Finding a good Excavator mentor is so important
I dropped out of high school in my first year. It was a private school in my hometown, and those who know, know—the learning environment was terrible. Instead of staying, I decided to help ease my family's financial burden. My family suggested I learn to operate an excavator, so I went for it. I went to the site with my father, who works as a formwork carpenter—a tough job. My brother found me a mentor… but I had to wait nearly a month and a half. During that time, I was frustrated and bored.
The first mentor I followed was part of a group of three excavator operators. One of them already had an apprentice, and another was the cousin of the other two. I ended up learning from the one closest to my age—he was kind and easygoing. Learning from him felt stress-free and relaxed. Of course, at first, I wasn’t allowed to touch the excavator. I just watched for over ten days until he finally let me operate it and taught me some basic movements. But then… nothing. He never let me touch it again or taught me further.
Do you know why? Because his cousin wouldn’t allow it. Since I was staying at their house and sleeping on the sofa (which was too short for me, so I had to use a stool), I didn’t pay him anything. And since the excavators were his, I wasn’t given a chance to practice. Eventually, I stopped going. Even when I showed up occasionally, he made excuses and told my mentor not to let me operate the machine—thinking I was too young to understand what was really going on. So, I left.
Then came my second mentor—the one I’m currently learning from. The first time I saw him, I felt uneasy. He seemed kind on the surface, but his eyes were full of calculation and deceit. When I arrived at the site, he let me try operating the excavator, asking me to maneuver it out of a ditch. The machine was positioned sideways at the top of the ditch, and I had barely practiced moving it before. Naturally, I struggled. His response?
“Get down, get down. What were you even doing for the past month? You still don’t know this?”
I wanted to explain my situation, but I realized there was no point, so I kept quiet. From then on, he barely let me operate the excavator or taught me anything.
After about a week, he finally taught me properly, and I took it seriously. But soon enough, he returned to his old ways, making sarcastic remarks: “At this rate, you won’t learn this even by next year,” or “Your control is way off,” and so on.
We’re actually related—distant relatives. But in times like these, relatives only seem to exist to take advantage of you.
The work he takes on is the kind that nobody else wants—mainly electrical work. It makes sense that I wouldn’t be allowed to operate in those situations, but the way he talks down to me makes me resent him even more. Even in easy situations where I could practice, he refuses to let me. And if he does, he kicks me off the machine after a few minutes. Infuriating.
After this happened several times, I lost interest in engaging with him. Instead, he started making me help him with manual labor. I accepted it—after all, that’s what apprentices are expected to do.
But after two months, I was reaching my breaking point. I told my family, but no one sympathized. “That’s just how apprenticeships work,” they said.
Every time I got on the machine, I’d be taken off almost immediately—less than ten times in a month and a half. And if that weren’t bad enough, he made me wake up earlier than him every day, only for me to end up waiting for him. Then he’d turn around and say, “Next time, come earlier. Don’t be late.”
And if I was late, he’d scold me even more harshly. If not for the fact that my parents know him (we’re from the same village, even neighbors, and my family has often lent him money), I would have put him in the hospital by now. If the law didn’t exist, he’d probably be six feet under.
It’s been two months, and I’ve barely accumulated half an hour of practice. And to top it all off, he only lets me watch—not even teach me.
Finding a good mentor is so important.
