You could say that, in Ted Hazen's case, millwrighting is in the blood.
His grandfather worked as a millwright, an ancestor operated a Pennsylvania
saw mill, and even further back, ancestors from the 1200s operated a mill
in Northumberland, England.
So how exactly does millwrighting get into your blood? Rita Moore almost
wouldn't be able to answer that question. Moore is lucky to do what she loves
at all, because she didn't even know the trade existed in the first place.
Her late start as a millwright was the result of misinformed high school
guidance counselors who, she says, believed that students with good grades
didn't get their hands dirty.
"They never breathed a word about construction trades to me. If I had known
about this job sooner, I would have...never spent my time or money going to
university," she says. Moore has also been told that she is the first woman
millwright in North America.
While Moore's path to becoming a millwright was roundabout, Hazen sort
of fell into the position. His love of history and research for a book he
was writing on mills brought him to a mill in Pennsylvania in 1971.
The reason he came to the mill was to learn for himself what he couldn't
find on the bookshelves of the library. Then, as he puts it, "I started helping
out and they began to put me to work and, after a while, began paying me money."
If you enjoy performing routine tasks and working with the same people
day in and day out, you would be advised to stop reading here. A mechanical
inclination is not enough to survive as a millwright.
You must like to get greasy and dirty and enjoy a constantly changing environment,
says Brian Boese, a construction millwright. His work background includes
printing plants, quarries, power generation plants, paper mills, steel mills
and refineries.
Moore also likes the change of scenery because of the range of experiences
that she says you wouldn't get if you worked for one company your whole life.
"That in itself is a true reward."
Besides an ability to adjust to change, it doesn't hurt to be a walking
calculator. In other words, math skills should be pretty advanced. Moore says
she can't think of a day that goes by where she doesn't use math.
Calculus and trigonometry help size up and calculate different lengths
of woods and figure out real-world problems. "It's not advanced chaos theory
or anything, but algebra and physics are useful," says Moore.
However, anything you don't know or are not good at, you will probably
be taught as an apprentice, says Moore. "You'd have a head start if you took
shop and maybe drafting in school, but you can make up these deficiencies
later. The whole idea of being an apprentice is to learn the trade, not come
in already knowing it."
Also, because you primarily work with a partner, the chances for give and
take are great. For example, your partner may be more versed in physics, while
you may know more about the Pythagorean theorem.
Before becoming a journeyman, each millwright must embark on a three-year
apprenticeship, say Moore and Boese. To get into an apprenticeship program,
you will be asked to take an aptitude test and the top applicants will be
chosen from the pool.
Since most millwrights work for union halls, work is not steady. The union
assigns jobs to members depending on need and their place on the list. Once
a job is done, the millwright is laid off and placed at the bottom of the
list again, explains Moore.
There will be downtimes where you won't work for three months, followed
by a slew of jobs that last 12 hours a day for many months. Between jobs,
Moore says, you are always waiting for the phone to ring, and most millwrights
carry cell phones.
"It takes a lot of nerve to decide to actually go on vacation. You have
to be ready to cancel your plans at the drop of a hat [if you get called],
or live with missing what could be your only paycheck for the month."
Moore adds that most work is done while the plant or mill is shut down,
so it is almost a given that millwrights will work during holidays and at
odd hours.
For example, there might be one day when a plant is shut down, so the millwrights
don't leave, even if that takes 20 hours, until the work is done -- although
she says long jobs like this usually reflect that the contractor has under-hired.
There is a sense of pride in each job. The results are tangible, says Moore.
"Like, you can point to something and say, 'See that factory? I built it.'"
Hazen agrees. "At one time, I could say that was 'my' mill, not because
I owned it, but because I knew it inside and out and brought it back to life
again."
Hazen remembers one 97-year-old millwright who remained dedicated to his
job until the bitter end in 1987. "One day he just didn't come to work. It
was because he stayed at home and died."
Moore is enthusiastic about her job. Her only regret is not finding out
about it sooner. "I want people to know that skilled construction trades are
a great career choice, and the only 'bad' job is one that the person doing
it doesn't want to do."
Things have worked out well for Boese also. He says you should keep this
in mind, "When one door closes, another one always opens."