Let me preface this by saying I have no education past a high school diploma. I didn't know what i wanted to do and being a first generation mexican american left me unprepared for anything other than work. I still don't know much about anything in the world, but i'm trying about as much as any 24 year old can do.
I work construction, specifically siteworking which deals with dirt work. We are the people who prep the site for other trades to start working. We make the building pads, the detention/retention ponds, the dirt roads, basically all dirt is us. I have been here since i was 18 and joined up with my dad. It's been hard. It's hot as shit in texas and it gets cold too fast. I am so tired of this life that i chose for myself. Started off with 12 bucks an hour and i just barely got up to 16. That is no life to live.
Time and time again i have been told that if you are loyalvto the company, the company will treat you well, yet it just seems like they are just comfortable taking advantage of my coworkers and I. We don't have benefits, we can't match 401k(reserved only for the office monkeys), and we don't have a union.
I've seen so many guys just leave and end up with something better and i have no idea how they do it. Dp they just roam different companies and beg? Do they go to indeed? Do they just work hard and get picked up?
I hate construction. I hate the heat, i hate the cold, i hate the outside. If i was being paid enough for what i know then maybe i'd like it, but it just seems like im throwing my life away. I can't even go out anymore. I just work, sleep and repeat. Like, i am a labor worker STILL but i know how to read prints, i can check grades and elevations with a laser, i recently figured out how to make benchmarks, i can use a variety of equipment except the dozer and the excavators.
I feel like with what i know i deserve to be paid more. Otherwise i am just the guy who can do the job of 10 other guys. A jack of all trades basically.
How do you guys do it? How can you just leave a company and join another? It seems scary to me.