In many countries, concrete is the most important construction material. I think it’s fair to say that if you are interested in being a concrete mixer, you will probably be interested in being a kind of person who mixes concrete.
But at the moment, there’s no such thing as a job mixing concrete. There are plenty of other jobs that require a lot more skills and education than mixing concrete.
In my country, Canada, the lack of concrete-mixing jobs is part of a larger issue: there aren’t enough jobs for everyone who wants one. This is not because no one wants to work or no one can work; it’s because the economy needs different kinds of people to do different kinds of jobs. There are not enough people who like to mix concrete to fill all the jobs that need doing.
But why is there this mismatch? Why haven’t we invented a machine that just does mixer?
It’s not because nobody has thought about it: new machines for many everyday tasks have been invented for years. It’s possible to eat with chopsticks, but you don’t see restaurants with only chopsticks on the menu. You can get through life without driving an automobile or riding a bicycle, but you don’t see stores without automobiles and bicycles on display
If you like concrete and enjoy mixing it, you might want to read this. It is a blog about the concrete business in general, with very little concrete to mix. There is no point in writing something like this unless you want to find out what all the fuss was about, and I hope that after reading this you will be one of those people.
Concrete is a remarkable material. It is not at all brittle, as people used to think; it’s actually rather tough. It’s also very easy to mix: no glues or paints or sealants required….But although the properties of concrete are impressive, they’re not enough reason to make it a profession. There were two reasons why making concrete became such a job, and why it still is. One was an accident of history: the invention of cement in the late 19th century by Charles Frohman, a businessman with a flair for publicity who saw an opportunity when the city government wanted to build an elaborate new municipal building from scratch instead of using existing buildings that had become obsolete–as buildings often do in big cities (see: the Empire State Building). The other was that once the cement industry had gone beyond making cement itself into producing other kinds of materials (like portland cement) for things like
There is a certain kind of job that everyone wants: concrete-mixer operator. It’s one of the few jobs in the United States where women outnumber men, and it pays more than 70% more than the national average. That’s because concrete is a dirty job and it takes lots of elbow grease to mix it by hand. And because the physical requirements are so high (no easy feat at 5’2″ and 120 lb), those who are good at this job tend to stay in this job.
But what if you aren’t a hulk? What if you are short, skinny, and not very strong? Well, you can try mixed martial arts for a while, but then you’ll be about as effective as an untrained short person would be at mixing concrete by hand. If you want to become a concrete mixer, what do you need to know?
You need to know how to take care of yourself when your hands are dirty. You need to know how hard physical work feels. You need to have the stamina of a marathoner or the endurance of a soldier. You need to be able to withstand heat and cold safely and reliably. You need to know something about concrete itself: what makes it hard, what kind of cement it needs,
There’s a good chance you’ll make more money mixing concrete than you will selling your mix. But there’s also a good chance you won’t. The job is not like being a massage therapist or a plumber: it depends on whether the employers are willing to pay enough.
If it does pay, it pays well, but it has its risks too — for example, if you have an accident or get injured and can’t do the job anymore, you might lose the right to work in the future.
And it takes time to get the experience to become an expert in concrete mixing. But if you’re lucky enough to work in that kind of business, then working hard and keeping an eye open for unusual opportunities can lead to plenty of cash.
The first thing you need to know is that in most countries, like the US, there are no concrete mixers. If you want to be a concrete mixer, you have to go someplace else and get a job as a gopher or other low-level employee.
In other countries, like China, there are concrete mixers. But if you want to work as a concrete mixer in China, you have to go someplace else and start working for Chinese construction companies. Chinese construction companies don’t hire Americans.
In most African countries there are very few concrete workers: many people do not even have electricity or running water. In much of Asia, it is rare for people to have steady jobs at all; they might work as farmers but more often they wander from job to job.
In the United States and Europe, where we have an abundance of both cement and workers capable of mixing it, concrete is made by machines.
If you are a concrete mixer, this is the right place to be. If you don’t know what that is, then it’s probably not.
The basics: how do you make concrete?
When you mix concrete, you mix it with sand and water. The sand binds the particles together so they hold each other up. The water makes them stick together. The amount of water depends on how hard or how soft the cement is: if it’s hard, more water will make it harder; if it’s soft enough to squeeze through a hose, less.
Concrete is heavy and hard, yet it’s not nearly as bad as metal and concrete are in traffic.
If you are a person with a lot of time on your hands, and the sort of personality that enjoys construction, there is an interesting job that doesn’t pay very well but has enormous potential for gratification and self-worth: Concrete Mixer. There are a great many people who would gladly take this job; how could you pass up a career where everything you do is at least 50% fun?
Why not try for a concrete mixer job?
There are two reasons why people don’t attempt to get such a job: 1) They don’t know about it 2) They don’t want it.
I’ve already talked about the first reason, so I’ll go straight to the second. Concrete mixing is hard work. It’s not a profession for everyone; it’s physically demanding, mentally challenging, and requires stamina. If you have all these qualities (and they can be learned), you will find it rewarding in every way; working weekends, cleaning trucks after work, going out to breakfast every morning with all your coworkers; these things will be delightful. But if you don’t have these qualities or they are undeveloped within you,