You never know when a good impression will pay off.

Marc Larochelle of Sudbury had a part-time job pumping gas years ago when a customer offered him a job operating heavy equipment. More recently, a former co-worker came knocking on his door to alert him to an opportunity at Toromont CAT. He had worked with Marc a few years earlier at a diesel repair shop and knew he would be an asset to the Caterpillar dealer.

The people you meet along the way are critical to your career development. If you're a hard worker and take pride in the work you do, you can't go wrong.

Marc is a good example. As one of 45 Toromont mechanics in Sudbury keeping Caterpillar load-haul-dump machines (LHDs), skidders, loaders and excavators purring, he's in the big leagues – a pro.

Deciding on a career as a heavy equipment mechanic came naturally. "It was the only trade I wanted to pursue," he says.

Marc's dad worked as a mechanic at Inco for 25 years and, growing up, he and his friends were always taking apart and putting back together dirt bikes, snowmobiles, cars and trucks.

Co-op program
In high school, he took advantage of a co-op program and worked part-time for three years in a row at a transmission shop.

There are two routes to becoming a heavy equipment mechanic. You can go to college for a two-year technician's diploma, then get hired on as an apprentice, or you can find a job as an apprentice and return to school intermittently for classroom instruction while working.

Following high school, Marc enrolled in the heavy equipment mechanics program at Cambrian College but dropped our after half a semester and began an apprenticeship at a diesel repair shop. He eventually returned to Cambrian to finish up, but would "finish it all in one shot" if he could to do over again.

"You can go the apprenticeship route, but schooling helps and some employers require that you have a diploma," he says.

Marc works a five-day week, from either 7 am to 3:30 pm, or from noon to 10:30 pm. Starting out, a heavy equipment mechanic can make up to $19 per hour, but once you're licensed, the hourly rate can rise to $35, he says. That's not counting overtime and shift premiums.

Overtime
"And, in this trade, there's always overtime," says Marc. "You can work as much as you want."

He works on engines, hydraulic systems, and electrical systems, "pretty much everything."

And there's never a dull moment. "One day," he says, "I'll be working on an excavator undercarriage, the next day I'm working on an load-haul-dump (LHD) machine underground."

Marc is particularly impressed with the logistics of transporting new LHDs underground. Because they are so much larger than the cage that descends through the mineshaft, suppliers such as Toromont literally slice them up in pieces and weld them back together underground.

After a two-year technician's diploma and several years of work experience, Marc is still learning through courses offered by his employer, classroom training to fulfill his advanced level apprenticeship requirements and daily interaction with fellow mechanics on the shop floor.

"I have a lot of good teachers here and in this trade, you ask a lot of questions. The dumbest question is the question you didn't ask. You learn that fast."

One thing, though, warns Marc: "If you want to become a heavy equipment mechanic, you better not mind getting your hands dirty."

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