The Proud Skilled Worker brings you another great episode with Sam Overturf, an Electro Mechanic who shares from his experience growing his trades career. Work with the mentality to learn new skills and expand your expertise Skilled workers will increase their worth when they ask questions to grow in their trade You don’t need formal education to be successful or financially stable in the trades On-the-job training will help you grow faster as a skilled worker
00:00-04:10 | Learn how to grow a career in the trades 04:10–11:49 | Companies are willing to train the people with the right attitude to learn 11:49–19:31 | You will grow as a skilled worker when you ask the right questions 19:31–31:28 | A college degree isn’t required to be successful in the trades
“When you teach a skill to someone, something you might do every day that they didn’t know how to do before, that’s one less thing you have to worry about.” – Sam Overturf, Electro Mechanic “I don’t feel like the trades eat their young because there’s not enough young to be eaten—the workforce is so depleted.” – Sam Overturf, Electro Mechanic “It’s better to have a maintenance team be reliant on each other instead of all of them servicing individual crisis situations.” – Michael Peatrowsky, Director of Operations “I picked up a tool and said, “I may not know what I’m doing but I am going to give it a shot”. That mentality was something that they respected.” – Sam Overturf, Electro Mechanic
Full Transcription:
Michael Peatrowsky 00:13
Hi everybody, good morning and welcome to another episode of The Proud Skilled Worker. Today we have an opportunity to interview Sam Overturf, an electro mechanic who’s been all over the United States with Skillwork, actually. We’re gonna jump into some questions from you guys that you guys reached out to us about. But before we do that, Sam, tell us a little bit about yourself, how did you end up in skilled trades?
Sam Overturf 00:33
So I was at Tool Center, a shop back home. And basically they took her, they just they got to where they were lower staff, you know, people started to retire, we’re starting to see the higher turnover rate. They let me get into the trade, learned a little bit there. I did about a year and a half there, that was in Kansas City, at a plant that made lawnmower blades. And then after that I moved back home. So I worked at a ConAgra. And I did it three years there. And then their contract was coming up to an end and things weren’t looking very good. So luckily enough, I found Skillwork and here I am.
Michael Peatrowsky 01:10
So Tool Center in the beginning, that job kind of transitioned out, you ended up jumping into what role at ConAgra?
Sam Overturf 01:18
I was actually I started out as a I was a lead processor. So essentially, in the grand scheme of things, I was a line lead. And they’re pretty full time on mechanics. And then once the opportunity came, and took about a year, once the opportunity came, I moved over into that. Did some time there and then I got a hold of Cam and came to Skillwork.
Michael Peatrowsky 01:39
So as you transitioned from that line lead into the mechanic role, you said it was about a year gap? I’m curious to know, and maybe you’ll answer here is what was your biggest challenge in that season? In the season where you knew, like “I’m getting into maintenance, but I’m kind of stuck right here”. What was the biggest challenge there?
Sam Overturf 01:55
Honestly, you know, I didn’t notice a lot of challenge. Actually, I’ve taken this with me too, and I think it would be it’s kind of interesting, actually, because having worked on the lines as an operator and done the day to day on it and gotten used to actually using the equipment, transitioning, you know, a full year of that transitioning into maintenance, it kind of became second nature really. I you know, I did what I did as the operator translated into what I was going to do as a mechanic or you know, as an operator, you’re not really digging into it, but you use the equipment every day. So whether it be like, they use piston fillers for their for their sauce, the sauce top into their, into their bowls. So going from a line lead that adjusted that or move the process, you know what I mean? I understood how it adjusted. So once I transitioned into the mechanic side of it, it really just became it was deeper, it was just honestly, I look at it as a deeper operator, essentially. And the more places I go with Skillwork, it kind of proves me right, really.
Michael Peatrowsky 02:50
Interesting. So your time as a line lead was was really more was was building your maintenance career? Because you started to understand like, “this is how it runs, so when it’s not running right, as a maintenance guy, I’ll know.” When you were in the line lead position did you feel that way? Or did you feel more stuck?
Sam Overturf 03:08
Honestly, I knew it was coming. You know, the supervisor, there’s actually we’re still we’re still buddies now, but it was basically in waiting. In a way. You know, it was that what was that about? That would been about a year? Probably about yeah, right around a year before the pandemic came around. And we were just kind of stuck, you know, but it didn’t feel stuck. You know, it was just kind of a it was, as I was a line lead, they let me I slowly more and more got my hands on it. And then once once the maintenance role came open, and once I became once I actually became one of their mechanics, it was just basically I hit the ground running.
Michael Peatrowsky 03:43
Yeah, that’s huge. I think one of the things you said in there is that open communication with your supervisor, and then even to the maintenance team, being able to have that and respect each other and just know, “hey, next time, there’s an opportunity I want to take it”. That’s that’s huge for for you and for others who are in the position you were in as line lead, like “I’m getting onto the maintenance team, how do I get there?” Like knowing your goal and going, “I’m getting there, I know somebody’s gonna somebody’s gonna let me go”.
Sam Overturf 04:09
Somethings gonna happen.
Michael Peatrowsky 04:10
Right! So next part of the of kind of what we’re going to discuss, Sam is, is we had a bunch of people reach out to us who are actually in the skilled trades, and they had questions for us. So we’ll jump right into these questions. We have four or five that we’ll go through and from there, we’ll probably spiderweb out and have some pretty deep conversations. But first question comes from Brandon A, and he says, How does he take his maintenance skills to the next level? And I think that ties really perfectly into what we were just talking about.
Sam Overturf 04:37
Yeah. No, it’s, um, when I was really kind of got to a point, you know, after the first year and a half or two years into being a tech but what was you know, kind of been I didn’t feel stuck. I just felt like the learning curve was slowing from for what I was doing. So for me, it’s just having the open mind to “I’m willing to learn anything”, you know? And that’s especially with something like Skillwork that’s huge you know? You can, you have the opportunity to to learn whatever you want to learn. So for me, it’s just, even if I’m, you know, I work around a piece of equipment, and maybe I’m handling more of the mechanical side of it, I might pull one of the electricians to the side and say, “Hey, man, how does this work? Like, what is the, you know, what, what is the PLC logic for this? How does it translate? You know, how does it? How does it go from step 1, 2, 3, 4?” And I just, that’s how I do it, you know? My short answer would be just to be willing to further your career, maybe maybe in ways that you weren’t expecting to originally, you know what I mean? Like, sometimes, sometimes I’ll be working on a project, and you know, I’m, oh, I’m going to install the gearbox and put the motor in, and all of a sudden, they having me, you know, I’m doing everything else. That’s like, for me, it’s just kind of, I’m open to learn everything really.
Michael Peatrowsky 05:42
Do you feel like when you reach out to people like that, when you’re like, “hey, will you show me how this,” your example is a PLC and ladder logic, when when you reach out to guys are they usually like, “Yeah, I’d love to” or are people a little more standoffish with you in those moments?
Sam Overturf 05:55
You know, it’s it’s funny you asked that, because when I first got into the trade, I was, in ways told to be intimidated it felt like. Like, “Hey, man, sometimes when you ask us for help, you know, ask some of the guys, they’re not really going to be so willing to lend that hand.” And one thing that a lot of the older guys threw at me was, “oh, it’s their job security”, which I heard a lot. And yeah, honestly, man, for my example, I’d say I’ve probably, I’ve probably asked 25 different techs or electricians for, you know, to help help me understand something. And I haven’t been shunned away once. Every time I’ve ever asked, I’ve always, they’ve always said, “Yeah, I’ll show you, give me a minute”, or, “yeah, help me finish this and I’ll come show you that”. That’s always kind of goes hand in hand. I’ve never really had I never had any trouble.
Michael Peatrowsky 06:38
Interesting. So 25 for 25 no one’s ever turned you down. But all you heard coming up was, “hey, people are gonna push back, people are gonna push back”.
Sam Overturf 06:45
Yeah, that’s exactly how it worked, how it worked. You know, it’s, it’s even funny now. Because I’ll see some of the guys that were, you know, that are coming in, or they’re just graduating from school, or whatever it might be they’re doing, and they’re coming in. And I see some of the older guys that I work with every day, and they’re like, “Hey man, Like, just so you know”, and then then they’re, you know, they’re intimidated. They’re kind of scared of it. I’m like ah, that’s not what they say it is, I promise.
Michael Peatrowsky 07:08
Yeah, it’s almost like, like, there’s this perception people want to hold in the trades, where they’re like, “don’t ask me questions”. And immediately when you do, they’re like, “alright, I’ll tell you everything.”
Sam Overturf 07:18
Honestly, from my standpoint, and now I’m in the position that you know, when people ask me stuff like that, I’m like, “yeah, man, sure, I’ll help you”. Because you know what? And it may sound bad, but especially when you’re on a busy day, or you’re having a really, you know, you have a packed schedule. When you teach that guy how to do something else, you know, something that you might do every day that he didn’t know how to do before, that’s one less thing you have to worry about every day
Michael Peatrowsky 07:38
Many hands make light work. The more people you have who can do it the less everybody has to do on their own.
Sam Overturf 07:42
Absolutely.
Michael Peatrowsky 07:43
So you brought that up kind of that perception of the older trades not looking down on but feeling like threatened threatening down and parent Harris K has a question about “why does skilled trades eat its young?” Or why does it feel like it eat it eats its young? So I think that’s a really good tie in for us to go. Is that the truth? Or is there a perception out there that people are, are perpetuating?
Sam Overturf 08:06
You know, I’ve actually got a couple of really good friends of mine that are master welders. And when I would kind of go around the shop, you know, I’d get a work order, let’s say I get a work order to weld frame together, or whatever it might be. I was okay. You know, it wasn’t perfect. I did some time in high school as welders. But, you know, I would go from doing what I was doing to seeing what they were doing. And I was like, “Man, that is like, wow, yeah, that guy’s worth his money. Holy smokes.” And it went from “wow, like, that’s kind of intimidating man. Like, I don’t even he just proved that I don’t know anything. I don’t know what I’m doing”. And it literally just tied into “Hey, man, like I seen that you, that you know, you know what you’re doing. It didn’t even I wasn’t even able to get the full question out, and they’re like, “Oh, yeah, man, come here. Like, you know, I’ll give you the basics. And from there, you’ll just branch out, you’ll learn how to do it”. But I mean, I could see where some people would say that if it might feel like it eats its young. But for my experience, it’s just the matter of getting you know, even if I’m, you know, with Skillwork, I’m going from one place to the next. It’s almost just like that new phase. You know, that maybe, maybe, I mean, a lot of people don’t consider, but it’s to me, that’s what it is. I don’t feel like it necessarily eats its young, especially now, man. There’s not enough young out there to be eaten. I mean, you know what I mean? Like, there’s not enough people ahead of us like we’re basically, we’re the next boars. And that’s crazy, too, because, especially when I got here, man, that, their floor, the workforce here is so depleted. And I’m in the middle of Chicago, I’ll drive down, you know, I’ll drive I’ll drive down to harbor road and there’s just signs everywhere, “help wanted” help wanted, and help wanted. When I go to work, you know, they’re they’re supposed to have on staff 24 mechanics and right now we’re at eight. You know what I mean? Like, I don’t, I could, I could understand that question more if it was five or six years ago, but I feel like as of late, you know, the last couple of years, man, it’s where the workforce is really falling.
Michael Peatrowsky 09:53
Yeah. And I think maybe that maybe that’s a good point to stand on is, hey, five or six years ago, everybody was leaning into this, “you need four years of experience, you need to have these degrees, you need to have all this OJT”. And now everybody’s like, “Hey, you get here and we’ll train you, we’re gonna make you better”. You know, we’ve talked even to in the past on this podcast about that paradigm shift that has happened just in the last five years of requiring two to four years of experience versus now everybody is like, “Do you know what a screwdriver is? Or do you have mechanical aptitude? Great, let’s go to work.” And it feels like the the industry has flipped from the standard of the perception as “they eat their young” to now they’re almost like, “we’ll bring anybody in because we need to grow this thing”. More and more people see it.
Sam Overturf 10:37
Yeah, no, just to tie-in what you’re saying, yeah, they, it definitely does feel that way. And honestly, and I feel like a lot of places, I feel like, that’s part of it. And I also feel like part of it is, as it grows back, that a lot of different corporations are realizing “you know, what? Maybe this is the right way to go. Maybe if we do just give people a chance and let them get in the door, and we train them who we want them to be, it pays off for us.” you know, then they know, they know the ins and outs of it. And I see that a lot now too, excuse me, several the mechanics here, right now, the several of guys at the place I’m at here in Bridgeview. They they’re like that, you know, they were brought in as they were operators there for, you know, four or five years. And, you know, now they got a little bit of time as a mechanic. Or even as an electrician. People, you know, higher up, especially, you know, in the office, they’re like, “Man, this is actually, this is working, you know? So you can see it on there. You know, I’ve seen on applications now too, where it’s like, you know, hey, you know, you know, a year ago, two years ago, I would even say, hey, you know, two to four years experience, you know, plus a trade school would be nice. And now it’s, it’s changed, like, even just looking at an application, you can see that, you know, I mean, I’ve seen several, that say “we’re willing to train the right person”, you know? I feel like that’s the right direction to go.
Michael Peatrowsky 11:49
Yeah, for sure. And I think, you know, if we look back at the beginning, and the previous industrial revolutions that we saw, that was exactly what happened is we started to go, “we will train people and grow the workforce”, as opposed to try to find the perfect fit for every role, because that doesn’t exist. You know, we’ve talked more and more about this, like fourth industrial revolution as we move to automation, and we move to maintenance, and we move to all of this predictive maintenance information. And I just think it’s super interesting, the cyclical nature of it all, like, “Okay, everybody needs five years of experience and a degree” to “Okay, now we’re going to train everybody”. But those evolutions take a long time to happen, they don’t happen overnight. You can’t can’t convince people, bring them back to the trades, bring it back to the industry overnight. So definitely, it’s a long term fix. But I think as you said, more and more people are going, “Okay, I’m gonna get into this at the entry level, learn everything I can, and then lat move over and kind of grow my career.”
Sam Overturf 12:45
In the, in the trade, you know, in, in the industrial industrial side of stuff, I don’t think there’s, you know, you can get into management and move up and continue. But as far as just a set, you know, a stable position. I don’t know if there’s a position out there that allows more growth than being a mechanic honestly, in the industrial environment. There’s so many like even at work here, you know, go look at a job boards and you there’s just so many different styles of what they do, like, you know, learn, “hey, here’s a here’s a bump in pay, you can learn how to run the mill on the lathe”, here’s another bump, you can you know, it’s there’s so many steps for different things. Or how to wire in PLCs. Or in logic, there’s, there’s so many different pieces that allow you to move it’s like a it’s like a crazy spider web is what I call it, because you can you can literally in this industry, you can learn whatever you want.
Michael Peatrowsky 13:33
Super interesting, because like the title mechanic is what you used. But from the word mechanic, you can go anywhere and make any amount of money you want as you’re like, “Yeah, I’m going that way. Okay, well, this mechanic does this”. And that, I think that’s super, that’s a beautiful thing for the trades is have somebody who’s like, “I’m interested in this”, and then six years, they go, “yeah, nevermind, I’m actually more interested in that” and, and you’re all connected, and you will have all of those skills, but your career keeps growing. It’s,
Sam Overturf 14:00
It’s crazy to see, it actually to actually watch it play out and see how those can go, you know, and sometimes it’s not the right you know, sometimes certain aspects of the of the trade aren’t right for everybody, you know what I mean? Like, I’ve worked with several guys that are, you know, they don’t necessarily see themselves as the greatest mechanic but when you put them in front of a meter with a cabinet, you’re like, “Wow, man, like, this is kind of this kind of like the shoes on the right foot”. You can this is something that’s just more natural to you. So it’s cool to see the way as I work with more people and you know, work with different teams, it’s cool to see to see how the different different people interact with each other and how they almost find a natural fit on a team. You know, it’s kind of like, I compare it to like, you know, playing a video game where, you know, everybody on the team has their own aspect, you know what I mean? Like so I can go work with my guys and like, you know, we have somebody that’s a super good with electro, you know, a really good electrician, and you know, maybe he’s going through troubleshoot and stuff and he’s like, “Hey, man, I need you to put a contact here. I need you to replace this drive, you know, this VFD” whatever it might be. And then we’ll have somebody that’s super good with gearboxed and can make anything work. So it’s, it’s cool to see how those things play out when when you tied it together.
Michael Peatrowsky 15:06
Yeah and I think that leads us right into our next question, which is Shane A says, “is it more beneficial to learn multiple skills, or to be a master of one?” And I think you’re gonna, based on the spider web you just described, I think we’re gonna have a decent conversation.
Sam Overturf 15:22
I think man you can can, personally, me personally, my goal over, you know, let’s say the next 20 years is to learn as much as I can, but that doesn’t