For
a period of time in college, I worked as a construction laborer for
20–30 hours per week. I needed money for 3 main reasons. I had a
girlfriend who wanted to go out once in a while, I was burning through a
lot of ammo, and I wanted to start saving. My dad and a small
scholarship I won paid for my tuition, board, and food, but my dad
refused to give me any extra cash.
I
didn't want to deliver pizzas or work in a campus store because those
jobs were boring and didn't pay that much. There was a company doing
construction work near campus and I decided to try to get a job the old
fashioned way. I drove to the construction site, knocked on the trailer,
and went inside. The guy inside looked at me with impatience and asked
me who the hell I was and what I wanted. I explained my situation and
asked if he had anything entry level and part-time. He said, they were
looking for a general labor guy and I said I would take it. He said
something like “hold your horses” and proceeded to ask me about school,
my work experience, where I’m from, if I owned any tools, etc. After
talking for a few minutes, he looked at me quizzically and said he would
put me on the job for a week on a trial basis. I also got paid $1.50
less than the other new guys, but it was still pretty decent money.
I
showed up to work the next 3 days and did 24 hours. The other guys on
the crew showed me the ropes and I picked up the necessary skills
quickly. At the end of day 3, the foreman told me that I could work
there for the next few months. I was pretty strong and refused to quit
no matter how cold and painful the job was, so the older guys on the
crew started calling me “Herc”. I’ll be honest, that made me feel like a
badass. Apparently, the older guys bet that I would quit after the
first week. They were surprised that an upper middle class kid of Indian
ethnicity would work in construction while going to school. It’s
definitely not common and I’m proud that I was able to stick it out.
Over
the next 3 months, I worked my ass off in the blistering Pennsylvania
cold and saved close to $2,500. It was the greatest learning experience
of my life. I worked with guys who were mostly from poor backgrounds.
They had to work for every morsel of food they ate from the time they
were teenagers. They didn't have a comfortable upper middle class
upbringing like me. I learned about the working class lifestyle, work
ethic, taking pride in what you do, and the value of a hard day’s work. I
have never worked that hard in my life, before or since.
My
grades suffered a little, but not much. I was exhausted after every
shift but the quality of sleep I got was amazing. I went to sleep fully
satisfied with what I had done after each working day. The job made me
tough and I had much more confidence. I developed true faith in myself.
If shit hit the fan, I could take care of and provide for myself. Not
many college kids can say that.
The
guys in the construction crew were an honor group. Everybody took care
of each other and worked together to achieve a common goal. I haven't
felt that kind of camaraderie in any job I ever did before or since
then.
I recommend all my low skill mentees work in construction to start with. You wanna become a tough bastard? Work in construction.
-Aditya Chhabra
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