Mining truck driver wants job: do you have the right opportunity for Australia?
This particular posting was first put up on this blog in February 2008. Since then it has attracted a great number of readers and a fair share of insightful, sad, and pointed comments. I urge you to read it, read the comments, and then read an update that I wrote and posted on the topic in late August 2008. I could never have written the August 2008 posting if I had not learnt from those who commented on the original piece, presented unedited below.
This cry comes from Australia, but the issue is relevant the world over in all areas of employment and particularly in mining.
Every magazine is filled with profound articles decrying the shortage of workers in the mining industry. There are innumerable conference presentations on the same topic. There are even government-sponsored organizations making comfortable livings out of tallying the statistics and documenting suggestions about moving laid-off auto workers and forestry fellows into mining.
I have long suspected that the issue of a shortage of workers in mining is as much a fashion as any aspect of journalism: a topic written to death because it is ready at hand and easy to opine about. But does this plethora of print & opinion truly reflect a dearth of workers?
The only true measure is the salaries mines are prepared to pay for a required class of worker. Take a look at the new reports from CostMine to establish if your work area is truly in short supply. If you could earn the same working for the local town government or the state government or maybe another industry in your area, then, I submit, there is no real shortage in the mining industry, regardless of what is written and said at conferences.
Here is a copy of an e-mail sent to a friend from somebody in Australia. One cannot help but wonder why such a writer and her male friend are not already deep in a staff-starved mining industry. I invite you to read this and contact them and tell them how to get employed. Or write me and I will post your advice to them. I edit the following for context:
Hi my name’s Teri from Melbourne. Just an idea that you may wish to take on board. If you don’t, I at least feel better having written it. I have spent five hours a day for the previous week searching for positions within the Mining Sector. The media hype cries out -shortage of workers…. Yet no-one is prepared to give you that elusive experience. I have found hundreds of blogs on the web voicing the same concerns.
Perhaps you could include a space on your website for genuine opportunity seekers that have the qualifications the experience!! Someone needs to make the obvious move. I would love an Employer to read the types of genuine people out there eager to do whatever it takes to get a good job! Take my partner and I.
After beginning his transport experience in the Army he discovered that there wasn’t anthing with wheels that he couldn’t drive. He is a natural… above all a decent Driver. Impeccable driving history, he recently got his Dump Truck licence, turned to me and said ‘We’re going to kick some serious financial butt.. over the next few years”.
But there’s not a butt in sight… not even the sniff of an interview in sight. That magic work experience is the red light!! We are both ready for a challenge, we thrive on trying new things. I am geared up to leave my gym background and do unskilled labour to be with him. Yet I have not found one of these unskilled positions listed anywhere. Where are these jobs hiding?
Come on Employers… your truck sits empty, whilst good drivers are itching to jump in and do what they love to do. Where is the sense in that? Restructure the work - maybe a lower pay until they prove themselves. But let them prove themselves. P.l.e.a.s.e.
Contact terisimon1@optusnet.com.au if you have an opportunity for her and her driver.
8 comments
My husband Bryan and I are in EXACTLY the same position. We have friends in the Industry whom are apparently racking in the money, working much less hours than my partner does currently, and with subsidised accommodation…
I do freelance design so I can work from anywhere, and he has a Heavy Combination Truck licence, Plant Operators ticket, has previously relocated for work, and has a history of 7 years volunteering in the Country Fire Authority! In terms of a candidate with loyalty, reliability, ‘no mining experience’ but that could still pick up a equipment operator job and master it within a week, he’s you’re prime candidate. YET THERE IS NO RESPONSE! We’ve applied for numerous jobs, had friends of friends in HR departments of the mining companies promise to help then fall through, we’ve looked at every conceivable option but after 2 years of trying we’re thinking this may be a non-existent bunch of hearsay! I mean Bryan has almost 6 years of driving experience on 4-5 different trucks, has never had an accident, been late and hardly taken a sick day in 6 years… But there is just no point of entry for mining jobs that we can find.
Our friends in the mines are not only on ridiculously high salaries but were moved there at the expense of their employers with a myriad of perks. We were dying to move to rural Australia or even Canada and have a real experience as well as a lifestyle and job change, yet the silence is from the employers rather than the tranquility of new surroundings.
If anyone can help us, contact bryan_mercer@hotmail.com and we’ll forward his resume.
My partner and I are wanting desperately to start over. We work in Melbourne and are tired of the rat race. Justin does not have his HC licence and nor do I but, for a great career change we are looking at taking a 2 day course for our Generics and will continue to apply for jobs. Justin is wanting to do an Adult Apprenticeship as a Diesel Fitter and I would love to drive a dump truck. I am tired of my boring office job and want a challenge. My cousins Fiance’ worked in the mines and have also had great success and so have other friends and family. They keep screaming out for workers and the media have stipulated recently in the Mercury news that Queensland Mines will be taking on new projects like the Bowen Basin with a possibility of 15,000 jobs being created over the next few years. Come on Xstrata and Anglo Coal, give an honest hard working Aussie a chance.
Have you had trouble getting a run with Xstrata and AngloC?? Is it just the media beating it up that there are plenty of jobs?? Possible. I also want to get into the industry as a dumptruck driver but have only just started looking. Seems I keep getting redirected to the online website applications which ??? are unlikely to get a foot in the door with nil mining/driving experience.
Yes it is all hype, I have completed all then courses needed, and still getting knocked back.
These companies will always hire an experienced person over one without experience, and there are many experienced operators out there. So unless you have inside connections, goodluck.
Don’t seem to find anyone to hire me.
How do I approach truck driving or labour jobs in Angocoal, Queensland.
It seems this thing of hype versus reality, as described in earlier blogs, is common in other industries, not just mining. In my experience, there is a ‘nursing shortage’ with this big ‘cooee call’ for nurses’ but when applying for such positions, there seem to be no vacancies! No wonder people drop out of the job hunt.
A friend of mine yesterday mentioned he spent earlier life in remote Queensland and thus knows from connections of a ‘labour shortage’ in the mining industry there. As I have only just started seeking info re jobs there, I cannot guage yet from response.
What labor shortage?? I am an American mining geologist and have been trying to obtain employment in Australia for years. With the restrictive visa requirements and the unwillingness of companies to hire anyone without the proper work visa (which can be easily sponsored), there cannot be much of a shortage of experienced geologists.
I have 10 years in the business in both mining and exploration, can write a report for the stock exchange, and do most anything required by an employer. However, when I am expected to be proficient in XXX (whatever the company in question uses) modeling software (of course no training is provided), be fluent in Mandarin and Portuguese, and live in a jungle hut somewhere for years on end (paying for my wife’s expenses out of my own pocket), I would expect to be able to earn a good salary with all of the required qualifications.
There IS a labor shortage-a labor shortage of easily available, high-skill, low-to-medium wage, very experienced professionals willing to bend over for the corporations and to work for whatever they want to pay under whatever conditions. If you don’t believe me, please let me know which mining and exploration firms are willing to hire American professionals without the required visas. This may take a month or so for sponsorship & paperwork, which should be nothing if there is an actual shortage of personnel. I know of plenty of Americans who would love to work in Australia.
(By the way, Canadian/South African/U.K./etc. companies are no different-they whine about the lack of experienced workers, advertise for extremely technical jobs with ridiculous requirements, and then expect hundreds of nearby applicants to apply. I suppose it would be to much to ask to actually put some effort into looking for personnel, and offer something in return. Mining is quickly dying here in the U.S. as the radical environmentalists stall existing and planned operations, so I am looking to go elsewhere).
well,im not the only one than.i try to get my foot in the mine since 2002,i spend $5000 for my hr&certificates.no one wants me because i dont have 6 month experience,what happend to the good old aussie saying,give it a go ?
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