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safe as possible. I also know it isn’t going to break down. That is because I turned every nut and bolt on it, and know everything is exactly as it should be when I head out on a long ride.” His interest in maintaining and repairing his own motorcycles and cars helped lead Edwards into a career in machinery maintenance and repair. Now he works for a mining company in northern Michigan that extracts copper and other minerals from the earth. Edwards says he gets to work on a lot of different things and always learns something new. That is because his job changes with the machinery, but the basic skills needed to do it well mostly stay the same.

Many people who are good at fixing machines are often interested engineering in general.

“I like how the work always changes. Some things will be the same, like torqueing a nut or bolt,” Edwards explains. “But the way machines are made, how they work, and the technology that goes into them always changes. That means I have to learn new things all the time to adapt to the new technology and ways that machines are built and run.” Edwards points out one of the most amazing things about machinery maintenance and repair: the work undergoes constant change. As technology improves, the machinery alters. As it’s revised, you need to learn the new systems and how to maintain and repair them. By contrast, a medical doctor learns the human body and how to treat it. For the most part, the human body does not change. Advancement within the industry is very rapid, with technology its prime driver. As new technologies make it possible to improve how things are made at the industrial level, machinery adapts. Machinery maintenance and repair specialists need to learn and grow with those changes.

THE LIFE OF A MACHINERY MAINTENANCE AND REPAIR SPECIALIST 11