How important is professional training when maintaining large surface mining equipment?
Like everything in life, when it comes to maintaining large surface mining equipment – we don’t know, what we don’t know.
But what does that saying really mean?
Lets look at heavy equipment mechanics, there are some exceptional mechanics around the world. Mechanics that are safety concious, diligent and that really put their heart and soul into their work.
We Always Meet The Candidate Face To Face, We Sit And We Listen
The first commitment we give is to the candidate, we commit to getting to know them, and we commit to the candidate getting to know us.
And that exchange of lived experiences always takes place in person, face-to-face. Not only is it essential to get to know the candidate, to understand who they are as a person, their wants, hopes, dreams, their skill, their fears, not only is that essential. But it’s also a requirement in our ISO9001:2015 Quality Management System’s procedure.
We listen, we listen a lot. Candidates can have as much time as they need to get comfortable, for us to break down any barriers and to simply tell us how they became a tradesperson.
The candidate talks about what machines have they worked on and when, what work have they performed on each machine. And where, was it mine site workshops or in the pit, or was it a town based shed or roving field service from a branch. The candidate talks and we listen.
Who Listens To The Candidate – 35 Years of Caterpillar Dealership Experience
And then, when the candidate has told us various parts of their lived experience, the conversations start to become very interesting for the candidate.
Because the people that have been listening to the candidates lived experiences, have a passion for heavy equipment, specifically large surface mining equipment from Caterpillar Dealerships and Mining Companies viewpoints.
One of the technical interview team interviewers that listens to candidates is Peter Pelling. Peter used to work for the Caterpillar Dealer Hastings Deering Australia Limited, and he worked there for over 35 years. Peter was a very senior manager, but he is hands on.
Peter ran the Caterpillar Dealer Engine Rebuild Facility and Component Rebuild Group in Rockhampton and Mackay, Queensland, Australia for many, many years.
Peter ran those Australian Caterpillar Dealer Workshop shops like the Japanese High Speed Railway called the Shinkansen, where the average delay of trains is less than one minute per year… Peter was instrumental in creating the process driven procedures and systems that delivered more than 600 engine rebuilds a year – every single one of them to Caterpillar Standards.
Pete took a trip to South America, which is a fair trek from Australia, and he went just to visit the Caterpillar Dealer Finning, tour their engine and CRG facility and took a trip to the Escondido Copper Mine in Chile, to visit the mine site Caterpillar Dealer facility there – talk about a busman’s holiday..
To say that Pete loves Caterpillar Large Surface Mining Equipment and that Peter knows a bit about Caterpillar Engines is like saying, Taylor Swift sells a few albums…
Who Else Listens To The Candidate – 33 Years of Caterpillar Dealership Experience
Another member of the technical interview team interviewers that does the listening is Brent Diflo.
Brent used to work for the Caterpillar Dealer Hastings Deering Australia Limited, and he worked there for over 33 years.
Brent was a very senior manager at the Australian Caterpillar Dealership, and he worked in various senior roles.
One of which was Group Equipment Assembly Manager, being ultimately responsible for all equipment assembly for not only The Australian Caterpillar Dealership, but also the equipment assembly in Papua New Guinea, New Caledonia, Fuji and the Solomon Islands.
Brent worked his way up from the shop floor, a Caterpillar Trained Mechanic, in just the same that Peter did.
It’s fair to say that Brent knows a bit about Caterpillar Large Surface Mining Equipment, in the same way that Pete knows a bit about Caterpillar Engines.
Keeping Current With Equipment Trends
Now it’s been said to us, that things have changed and things are different from when you started back in the day.. And I could not agree more.
Which is why Peter joining our technical interview team has been such an added bonus.
Because Peter, having left the Australian Caterpillar after being given early retirement, went on and joined Mackellar Mining, a major Australian Mining Contractor, where Peter worked for TEN YEARS as their Group Maintenance Manager.
Peter left that role in March 2024, having managed the maintenance of large surface mining equipment on some of the biggest mine sites and projects in Australia.
Is that current enough I ask myself?
Now It Gets Technical – Caterpillar Dealer Level Technical
The candidate now starts to get asked detailed questions around procedures, following process.
Detailed questions on the use of OEM software such as Caterpillar Service Information System 2.0 (SIS 2.0). We even have a laptop set up with SIS 2.0 set up with a login ready to go if the need arises to remove any doubt that a candidate can use the software competently.
And Pete, Brent and Dennis are seasoned International Recruitment Interviewers, no question is ever the same, each scenario altered just enough, that you really need to know what you’re talking about to pick it up.
If a candidate doesn’t bring their A game, if a candidate tries to bluff something they don’t know, we will find out.
And it’s far better we find out in their home country, at a causal chat, that they get found lacking after they have been deployed.
And that’s how Skilled Migration Group Interview’s.
Who Does Your Interviews?
Skilled Migration Group uses ISO9001:2015 Quality Assured process driven procedures, has 68 years of Australian Caterpillar Dealer Experience, 10 Years of Managing a Major Australian Mining Contractors Group Equipment Maintenance. And an interviewer with over 25 years of successfully hiring Internationally.
Who does your technical interviews and verifies your applicants skill, knowledge and experience?