Social Reno Maintenance Fitter

About 50 kilometres outside of Canberra, my Grandad owned a 600-acre hobby farm with three horses and 50 head of cattle. We used to go there every school holidays; there was no house, just a campsite. Over the years he had built everything, from the conveyor that brought buckets of water from the river, to the outdoor toilet that flushed.


My Grandad was an engineer who had started his career at 15 years old as an apprentice fitter. He could design and create machines from scratch, as well as breathe life back into machinery that hadn’t worked in 50 years.


Every machine we use that makes our lives work is due at some point in time, to the efforts of a Maintenance Fitter. To learn more, we caught up with Reno, a Supervisor of a Maintenance Team at a paper company, to find what the job is really like.


How do you become a Maintenance Fitter? 
A 4 year apprenticeship in fitting and machining, additional studies in welding, fluid power etc.

What is the first thing you do at work each day? 
Speak to the night shift fitter about any follow up work required and then speak to the OSM (operations support manager) and then a coffee.

What’s fun about being a Maintenance Fitter?
Maintenance fitting requires and allows you to use a wide range of skills. Fitting, welding, machining as well as problem solving and process improvement projects.

What makes a good Maintenance Fitter?
Attitude, someone who is enthusiastic and willing to learn is far more valuable than someone who thinks they know it all.

What is the most difficult thing you have had to do in your job as a Maintenance Fitter?
Problem solving intermittent faults, it takes patience and diligence.

What advice would you give to someone wanting to become a Maintenance Fitter?
An apprenticeship in fitting and machining is a great foundation for a variety of fields to work in. 

Maintenance Fitters craft assemble and fit parts to heavy machinery and industrial equipment. They also install, maintain and repair a range of heavy machinery and industrial tools including their mechanical and hydraulic components. They work in workshops, factories, depots and on work sites in a broad range of industries including mining, manufacturing, construction and transport.

Damian Hibbert, our Operations Manager in Victoria spoke to Reno. He mentioned that it was great to gain an insight into this type of trade career. Reno, along with so many others working in his field are essential to the efficient and constant running of our daily lives.

Trojan Recruitment Group are leaders in contract, permanent and labour hire recruitment across many industries including blue collar sectors such as rail, building and construction and manufacturing. If you are looking to recruit top talent in any trade role, talk to the Trojan team about the various options available for you.


Courtesy of Jason Everett

Jason Everett is the Senior Human Resources Advisor for Trojan Recruitment Group who has worked in HR roles for the past 20 years servicing many industries including the blue-collar sector. As a passionate HR professional, Jason loves helping candidates find the perfect role and become essential to the business and industries to which they are hired.