They will always take experienced miners first, however when experience people are few and far between, companies find themselves having to hire new starters to fill the lowest paid jobs on the crew. Jobs like Nipper, Truck driver and service crew all pay between $300-$500 a day (depending on who you are working for and where), are now seen as an entry point for new starters. With the next level of jobs (charge up, bogger, longhole) seeing pay jump up to $650-$900 a day, everyone is looking for that next promotion, this leaves employer’s little options with current employment conditions but to hire new starters. The trucks have to keep rolling.
The employers like people that have jobs, someone that has been in regular work for a while. They like people that have worked for big companies, that exposes a person to procedures and OH&S rules. If your job involves shift work, weekend work or 10 to 12 hours shifts, this is all employment history that is looked upon favorably by companies. People that are working for fast food, supermarkets, service stations, pubs and retail all should be looking at a underground mining career. The foreman/mine manager like people that are motivated by the money, as it has been shown people into their money stay longer and endure the conditions.
Once the employer is happy that you are going to be able to work hard for them, new starters are broken into 2 groups, people with mining knowledge and/or special skills (like a grader driver or concrete sprayer) and everyone else. This is where the training we provide creates a pathway to employment. If you communicate through your resume to the employer that you have complete the training like this
Introduction to Underground Mining Truck & IT Operations
Certificate of Achievement Certificate of Achievement
How a hardrock mine works Operating the Truck
Scaling Driving up and down the decline
Watering down Getting a load/Dumping a load
Basic Service crew work IT Operations and attachments used
General Mining Information
Then they are going to want to talk to you because these are the exact skills/mining knowledge that the employers are looking for in an employee to be Nipper or drive a truck underground. As long as you studied hard and are across the information from the courses, then in the phone interview that you have, you will shine, impress the employer and they will hire you. If for some reason you haven’t retained the information and don't shine in the interview, then the employers won’t hire. It really is as simple as that, that’s why we call our entry level package “Do it yourself”, all you have to do is follow the instructions and study. As part of the package I teach you how to make a mining friendly resume and on graduation you are enrolled you in the Mining Coach’s Workready program.
The idea of the Workready program is to connect students with suitable employers. Once you return your new mining friendly resume I start sending it out to contacts and jobs that I know of within the industry. Workready also include a bi-weekly newsletter that has links to jobs that I want you to apply for. Many companies have strict rules about who has to send a resume to the foreman or HR department.
If the employers have interview everyone with a special skill or training and still have gaps to fill, then this is when they will start to look at all the other new starter resumes. Often numbering in the 100’s if not 1000’s it’s up to HR to pick 5,10 or 20 to interview, depending on how many jobs are left to fill. How HR chooses those resumes is often random, with stories being told of the trash bin lucky dip to just selecting every 18th resume in the pile until you had the 20 you needed. Anyone that gets an interview at this point should buy themselves a lotto ticket because they have been extremely lucky.
So what’s the moral to the story? That there are great paying jobs in Hardrock mines all over the country, that employers are struggling to fill. Companies are now being forced to hire new starters and by engaging in training, you can create a pathway to employment for yourself. Giving yourself a big advantage over other new starters. To sign up for our “Do it yourself” package follow the link, if you have any questions on how to go about get a job in the industry leave your details and a brief message in the link across the page and I will get back to you. Good luck hope you find your dream job soon.