How To Get A Job With Parker Schnabel
Parker Schnabel was a very successful miner at a very young age, and his success has been shared with millions of viewers on Discovery's Gold Rush. And so naturally many people wonder: how tin I work for Parker Schnabel?
If you've been following Parker Schnabel on social media recently, he'due south given you the chance to learn how to get into the independent gold mining game.
Parker has been in the placer mining business concern most of his life, getting his start by mining with his dear gramps, John Schnabel, at a young age. By 16 he was running the Big Nugget Mine when his grandad retired and turned it over to him.
Co-ordinate to the Gold Blitz star i of the most frequent questions he gets is how to get into the gold business. Recently he's posted a few videos on his Facebook page with communication on how to get your get-go equally a miner, and nosotros're going to sum upwardly those points for you lot here.
SKILLS
Tip #one: Build a wide skill ready with heavy machinery – and focus on the dozer and the excavator
Placer mining, Parker says, is a actually niche business organisation and in that location aren't a lot of people doing information technology. Those who are have usually grown up in the business or know someone personally in the concern who has taught them and given them the "in" they demand to go on a team and get feel moving dirt.
If you aren't lucky enough to be one of those people and then having a broad range of skills with heavy equipment will be invaluable. Mine operators will look for guys who have moved a lot of dirt for landscaping, built roads, or worked with gravel in construction applications. While specialists get hired at times, those who take a lot of hours on a wide range of equipment normally get looked at showtime – and of course the ability to diagnose and fix problems with equipment is mandatory at remote mining camps.
The two almost of import pieces of equipment to know how to operate are the dozer and the excavator. Parker recommends having a lot of hours on those for the best chance to get a task at a placer mining site operation. Being a expert rock truck commuter or loader operator is a great start but you lot actually want to log in those dozer and excavator hours if you tin.
Tip #2: Don't waste money on those schools that volition teach yous how to run equipment (like excavators, dump trucks, front end loaders, etc.)
In that location are schools that volition teach people how to run construction equipment but Parker says he doesn't recommend them. Why pay to acquire skills yous can learn on the job? The biggest trouble he has found is that while those schools volition teach yous how to run the equipment, they don't teach you lot how to retrieve virtually moving dirt. That in itself is a valuable skill.
He goes on to explain that if someone shows up to a chore site as a laborer, he or she will stay on if they show real interest and passion for what is happening on that job site. Beginning out in road construction and larn everything you can near every piece of equipment they have there. A lot of that will exist useful for mining. You might outset off at the lesser simply if you bear witness real interest, you'll exist taught how to run equipment because it's in everyone'southward best interest to have well rounded employees with a wide variety of abilities.
Overall, the schools just don't requite you the time at the controls needed to be a truly effective operator – and he wouldn't consider hiring someone who only graduated from one of those programs over someone with hundreds or thousands of hours of experience in the field and understands how to truly motility dirt.
BONUS TIP: Make sure the machinery controls aren't opposite of what yous're used to working with.
In some countries the equipment controls are opposite of what we apply in Northward America. When you lot get into a new auto for the first fourth dimension, it's e'er a great idea to make sure the controls work how y'all're used to and if they don't make sure you're able to make it some practice fourth dimension. Some guys can relearn controls quicker than others.
CAMP LIFE
In the 2d video Parker talks near how being a aureate miner is more than simply having a wide skill set up, in that location is also the interpersonal side and the ability to live well in remote areas for long periods of time in crude conditions. The lifestyle is one of the most unique challenges (or opportunities) for new miners, and Parker has several reality checks and tips for folks who think they desire to go into the industry.
Tip #iii: Be prepared to be remote and to have spotty communications with the people dorsum home. You actually have to be prepared to be asunder from the earth for long periods of fourth dimension.
Most mining operations are remote, some merely accessible by flying in and out. Others, like Parker's current functioning, expect workers to stay in that location for the majority of the mining season – which is usually from April 15th through October 15th with no set schedule for breaks to get dwelling. Ordinarily he'll requite his miners x to 14 days to go home, all at once, at some undetermined bespeak in the flavor. Though it'due south not common, he does permit families to come up upward for visits.
Internet coverage has gotten better in recent years simply it's yet really irksome and not the most reliable, particularly in the more remote areas where mines tend to be. To make matters worse, everyone tends to use the limited internet service at the same time earlier and after their shifts, making already unreliable service even more spotty.
Tip #4: Be prepared to not only work with the aforementioned people but live with them 24/7 for months at a time.
An often overlooked skill to accept is knowing how to become along with others in stressful, close quarter situations. You are going to be with the same group of people for months on end. Y'all are sharing housing, bathrooms, meals, and downwards time with the aforementioned group of people. At that place's most no privacy or time for yourself. Y'all need to be able to deal with different personality types and communication styles. Working that close and for that corporeality of time, y'all go similar a family, and like any family unit information technology can become a great experience or a especially difficult one depending on how everyone gets along. Beingness able to piece of work through problems and problems that come up is vital to making a career in the placer mining business.
Tip #v: Exist prepared to live in rough conditions.
Camp life is non piece of cake. Yous live where you work and spend your downtime due to the how remote most mining sites are. They are loud, dirty and lack a lot of comforts we've come to have for granted, like extra infinite and easy utilities like rut, air-conditioning, on-grid electricity and running h2o that comes from a city system. Yous will exist living close to nature and all of the elements and creatures that come with it.
Having a positive attitude and embracing the rough lifestyle is important to surviving a half-dozen month mining season.
Tip #half dozen: Exist prepared to work a lot of hard hours
Depending on the site you're working on or who you're working for, the amount of hours and days or nights you piece of work can vary but one thing they all have in common is this: you are going to be working a lot. Common schedules are 12 hr days, 12 days working, 2 days off. If at that place is a night shift you could be working 12 hour days for four days, then 12 hr nights for four nights and then 4 days off. Depending on how large and remote the mining site is, some operations let people to piece of work for ii weeks and then fly home for a week.
No thing how the piece of work schedule pans out, all those hours of hard work can have a toll on people. When you have to work nights, your days are flipped and usually you are working with a smaller crew in the nighttime. Information technology's usually colder, the weather is crap and you lot take to bargain with most breakdowns with only ane or 2 other people working to aid. Plus you lot can't complain well-nigh eating bacon and eggs for dinner every night, which brings u.s. to the bonus tip…
Bonus Tip: Don't Piss off the cook (or whatsoever other camp staff)
The melt is 1 of the well-nigh of import roles that can make or break camp life. Good food is ane of the few luxuries he makes certain his guys get in army camp. According to Parker, y'all do not want to piss off the cook. If any arguments betwixt the miners and the cook escalate to the point where he hears virtually it, he will always side with the cook. A good melt willing to work in the rough conditions of a mining camp is difficult to find, and he knows it's more important to keep him or her happy than any private machine operator.
GETTING INTO THE Industry
Tip #7: Effigy out what type of mining functioning yous want to piece of work for.
There are pocket-size and large mining companies, placer mining and difficult rock mining, and many different flavors of each blazon of operation. Which type you desire to work for is personal preference.
Most placer mining operations like Parker's are small compared to the large hard rock mining operations that typically work in the same areas as the placer mines.
Both accept pros and cons so it comes downward to what yous are looking for in a mining operation. The big scale mining companies normally are a lot easier to get a job with if you lot're a new miner. They tend to be more structured, things are going to exist on fourth dimension, have less equipment breakdowns, and pay on time. The cons though are typically they only pay manufacture standard, significant the everyman they can, they offer less perks, they tend to requite you the least they can get away with within the industry standards until you move up in the company. Larger companies tend to have more of a corporate feel rather than a family blazon feel for newer employees.
With a smaller visitor you are more valuable considering they have less people, every person is an integral part of the operation to keep it running. You tin can usually negotiate for a larger percentage since there are less miners on-site. It's besides easier to get in some hours on equipment you might not be strong in to aid build those skills. The skills y'all bring and build on matter more to a smaller operation than a large one.
A big risk of working with a smaller operation is tying your fiscal success to the success of the operation, which is less stable than big operations. You might not get paid on time, or fifty-fifty become paid at all if the functioning goes belly upwards. This biggest obstacle to working for a pocket-sized performance, though, is getting your pes in the door in the first place. Because of the college earning potential and the close-knit teams, it's a lot harder to get a job with a smaller company than a larger 1. Which leads u.s.a. to the next tip Parker has.
Tip #8: Start out with a big mining company to become a feel for the industry
At that place are a lot of large difficult rock mining operations non only in the Yukon just all over Canada and Alaska. A quick Google search will give you a list of the top ones in whatsoever area you want to work in. Usually, if you show up around the start of a season in a mining area looking to get hired, you'll find a job with one of the large companies, which isn't unlike our own advice for getting a chore as a Bering Sea gold diver.
In that location are a few things to watch out for, regardless of the size of the operation. If y'all show upwardly to a site where no one has been working at that place for years, that's a crimson flag. Why oasis't people stayed or returned each season? Have they had issues paying in the by, is there a trouble with getting meals or is there an issue with the housing conditions? If you are committing yourself to work abroad from home for months at a time, you desire to make sure it's with the correct company that is going to treat you fairly and give y'all room to grow your skills. Use some common sense and don't just take any offer.
BONUS TIP: Offer to do curt stints with other mines during the season if you're bachelor
One way Parker mentioned to go boosted experience and to check out unlike operations is to offer to piece of work for a short, ready amount of fourth dimension. That takes the pressure off the owner of having to make up one's mind if they can keep you lot on or if you'd be a practiced long term fit. Information technology allows you the chance to see how other operations work and gives you lot more experience and contacts in the mining business.
While it can be hard to get into the mining business organisation, Parker has offered some great tips to make it easier for anyone new to get into the business. Start and build the skills that are in need and needed, make sure yous can handle the realities of army camp life and start with the larger operations to get the skills, noesis and contacts needed to piece of work with a smaller operation if you want or even start your own i solar day.
Check out the first video Parker posted on Facebook here!
Source: https://beringseapaydirt.com/parker-schnabels-guide-to-getting-into-gold-mining/
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