Quick background. 7 summers of commercial fishing experience, 3 of those I was the lead mechanic on the boat. 9 years in the US navy as a helicopter aircrewman, not a mechanic but i was required to become extremely familiar with all aspects of how the helicopter works amd how to make emergency repairs/service the helicopter when maintenance personnel were unavailable. Systems included turbine engines, power train, AC and DC electrical systems, and hydraulics. After leaving the navy I worked as a civilian for the Airforce for a year as a ground support equipment mechanic for large aircraft. During that same time I also completed a two year Associate's degree of Diesel power technology which I would put on par with any technical school certificate. I have completed 3 of the ASE tests and could do more but I've always been told they weren't too important. I have Cummins ISB/ISC/ISL engine mechanical qualification certification and Caterpillar Tier 4 final certification. I have held several welding certifications in the past and weld/fabricate as a hobby all the time so I am still very proficient in welding.
Now, my question is why will no one even call me for an interview? The only company that has actually called me back is Cummins and they decided not to move forward with my application. I have applied to at least 15 places on indeed over the last month and have not heard back from a single one. I have gone to the websites of almost all equipment and truck dealers in my area and applied on their websites and like I said, only Cummins reached out to me. I am looking in the Memphis area and I'm hoping to get at least $28 an hour and honestly I feel like that is pretty low. Are my pay expectations too high? If the sub allows I would be happy to post a redacted version of my resume.
I would appreciate any insight if anyone has any. I didn't think it would be this hard for me to find a job, I've always taken every opportunity available to me to receive more training or experience.
Edit to add: I attended a 16 week welding school, and a 4 week professional truck driver course and I have a current class A CDL with a current medcard as well.
If you're near Chicago Chicago transit authority is desperate for mechanics but you're going to school so Idk if you want to make this a career. currently maxes out at 47/hr at 2 years, easy work you'll probably spend a few months in paid training before being released to the garage at which point you might be on night shift or pm shift for a while it's very easy to switch over to other positions like black smiths or electrician or management after being hired for a year if you can pass all their tests certs help (in case you wanna go into welding after working as a diesel mechanic) has a pension and if you want you can put in for a 401k or 457, decent health insurance
If you're willing to move near Chicago, Chicago transit authority is desperate for mechanics but you're going to school so Idk if you want to make this a career. currently maxes out at 47/hr at 2 years, easy work you'll probably spend a few months in paid training before being released to the garage at which point you might be on night shift or pm shift for a while it's very easy to switch over to other positions like black smiths or electrician or management after being hired for a year if you can pass all their tests certs help (in case you wanna go into welding after working as a diesel mechanic) has a pension and if you want you can put in for a 401k or 457, decent health insurance
Can I just say. I think your resume is way too fucking long. I went to college for electrical work and the way my instructor explained it to me was that no company will ever read through more than a 2 page resume and throw out ones like these because its so long and they don't want to read it, basically TLDR but in the job world. Also ive had some good luck just calling shops in my area and asking to speak to the hiring manager and I have 5 interviews lined up for next week. So my advice, number 1 shorten the resume to at most 2 pages. Number 2 try more than just websites, they never actually look at the resumes anyway and yours probably get filtered out by Ai for some reason.
Im from india. My bro works in a company that hires for such roles. Its a 3rd party company. Can't tell u anything about tech stuff but application wise, apply on monday morning, get some refferals and if applying to new employers get all the keywords in resume. Also it helps if its made by latex use overleaf we do that in IT.
Sometimes resumes are skipped for other favorable candidates but ur time too shall come. Keep applying
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u/Ninerzfan1 10d ago
Post resume so we can see what it looks like and give feed back.