9781422273364

Edwards says he kept pace with job changes while working. For his employer to stay competitive, Edwards, his coworkers, and his bosses all needed to learn how to handle major upgrades. As new machines and systems adopt new technologies, they need to learn how to maintain and repair those systems. “A lot of the time, we had experts come in and work with us to teach us the new systems. Sometimes we took training classes at our local community college,” Edwards said. “When something new comes along, we have to learn how it affects the job and alters how we do our work.” Edwards says the chance to learn new things while getting paid is one of the best parts of his job. Instead of running up student loan debt, he learned how to do a job that takes a lot of skill andmechanical smarts to do correctly. He got paid while learning to do a job that continues to grow in demand and pays well. He has a highly marketable skill with lots of experience. That makes it possible for him to go almost anywhere and find a job with excellent pay. It also means he always can find work that he likes to do and that will keep his interest every day. That is because there is nothing boring about working on large machinery.

All the members of machinery maintenance staff are vital to the smooth running of industry. They understand the importance of their tasks for the day ahead.

12 CAREERS WITH EARNING POTENTIAL: MACHINERY MAINTENANCE AND REPAIR