G'day, Keithy here thank you for joining me again. I thought I'd do a another sort of
personal video on life of a Fly in Fly out worker as I fold my washing. I've got a
few emails and comments on that last Fly in Fly out video about how to get
into the mines and what it's like I got some really good feedback from you guys
not just in the comments that you can see there but also via email and if you
haven't already checked out I've got a Facebook page where you can message me
as well it's it's called chilling with Keithy if you want to have a look on
Facebook I'll put the link up there somewhere
so I wanted to talk about today was how to get into the mines I've had that's
probably the biggest question I've had how to get into the mines, how do I do it
what do you do what do you need to do a lot of people say that you need to know
somebody to get in - you don't need to know anybody to get into the mines that's not
my experience anyway I mean it depends what kind of position you're going for
at the end of the day a solid recommendation it's always a good thing
but you're going to get it on your own merit because if you get in on someone
else's name and something goes wrong with you mess up for some reason that's
on their name as well doesn't reflect very well. So I'll tell you bit about the
story of how I got into the mines and don't mind my jocks there's no holes I
swear so back when I was 18 I had a mate, Tony. G'day Tony if you're
watching. I've still got him as a mate funny enough, he's still with me and he went
for a job with a contracting company and he'd asked me to go along with him when
he chucks his resume and finds a little bit more about it. Now he was green to
mining and so was I - I was working in a pizza hut at the time yeah I was
only young fresh out of school so I said to him "yeah mate, I'll come along with you and
we'll see what it's all about" and that is how I got my start
in mining. Just on the topic of socks these are 15 years old and they get
punished these things good socks they mean a lot. Anyway yes so we went along
and funny enough the first place that we ended up coming as contractors was out
here where I work now and neither of us had any idea we walked into the planet
and just were absolutely amazed we're in awe of the size the sheer size of it and
what goes on we had no idea that that pipe goes there and you know it was all
such a blur and we were basically told "yeah this is what you're going to do you
go over here fix this repair that whatever" - we had no idea, we had no
trade skills or anything, but we managed to fumble our way through I think was a 10
days shutdown we came here for then and so you know that's the start of the
process getting a foot in the door so if you want to get into the mining game
you got to find a way in so you can look on websites in Australia we have seek.com, that's a
pretty good one and you might find that there's a job going that that says you
know not a lot of experienced required or no forklift ticket required or things
like that that's a good way to get in and don't knock me for the way I'm
following this stuff - if you OCD about that I'm not doing it for the Queen so
that's the start there you can also go through a contracting company just to
name a few but not all of them obviously you've got mobs like Dawson's and over
in Western Australia, Barminco are pretty big just depends what you want to do so
you need to sort of find out what you want to do in the mine
there are a lot of roles from stuff that's like even spare parts interpreters
at say your local Toyota dealership could do so you could warehouse you
could do some warehousing you could be a cleaner if you you know it anyway in the
door you can there are people that work in the plant such as myself I work in
fixed plant and then you've got underground miners you've got you've got
truck drivers in the haul trucks there's there's a whole heap thing so first
thing you need to do is find out what you want to do and where you want to go
with that if you had a management level then potentially you could you don't
even have to work on the floor you could go in and become a superintendent or
something along those lines even if it's maybe an accounting superintendent or
something like that so the the way that I found it quite good to get in was
through a contracting company and it was very lucky so we came out here this was
the first place that I came and we ended up coming back for a couple of shutdowns
throughout that year and that was really good that was a good foot in the door I
started to make relationships on site here with people who were I was working
with directly who actually worked for the company so they got to know me a
little bit you know working one-on-one with them usually you form that kind of
relationship and then we went out to a couple of other mines with with Tony when
me-old-mate Tony in this contracting company and we were doing things again
all of these things were well within without outside of my own realm of skill
like I had no mechanical trade I didn't know anything I don't know the first
thing about rebuilding a pump or things like that but anyway I had a go and
that's that's a good thing you need to have a go and we end up coming back here
again so we did I think we did four shutdowns out here in the space of
about 12 months and in that time we developed a few good relationships with
the people here to the point where I thought I'd sit down and talk with one
of them which happened to be the superintendent and he was a very good
bloke he was very easy to chat to - and they all are, these guys are people at the
end of the day got to remember that sometimes it's like
and sometimes it's not but you're talking to this superintendent he said
I like your work Keith. you're good you rock up you do what
you've got to do to go above and beyond he said how would you like a position
with us and that right there my friends is history for me so obviously what I
showed was that I come to work I do my work I do a good job I'm friendly I'm
approachable you know all of those things working in my favor to the point
where they wanted to take me on which is good as in a in a way it sort of like
headhunting yourself making yourself an asset and that's what you got to do, and I
didn't go out looking for that initially I didn't even think oh maybe I
should talk to these guys and get a job that would be good so that's how I got
in what i'll also say - if you are getting recommended for a position
by a mate, make sure you do right by your mate and you know you come to work every
day do what you've got to do and keep your nose clean because at the end of
the day that person's word is what got you in the door so if you screw up or if
you're always having incidents or not turning up to work things like that
then you're not making that person look really good and that will have an impact
on their career as well because people talk in the mining industry so keep that
in mind if you've got a long distant friend from seven years ago that
you saw at a party that you sort of remember their name I wouldn't ask them
for a reference to get in because they probably don't know you well enough and
be honest even if they say they're gonna recommend you they're probably not going
to so don't get your hopes up on that. Best advice - go in as a contractor
establish relationships work hard do what you've got to do and then see what
you've got from there but always keep your eye on those websites to see if
if there are any jobs going because that's your ticket in
especially if you've been out there as a contractor so you've got I'm in western
Queensland you've got Mt Isa, you got the Bowen Basin, you've got coal
you've got all the way down through Rocky, Moroonbah and all of that kind of
stuff I don't know a lot about Western Australia I know that I know a bit about
it but not locations and such you've got a lot of coal in New South Wales not too
familiar with Victoria I know that there's hard metal in South Australia
so that's your copper your gold things like that excuse me but at the end of
the day you need to go in with a plan so you need to go okay this is what I want
to do if you want to work underground, good for you a lot of dollars in underground.
People always talk about drillers and that is a that's a a good paying job
but at the end of the day if you're just chasing dollar signs and doing work that
you don't you don't know anything about and that's probably not interesting to
you you're gonna fail at that so keep in mind don't go just chasing the dollar
signs you're gonna get in and do something that you like doing and I like
working on cars as you probably see a few if you watch my videos so I'm a bit
of a mechanically minded person I like to use my hands or like something that's
going to keep me going I do like to think so that's where my
job really suits me as well I mean you also get these these people that are
like fly-by-nighters in the mining industry. Same with oil and gas and
fertilizer and things like that in construction now there are a lot of
people who sometimes just want to chase the dollar signs so they'll get to a
mine site, they'll work there for six months and go yeah I've got a
better offer you know here, then go work there for six months got a better offer
there and then just keep moving around and that's all good if that's your cup
of tea just keep in mind bouncing around like that there's not a
lot of job security so you can go between the big mining companies and you
could end up on good money with a small mining company - a very small one but there is
also a risk associated with that as seen with the (BLEEP!!) virus a lot of people
got laid-off, contractors lost their jobs things like that you need to sort of
balance where you want to go in life. If you want to just chase dollars
signs that's all good yeah but have your focus before you
start before you get in - keep your eyes on the job network and see what's
out there. Thanks for watching if you want to have a chat to me one on one
without all the comments down here, feel free to jump over onto Facebook and
@chillingwithkeithy - I'll put a link up here in the description and probably put
something on the screen there no doubt as well and you can just chat to me. I've had
blokes from overseas talking to me about getting jobs in the mines here in
Australia I've had wives who are having problems at home if you watched my last
video there was old mate who was having some dramas - he's finally got that sorted which
is really good - no body is immune from that but anyway keep your eyes peeled
guys and yeah if you want to chat, feel free, otherwise, I appreciate your time have a
good one