The job market is rough out there for all the so-called soft majors. From English to history to communications to theater, if you did not get your bachelor’s in a STEM field (science, technology, engineering and math), you might be struggling in an ultra competitive job market. If your employment prospects are dim, you might want to try getting your forklift certification.
Instead of pushing yourself through that dead-end retail job at your local mall or waiting tables at your local chain restaurant, why not look into a more lucrative career? Forklifts are everywhere.
Shipping is quickly becoming the lifeblood of global commerce. When everyone can sit at home and order everything from groceries to grand pianos from the internet, the products have to get from point A to point B somehow. And that is where forklifts come in.
Pallets and pallets of merchandise are being loaded and unloaded from trucks every day. Someone needs to do that lifting. Or, to put it more precisely, someone needs to run the machinery that loads and unloads those products.
Forklift certification could the pathway to a good, secure job with decent pay. That is nothing to sneeze at. And it beats sitting in a stuffy cubicle all day. If you like to be outside, rather than wasting away under fluorescent office lights all the time, forklift operation could be the perfect spot for you. Sure you might deal with some vagaries of the weather, but that is a small price to pay to get out of awkward co-worker birthdays and forced-cheery management-led holiday celebrations.
And the certification process is easy. Just study up on OSHA’s rules and regulations for forklift operations, take a test online and then print out your certificate. There are plenty of sites with resources to study from and that offer packages to train individuals, whole certification programs to train trainers that businesses can utilize and a host of other services.
An average salary for a newish forklift driver is $15 per hour. Experienced forklift operators can earn more than $20 per hour. That is some decent bread. It is not all wine and cheese, though. You might need to use those muscles to load up the pallets before you get the forklift involved, but the physical activity can be a reward in and of itself. Plus, you get a feeling of accomplishment at the end of a shift that you rarely get by generating TPS reports from 9-5. The benefits of getting out from under office-park drudgery could be enormous. Fresh air, improved pallor getting out and about, improved fitness and nutrition from avoiding all the office snack tables and constant sitting.
Plus the skills you acquire from forklift certification can translate anywhere. Every major city in America has an airport. The need for efficient luggage transport and forklift drivers at shipping hubs in those airports is enormous. The in-demand certification could mean that you can hop from city to city, if that is your prerogative.
Do you have what it takes to obtain forklift certification? Try it and you could land yourself a steady, well-paying job that is nearly impossible to outsource. Not bad in this economy, eh?
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