I think one of the best opportunities inside of that is to be a technician. And with these people, these younger people that I talk with, I tell them my story about I came out of high school. I wasn't exactly sure what I wanted to do, but I had enough influence in my life that from my parents and from some other kind of like guiding figures in my life who could see early on this paying a huge sum of money for college. And on top of that, going into debt to pay for, that's not healthy, right? You need to find some other alternative to that.

It was very early on in that, you know, in this kind of conversation. I think this conversation that we're having openly now, which is, is there an alternative to college, to the university system, is more common than it was, you know, in 2007 when I was skipping. college, the typical college track to pursue a skill. Now it's a little bit more prominent, but irregardless, I think that young person today, they have to make a decision. Are they going to go to college? Are they going to follow this track that the systems that be, public school, guidance counselors, a lot of times even um, some parents or some significant figure in their life says, you need to go to college and you need to invest this money and you need to take a loan out, uh, to do this. Um, or are they going to diverge from that? And are they going to follow the micro method, right? The, you know, the, the dirty jobs method, the, um, the alternate decision.

So my story was, I, uh, I, I came out of high school. Um, I started working basically immediately. So I started working as a mechanic immediately, I didn't have any real specialty, but I was changing oil and equipment. You know, I was doing kind of the rough work that, you know, a, what is that? You know, an 18 year old with really no skills, but with some pretty decent motivation can do. And then through that, I became aware just by working with some other people in the industry that my state, Georgia had something called the hope. At the time, I think it was called the HOPE Grant. And they said, listen, you can go pursue this, basically what was like an 18-month program and become, they'll give you a piece of paper that says you're now a diesel technician, right? So that's what I did. I went, I pursued that. I learned a lot. It was a on-road truck-based program. And that's really what...

Through that program, you know, I emerged from that with no debt whatsoever. I mean, I had I had been promoted into a much better paying job before I was even halfway through that program because the, you know, the OEMs, the dealers are like scouring those programs like vultures, right? You know, to look for skilled people. But fast forward from that, fast forward from that, you know, now my. career with, let's say, Komatsu. So we're talking, this is the 2015 timeframe when I started working with them. I had zero college debt. I had always made great money, right? I had made better money than most people who had gone to a four-year college. And I was making that money three years before they would ever get there. And so I learned a lot of things while I was younger in my career so that when I was competing with college graduates, I already had a skill set.

I already had this ability to communicate that I don't think they picked up because they didn't do that on the job in a stressful situation. And so that my experience, when I share that with an 18-year-old, who's fresh out of high school thinking about college, that's one of the things I focus in on is, you know, when you choose to opt out of the college system, it doesn't mean you'll never go to college. It just means that right now you're choosing to opt out and you're choosing several key advantages. And in my blog, you know, these would be stability. This would be career development. And it would be job satisfaction. All three of these things I experienced. I liked what I did. I was promoted pretty rapidly. And I had great stability. In the midst, when I started in the Great Recession, there was college graduates graduating with no hopes of getting a job. They weren't going to be able to do it.

They had a marketing degree and they were not going to get a job. It was going to be two to three years before they ever got a job in their field. And most of them, you know, that I keep up with today, they're not even working in the field that they got their college degree in because they had to do what needed to be done at the time, right? So they started working for, I don't know, you know, Panera Bread. Now they've, you know, they were motivated enough to make their way up the ranks. Now they have nothing to do with marketing whatsoever, but they've had to sort of make their own way. So, you know, I share that story with 18,19 year olds and I tell them, listen, my The stability that I have had in my life is really marked by that key decision. Right. So as of today, I operate my life with much, much less debt and a much, much better financial position than I would say most of the people, my cohort that I would have graduated college with.

And that was a key defining moment. So that's what drove me to write this. And I feel like now I have this, looking back, I have this unique perspective that allows me to give guidance to someone who's making this decision. Do I go forward with a four-year degree or do I skip that? And when I do, what's my next step? And there's some great steps in this industry, you know, in heavy equipment.

Yeah, that's scary.

Yeah. Yeah. I listened to that. I heard you say that, talk about that 50% of the workforce. Yeah, exactly. And good insight.

Right, right. So

That's right. Yeah, that's right. And I think that, you know, you talked about Japanese culture versus American culture and work. And so I was fortunate to, you know, work for Komatsu where, you know, Kaizen was very prevalent. You know, we had Kaizen projects that happened every three or so years that we would participate on individually or within teams. And one of the things that I picked up from that, That I think is a much different experience than even working for, you know, in a similar role with Fiat Chrysler. Right. There's no talk of Kaizen or even those concepts, you know, maybe at a maybe at a higher level. Right. I mean, maybe there's discussion, but the employees, the the the trainers, technical trainers, the technical people on the ground, even even the technicians. They weren't really brought into that conversation. Whereas at Komatsu, that was a very open and common conversation to have because it was baked into the culture.

Now, you know, maybe it wasn't as potent as it would be if we were working in Japan, but it definitely made an impact on me. So, you know, there were some things I learned about that, you know, working in Komatsu and really mastering your craft or really mastering your career area. There's a word, I'll probably mispronounce this, but it's called shuhari, right? So it sounds like you're familiar with this. But basically, the first step really in learning our mastery, right, would be to gain the traditional wisdom, the mastery of that area. It doesn't mean that you do that forever, right? Once you gain that mastery, now the next step would be you sort of break with the tradition. Right. So, you know, once you've once you've once you've worked in an area for I don't know what the length of time is two years. Right. You've been a technical trainer. You've been a technician for two years and you've mastered this area.

Now you can kind of poke holes in why things are done that way. Right. So you sort of the next will be like, you know. transcending from that. So now you have mastery in that area. You can do the work just as the people who taught you to do that can do. But now as things, technology changes, the economic situation changes, the customer changes, the, you know, in our case, maybe the machine itself changes, the technology changes. Just because you have mastery in a particular area doesn't mean you have to do things the same way forever, right? So you can break with tradition. You can sort of transcend above the norms that govern that work, that career area, even that industry. And I think, you know, your last podcast, Alex Craft, a great example of this, right? With Heath. It's like, he did the work, obviously an industry expert, specifically with OEMs and dealers. And mastered his craft.

and now sees that there are some gaps here that everyone just needs to be going along with. There's huge opportunity, but beyond the opportunity, it's not okay to just keep doing things the way we're doing them. It's not going to work long-term, right? The model that we followed historically, it's just not going to work in this industry forever. And I think he lays that out pretty clearly. I haven't spoke with him in person, but I think what I've read about Heave and what I understand about their business model is that it's a much smoother interaction for all parties involved and can potentially be, right? where you have to start now. You don't have to start, but it would be wise to start, wise to guide a young person there now, because there's a lot of changes that are going to happen. And if you're stuck in the old model, you're going to be swept up with a tide that's changing. So definitely something to take a step back and...

And spend more time communicating with you. And I think that age group that you're talking about, too, is that's the perfect time. Right. What a better time to get them to get them actually involved in an industry where they can they can work within for a long time. And if they don't stay within the industry, they have built at least the most basic skills that will make them successful in anything they do.

Right.

Right.

Right.

Right. Yeah, I agree. And I think that, you know, you talked about your teaching method, and I know you've been a trainer. And that's one of the things that I enjoyed about, always enjoyed about training is that a lot of times I was in that room with, you know, an up and coming group of workers who were excited to learn, right? They were excited to be there. What I noticed was that the trainers that really enjoyed the job, that had fun, they could harness that excitement. It wasn't stifled due to, listen, we're going to stick exactly to this lesson plan. We're not going to divert from this whatsoever. Do not use your imagination. I'll be your imagination for you. That's the trainer who doesn't have any fun, who doesn't enjoy that work. That can be kind of difficult to do on the technical side because a lot of times, you know, you work for an OEM as a trainer. There's some kind of key things you have to do in that course.

But I think the messaging is so important in the beginning.

And

No, I think you hit the nail on the head. I think that there's definitely a this is something that I this is something I actually talked with a guy who's in charge of a diesel technology program. just this week about this. And we talked about like the, there's obviously a pay gap. Yeah, you could actually become, I think you and Alex, I think talked about before about coding, right? Why do parents want to send their kids to coding school, right? Like, well, there's obviously a potential there, right? So yeah, I don't disagree. There's definitely an issue with compensation. One thing I will say though, and I think this comes from kind of my roots in Komatsu, is that when I look at this, I see, yes, there is a, yeah, I think most technicians are worth way more than they're paid. Absolutely. When I was a technician, I worked way harder for the money that I made than I probably should have. But I enjoyed the work.

And one of the benefits of working, let's just, we talk about just, a diesel technician for an OEM or working for a dealer. When I clocked out at the end of the day, it might've been a long day, but when I clocked out at the end of the day, I physically couldn't take my work with me. I was done. There was going to be no more work until I clocked in the next day. So I had margin in my life. I had more margin in my life than I've had since because now I can send an email. Oh, I work from home. Well, that means I can work all the time, right? Now, you don't have to do that, but the nature of a motivated person is to just constantly work. And what I have discovered is that, yeah, there's a pay gap with technicians, sure. Maybe it's not the best paying job per the work and calories burned on the job. Got it. Get it. Understand that. But what I really like about this is that still to this day, you know, you have margin in your life.

When you go on vacation, there's no way you can fix that dozer while you're at the beach. It's not going to work. You can't, you're not working while you're supposed to be on vacation. You're not working while you're supposed to focus on some other task. And what I learned really at Komatsu was, you know, having... The Japanese sort of, I think, get this, the Japanese work culture has this stigma about sort of working yourself to death, right? There's even a Japanese word for that, for someone who just works themselves to absolute death to their end. But when you really embrace that culture, especially like Kaizen, what you find is it's not about the necessarily the amount of work you do, it's the amount of focused work that you do. So, you know, the time that, and I noticed this at Comancie, right? So when I could spend an hour focused on work where I had zero interruptions, I was focused on work that I was interested by.

I was focused on work that made a difference. There was a larger picture to the work I was doing. When I was doing work that actually had like a physical interaction for that hour of time, that two hours, that three hours, I could accomplish way more and feel more accomplished by the end of that time than I could working that same amount of time with multiple distractions on work that I wasn't ever really going to master. Right. And so. What I've discovered, and it's taken me time to figure this out, right? Very blatant and obvious. But when I look at diesel technicians today, heavy equipment technician, you feel whatever that title needs to be, there is a value in that work that I think it goes beyond comparing that pay grade to some other worker in an adjacent industry or unrelated industry. And that is... You have time to focus for the most part, my experience. And you also have margin, right?

So maybe you work long hours, but there's margin in your life because you can't physically be there to do that work while you're not supposed to be working. And for me, that's been a very apparent thing. I've had to set some real boundaries professionally because I have four kids, I have four girls. When I'm done with work, I need to stop focusing on that work, start focusing on my family and my kids. Because if I try to focus on both, I'm probably going to be productive at both. So what I take from Komatsu in that culture is a lot of times there are lifelong benefits that you gain by lowering the importance on what you're going to be compensated. and raising the importance on how fulfilled am I going to be in this work? What kind of mastery am I going to achieve in this work? And what is the product of this work going to be?

Because I can tell you work that has a product like fixing a loader at the bottom of a quarry before the rain comes in, right? Before the first snow falls. And to see that thing get fired up and get back to work, that's rewarding. For me, it was. I think for a lot of people, it would be. And then when you're done with that, going home and having no more work to do because you physically can't do it, so you can take that attention and focus on something else, that's very valuable. You can't put a dollar value on that ability. There's people who go back. I talk with a lot of people who we kind of reminisce about being a technician or working. living that life. And that's one of the things we a lot of times conclude is, you know, what I really miss about that was when I was done working, there was no more work that could be done because I physically wasn't there. Right. And I had time to focus on something else. You might be tired, right?

You know, your, your, your knuckle might be busted, right? But you have margin in your life. And there are very few career paths right now that still offer that. And so that's something that I reflect on a lot.

That's right.

That's right. That's right. Yeah. And so I think it's a, It's a critical time to master the messaging.

It's a critical time to make sure that the work kind of age group here that we're targeting, that they get to have the experience, like the experience that I had. I talked with my buddy recently. technical college to this day. And we both, we both happened to be in school together in a, in an engines class. And he said, you know, what, like Isaac, what was it that about just the time in training that really got you excited where you decided like, this is what I really want to be good at, right? This, this is what I want to do. This is the feeling that I want to have over and over again. And it's funny. We both talked about our trainer, who was a teacher, right? Yeah, the title of trainer, but was a teacher, had walked us through the steps of rebuilding this engine. We did this basically in-frame overhaul and we got it started, right? It's cranked for the first time. It came alive, right? We had not heard it run before.

And we assembled this thing and it fires up. And it was huge for us, right? So we had done that before, right? We had made something start before, right? But we'd never done that with a team, with a group of people that we liked, that we bonded with and had this experience with to gain this result. And so that's like the thing that we've been chasing after. Right. So maybe it's not us now, but I can tell you that as a trainer, as a teacher, I have led many groups to be able to experience that same that same feeling. Right. Same sort of excitement. Right. And maybe it's not for everybody. Maybe maybe everybody doesn't get excited about it. I don't know. But I can tell you the groups that I've that I've interacted with who had that experience. They're still working in the industry today. They've stayed relatively close to that for the most part. And I think it's just like a young person who constantly has their head buried in their phone.

They're being programmed, right? They're experiencing something that they're trying to recreate over and over and over again. If this industry, if we don't do that, if we don't give them some experience that they want, that they attach themselves and want to create over and over again, then we're going to lose out to multi-billion dollar companies, even down to individual creators of content that are working to steal attention away from the people that we need. So Badland, who would be a great fit. people who would otherwise find great enjoyment in being a technician. If they never have any experience, don't experience the emotion and gain some sentimentality very early on, it might be too late. They may move into some other area where it's so hard for them to make that move that they just don't do it. And so I can say, yeah, early on, we've got to make sure they can get that experience. We've got to get our messaging right.

Right.

Yeah, great discussion.

absolutely. I think that, I'll just say this. I think that if you're listening to this from the industry, from an OEM, from a dealer, even from an adjacent industry, I think right now the message that you send to this group we're talking about,12 to 18 years old, is extremely important. So choose your words wisely. And don't just stop at the messaging either. If there is an opportunity to give them an experience, give them the experience. Let them feel that feeling. Let them want to recreate that experience that they had interacting with the industry, specifically in this technician role. So I would say choose your words wisely, master the messaging. And if it's a chance to give them an experience, don't hesitate to do it.