Throw Pride Out the Window: A Conversation with Skillworker Thomas Harvell
Interviewed by Skillwork Talent Expert
Thomas Harvell grew up around wrenches. He was working on machines as soon as he could hold a tool in his father’s diesel and hydraulic mechanic shop. He spent years avoiding the trades, driving trucks and drifting between jobs, before a temporary position sweeping factory floors turned into a maintenance apprenticeship.
We sat down with Thomas to talk about learning on the fly, the value of admitting what you don’t know, and why the work you leave behind matters.
Q: How did you get into the trades, and what led you to Skillwork?
Thomas Harvell: I’ve been around wrenches my whole life. My dad is a diesel and hydraulic mechanic and owns his own shop, so I was working on things as soon as I could hold a tool. But I didn’t actually want to do it for a living. Out of high school, I floated around, drove a truck for a long time, and eventually got bored with it.
I took a temporary job at a factory, and all I did was clean. One of the supervisors noticed me and hired me on as a production worker. I ran a machine, and when it went down, I fixed it myself instead of waiting for maintenance to show up. They noticed that too, and they brought me onto the maintenance team as an apprentice.
I was at that plant in Tennessee for about two years making cans. Then a massive layoff hit, and I was the new guy, so I got cut. I saw an ad for Skillwork, and here I am.
Q: You moved from Tennessee to Wisconsin for this contract. How has the transition been?
Thomas Harvell: I got pretty lucky. The machine I specialized in back in Tennessee is called a seamer, which puts the tops on cans. The facility here in Mayville cans corn and peas, so they have seamers too, and they needed a seamer tech. I was about as perfect a fit as you could ask for. The work itself barely changed. Instead of making the cans, now I’m putting things inside them.
The hard part was everything around the job. Picking up my whole life in Tennessee and moving it north, getting my wife and my one-year-old daughter settled, adjusting to weather where it snows constantly. That was the real challenge.
I was also nervous about coming into a new plant as a contractor. Usually when a company brings in outside mechanics, it means they’re stretched thin on maintenance, so I expected it to be fast-paced and high-pressure. It turned out to be the opposite. Production runs only about four months a year, which means we get roughly eight months of downtime to do maintenance properly. It’s one of the most relaxed environments a mechanic could ask for.
Q: What has been the most exciting part of your career so far?
Thomas Harvell: Learning new things. On this job alone, I’ve picked up four skills I’ll carry with me everywhere I go. Welding is a big one. I didn’t think welding was that big a deal until I got here, and now I realize guys pick at welds the same way they pick at trucks. You can think you laid down a really nice bead, and then an experienced worker walks over and tears it apart.
But that’s been the most fun part of the job. Learning all these new things, failing at them a lot, and then actually learning from mistakes. That’s just part of it. You can’t get good at something without failing at it first.
Q: What do you think are the most important skills in industrial maintenance?
Thomas Harvell: Safety is number one for me, and I don’t know if that technically counts as a skill, but it’s my biggest thing. We’ve had a few close calls that were real eye-openers. Take your time. Be respectful, but if a supervisor tells you to hurry up, don’t rush and get yourself hurt. If it takes longer than it should, they’ll be over it by tomorrow. It’s not worth the risk.
On the technical side, one of the most underrated skills is knowing sizing. If you need to drill and tap a hole in a piece of sheet metal, being able to know right off the bat what size drill bit and what size tap you need is huge. We build a lot of guards here, so being able to walk out knowing exactly what you need saves you from going back and forth to your toolbox five times. I don’t like working harder than I have to.
The way you build that skill is repetition. There’s a chart on the wall here, and I keep a printed copy in my toolbox. The first time they asked me to drill and tap a hole, I didn’t know what bolt size they wanted, and I ruined an entire guard. Had to start over from scratch with new sheet metal. You don’t need to memorize the whole chart. There are hundreds of sizes, but at any given facility there are only about four or five you’ll use repeatedly. Those you’ll learn fast. The oddball ones you can always look up.
Q: You’ve talked about pride getting in the way. Has there been a time when admitting you didn’t know something made a real difference?
Thomas Harvell: Yes, and it happened almost immediately on this contract. I came in as a contractor, so I assumed the other mechanics expected me to know everything. In reality, I was still pretty green. Within the first week, they asked if I could fabricate, and because I wanted to impress them, I said, “Absolutely-I’m your guy; I can build anything.”
I had no idea where to start. I had never welded. I had never cut with a torch. I’d held a plasma cutter maybe twice in my life. But they wanted a guard built, so I figured out the dimensions, turned on the welder, hid around the corner, watched some YouTube, and ran what I would generously call a bead. It was rough.
After about an hour of me struggling, the lead mechanic came over and said, “You don’t know how to weld, do you?” I told him I’d never held a whip before. He said I could have just told him that. Then he spent the rest of the day showing me, gave me the rest of the week to practice, and answered every question I had. For about two weeks, all I did was weld.
Looking back, I wish I’d been honest upfront. I embarrassed myself more by pretending. It took him about three seconds to see I had no idea what I was doing.
What I’ve learned here is that when someone asks you to do something you don’t know how to do, they’re usually asking because they don’t want to do it themselves. That makes them very willing to teach you. Nobody here likes to weld, so they taught me to weld. Every time I’ve said I don’t know what I’m doing, they’ve shown me. That’s why I’ve learned so much here. Throw the pride out the window.
Q: If you could say one thing to everyone working in the trades, what would it be?
Thomas Harvell: Honestly, I’d rather have people give me advice. I don’t know that much yet. But if I had to say something: hang in there, learn as much as you can, and try to bring more people into the trade. Everywhere I go, they can’t find enough people.
Take pride in what you build. I’ve been here nine months, and when I leave, what I built and worked on will stay. My name stays behind with them. Ten years from now, somebody might look at a guard I fabricated and say, “That old boy Thomas built that.” The work can feel monotonous day to day, but it outlasts you.
We need more young people to see this as an option. Not every career has to be a movie-star job like doctor or lawyer. This is high-paying, genuinely well-respected work once you’re in it, and it isn’t going anywhere. There will always be people who need things fixed and people who don’t know how to fix them.
And never stop learning. My dad has been a diesel mechanic his whole life. He’s fifty-five and can barely stand without losing his balance, and he’s still out there learning something new every day. He’s one of my biggest inspirations. I’m working on electricity now. Something I was told growing up is that the more you learn as a maintenance mechanic, the harder it is for anyone to replace you. If all you can do is bleed hydraulic lines, someone else can do that too. But if you can also run a mill and a lathe, handle electrical, and work hydraulics, you’re the one they keep.
For the younger guys getting into it: stick with it. The older guys are going to give you grief and rag on you a bit. Don’t take it to heart. That’s everywhere, not just here. My brother is an electrician and went through the same thing. I have a cousin who’s a lawyer, and she had the same experience in the law office. You’re going to fail constantly, sometimes before you even get to work. It’s rough at first, but it pays off. You keep showing up every day, and you earn their respect, and eventually they start helping you more and more.
The skills also travel beyond maintenance. This year I supervised seasonal workers for the first time, and most of them spoke only Spanish. I’m not a people person to begin with, so communicating without a translator was one of the hardest things I’ve ever done. I downloaded Duolingo and started learning at home. Halfway through the season, I could get a few words out, and by the end I could hold a full conversation. Now I can put bilingual on my resume. Always keep learning.
Work Where Your Skills Are Valued
Thomas’s story is a great example of what Skillwork is all about: skilled tradespeople who bring real expertise, a strong work ethic, and the kind of professional character that makes a difference on any job site.
If you’re a technician looking for your next opportunity, or if you want to learn more about how Skillwork connects skilled workers with great employers, we’d love to connect!
For more on learning and developing your skills in the trades, explore Phillip Johnson on humility, teamwork, and safety in the trades. For a related perspective, see Skillwork’s video on college and trade school choices. You can also explore Stefan on coachability and growth in industrial maintenance.