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Lessons learned as a millwright apprentice

8 questions with Mikayla Bradford about hard labor, fabrication and repair, and camaraderie

Female metal fabrication apprentice

The millwright apprentice life completely suits 23-year-old Mikayla Bradford. Even though the work schedule is both physically and mentally exhausting, the diversity of skills needed to perform a variety of tasks keeps the work interesting and Bradford on her toes. Photos courtesy of Chuck Schroeder, Insight Marketing LLC

For 23-year-old Mikayla Bradford, entering a career as a millwright was a natural progression. The native of Marlborough, Mass., grew up watching her father, grandfather, and uncle make a living through hard work, so it just made sense to follow in their footsteps.

Bradford earned a metal fabrication and welding certificate from Assabet Valley Regional Technical High School in Marlborough and also completed an after-dark program to become an emergency medical technician (EMT). She went on to study emergency management at the Massachusetts Maritime Academy in Buzzards Bay. On top of going to school full time, Bradford became a firefighter her sophomore year and worked full time as a tow truck driver by her junior year. It was on a tow job where she and others discovered a talent for heavy rigging that her journey to becoming a millwright began.

As a millwright apprentice, Bradford has had to acclimate to a grueling routine. At the time of the interview, she was in her seventh straight week working 12-hour shifts, seven days a week. Work, eat, sleep, repeat. She and her fiancé, who’s also a millwright, live in a camper and go from job site to job site during their busy season. Working in difficult conditions certainly isn’t for everyone, but it is for Bradford. In her eyes, coming home bone-tired is the result of a hard but fulfilling day’s work, and there’s nowhere she’d rather be than right where she is.

The WELDER spoke to Bradford about her job, its challenges, and some unexpected things she’s learned along the way.

TW: Explain what exactly a millwright is for those who don’t know.

MB: We are machinery erectors, so we work with anything that moves, turns, or generates power. That's our bread and butter. So, everything that has to do with power plants, repair, maintenance, or new construction.

TW: How did you become interested in being a millwright?

I was working full-time as a tow truck driver and going to school full-time during my senior year of college. We got called out to a wreck on the Sagamore Bridge, and a millwright, who is actually going to be my husband now, was working at the Cape Cod Canal power plant down that way. He said, “Hey, you know, you'd be pretty good at this. What's your contact information?” And we exchanged info and the rest is history.

I went through the interviewing process to become an apprentice with Millwright Local 1121, which requires an in-person interview and then drug screening. I spent two weeks of class and then the day after I got a call asking if I wanted to work a job at Holyoke Gas & Electric. I thought, “Oh my God, that's an hour and a half from my house.” So I started working there and I fell in love with it right away.

TW: How much of your time is spent welding?

Female metal fabrication apprentice

Bradford said developing a good rapport with co-workers is just as important as hard work.

MB: I don't weld every day, but we do have to weld pretty much on almost every job because there's usually something that needs to be fixed, repaired, or installed. Some jobs require us to call in specialty welders who are certified for the work that needs to be done. Even though I'm AWS-certified, I'm not certified at this plant, if that makes sense. The specialty welders go through ultrasonic and X-ray testing and it's a site-specific certification.

TW: What skill sets are necessary to be a good millwright?

MB: My first job at Holyoke really introduced me to the broad skill set necessary for the job. One day I was pushing dead fish into a hole to remove them from the dam system, and the next day we were aligning a shaft. You have to be very versatile in what you can do because it’s going to be different every single day. But no matter what you’re doing, you need to be hyperaware and focused on each task because they all are important.

It doesn't matter if you're cleaning bolts or flying a rotor across a turbine deck, you really have to be able to do it all. And you have to be personable. If you can’t work well with people, you’re not going to make it in this line of work.

TW: How much do you have to travel?

MB: Traveling is everything. I've worked in my home state only once and that was my first job in Holyoke. Right now we’re up in New Hampshire, but we've been out to Pennsylvania, Maine, New York, Rhode Island, and Connecticut. There's word that we're going to be going to Texas or South Carolina next. We travel quite a bit, and it's cheaper for us to drag the camper than it is to stay in a hotel. A lot of millwrights actually do this.

If you're not willing to travel, then you're not going to make a whole lot of money. It's all about how much you're willing to work. It's a performance-based trade, so if you work really hard, that gets noticed. In my line of work, everybody notices everything.

Different foremen and superintendents can request people, and that's usually how I get work—through requests. I’m not trying to make it sound like I'm important or anything; I just usually travel with the same people.

When we travel so much, it’s really important for us to feel at home when we’re away from home. For example, I bake cookies and take them to almost every job we go to. It’s important to make someone feel welcome and at home. It’s a part of building trust, and trust is important in our job. If I can provide a home-cooked meal for somebody or have people over to the campground to hang out by a campfire, it builds that brotherly bond.

TW: Have you ever felt like you were misjudged or stereotyped because of your age?

Female metal fabrication apprentice

As an apprentice, Bradford has learned the value of paying her dues. It’s a quality, she said, that isn’t always prevalent in people her age.

MB: Oh yeah, for sure. But I’ve learned that I have to take my bumps and pay my dues. I run tools, I do everything that I can until somebody is like, “All right, Mick, get in here.” I really try hard not to overstep. I don't talk back, I just listen and learn. And that really helps because that's not really something that my generation does enough of. A lot of people my age want to act as though they know everything right away, and that's not really how this works, especially as a millwright.

TW: What advice do you have for somebody considering a career as a millwright?

MB: Make sure you have a fallback. You might not get work right away or for a whole season. We work in spring and we work in fall because the power generation industry has to be able to feed the need of the grid in the summer and the winter when heating and air conditioning are really prevalent in people's homes. I'm not joking when I say months without work. You have to be able to budget for that and understand the difference between what's a want and what's a need.

We make $3,000 or $4,000 a week when we are working, which sounds great, but you can’t forget to account for the time you’re not working. People in our line of work get into trouble when they think about their now and not their future.

TW: What are the best and worst parts of your job?

MB: The best part of my job is probably heavy rigging. I love heavy rigging. That's what caught the eye of Mike, my fiancé, and made him take notice of my work skill. I like the focus necessary for heavy rigging, the precision, and the detail needed to keep the piece you’re rigging secure and keep yourself and your crew safe.

About the Author
FMA Communications Inc.

Amanda Carlson

2135 Point Blvd

Elgin, IL 60123

815-227-8260

Amanda Carlson was named as the editor for The WELDER in January 2017. She is responsible for coordinating and writing or editing all of the magazine’s editorial content. Before joining The WELDER, Amanda was a news editor for two years, coordinating and editing all product and industry news items for several publications and thefabricator.com.