BDU.....battle dress uniform. Fancy name for ripstop fabric with a lot of pockets.
The training so far is quite enjoyable. I've always appreciated an opportunity to learn something new, and develop new skills. The fact that your paycheck skyrockets once that CET patch goes on your uniform doesn't hurt, either. Elevator technicians consistently place among the highest paid technician jobs in the country, and from what I've read you can pretty much start adding additional zeros to your paystub once the certification is complete. Salaries well over six figures are commonplace.
As far as taking it lightly, elevators now fall under the domain of Homeland Security. And as I'm discovering, they don't take it lightly either. And while the 30 hours of OSHA I recently completed seemed kinda' useless to me, I was informed that having that little card in your wallet actually meant something. Seems a lot of companies would rather hire someone that already carried the necessary certs, rather than have to implement the programs, spend the time, and foot the bill themselves.
Yes there is a lot of maintenance on an elevator. But in our shop we are more than guys running routes. We also re-cable cars, rebuild gearboxes and drive machines, swap out motors, generators, door openers and clutches, and controllers. We do all our own troubleshooting and diagnosis, and will remove circuit boards to remove and re-solder faulty components when the need arises. Dis-assembling a hydraulic cylinder 40+ feet long and 10 inches in diameter to replace a leaky seal or packing is part of the job.
Some of the journeymen in the shop can walk into an empty hoistway and build and install a complete, state-of-the-art functioning elevator where there is nothing but bare concrete walls. And while we don't do new installs here in this shop, my training does include some of this stuff.
There certainly are elevator maintenance folks who walk in with a five gallon bucket, some shop rags, a grease gun and oil can, but they call for someone else if they discover an issue....we don't.
Then there's the matter of stand by. Elevators run 24 hrs a day, and this is a college campus. Pretty much non-stop operations. When I reach the point a few years from now, when I need to take my turn in the rotation, I will be expected to show up whenever the call comes in. Many are benign, but there are entrapments from time to time. I'll need to maintain a sense of calm while the eyes of the fire dept, the police, and who knows how many onlookers all turn to me the second I walk in. A lot of elevator shops rely on the fire dept to handle their extractions. Not us. When I'm faced with that situation, I hope I can display the same professionalism and expertise that I've witnessed from the guys in our shop.
So to answer your question, I don't think I'm taking things too lightly. But you know what? In the five weeks I've been in the shop I've discovered that those same serious, dedicated, and professional journeymen and apprentices I've been describing here, also have a sense of humor. They're human, just like me. And I'm proud to say they share much of the same philosophy that my deceased friend and mentor Dennis had....they have the ability to discern when it's time to laugh, from when it's time to get it done, period.
I'm boasting here, and I know better than to do that. It will surely come back and bite me in the ass. But I'm going to let myself have one, brief, useless moment. there were 52 candidates for this position, including electrical journeymen, mechanics of various disciplines, and at least one engineer from a particle accelerator project. Those folks are undoubtedly far more intelligent than I can ever hope to become, yet they chose me for the position. In the beginning I had doubts, wondering if I was the correct candidate or simply a statistically mandated choice. After months of skills assessment testing, interviews, and more tests, I finally screwed up enough courage to ask. They were polite, professional, and firm. "We hired you because you were the right person for the job. You're here, because you're supposed to be here...YOU are who we want."
So yeah, I'm not taking it lightly. I've worked overtime when offered just to be able to see and do more, and I'm ordering additional textbooks besides those already included in the curriculum, on my own dime, in order to try and further my education above and beyond the pace set by the NAEC and the department of labor. I will own this vocation, lock stock and barrel. I will become that technician who they know can sort it out, wring it out, and run it out.
Sorry for jacking the thread. Back to garden hoses, and I stand on my original recommendation. Buy an RV hose.
