Prepare for Tests and Interview in the Heavy Industry

The major characteristic of the Heavy Industry is, quite predictably, its heaviness, the heaviness of its products, equipment, facilities, machine tools, and buildings. The most obvious sign telling you that you are witnessing the working of the Heavy Industry is the operation of such heavy-duty vehicles as the ones that execute construction tasks: heavy machines, heavy trucks, and construction and engineering equipment. The Heavy Industry is called “heavy” also because items produced by it used to be products such as coal, iron, and oil. And lastly, the industry is referred to as “heavy” because it exerts heavy, damaging influence upon the environment, often causing pollution and deforestation.

Processes involved in the Heavy Industry are highly complex. The Heavy Sector is also business-oriented and makes products for other industries rather than for end users as does, say, the Light Industry. It is thus a part of the supply chain of products; in other words, it is a part of a network between a company and its suppliers, one of the steps taken to bring products to the customer. Therefore, the Heavy Industry highly benefits from the economic growth: when economy improves, stocks in the Heavy Sector immediately climb.  Because equipment used in the Transportation, Construction, Miming, and Petroleum Industries, all of which are grouped under the Heavy Industry, is large and heavy, the Sector demands large financial investments. This Industry is also rather cyclical in investment.

Industries that are usually combined under the name of Heavy Industry are the following:

• Automobile;
• Aircraft;
• Construction;
• Transportation;
• Manufacturing;
• Steelmaking;
• Artillery production;
• Locomotive erection;
• Mining;
• Machine tool building;
• Ship building;
• Chemical;
• Electrical.

Because there are so many different industries brought together under the title of the Heavy Industry, there are many industrial processes involved in it. Some of these processes are listed below:

• General Processes – These processes involve scrubbing, freezing, and drying;
• Chemical Processes – These processes are smelting and disinfection, among others;
• Heat Processes – The most important process among heat processes is flash smelting;
• Physical Processes – These processes include forging, stamping, work hardening, and die cutting, among others.

In the Automobile and Aerospace Industries, specialists also extensively use electro-polishing techniques along with micro-fabrication and micro-machining.   

The Transportation and Construction Industries constitute the bulk of the Heavy Industry. Both use tools and vehicles that are large and heavy; both involve complex processes and require big financial, rather cyclical, investments. Yet the two sectors are different on many counts, even though both of them are included into the Heavy Industry.

The main responsibility of the Transportation Industry is to relocate people, animals, and goods from one place to another. The relocation can be accomplished either by land or air, or sea. Three major transportation subsections are airlines, railroads, and passenger ships. Among organizations belonging to the Transportation Industry are buses, railways, travel airlines, cruise lines, freight railways, cargo trucking, and express delivery companies. Together, these companies transport millions of passengers and tones of goods from one country to another, working every single day in the year. Job opportunities available in the Transportation Industry are numerous. Suffice it to say here that job applicants can be hired in the roles of bus, taxi, train, and truck drivers, railroad workers, locomotive engineers, conductors, railroad operators, airline and commercial pilots, flight attendants, traffic controllers, delivery drivers, merchant mariners, captains, deck officers, sailors, and ship engineers.

To the Construction Industry belong companies that are involved in the construction of buildings, bridges, and roads. These companies are also engaged in renovating existing buildings. There are other construction projects in which construction companies can be engaged, but all of them can roughly be divided into three broad categories:

• Residential projects – These projects presuppose building and renovating homes, buildings, housing developments, and garages;
• Non-Residential projects – These projects include erecting various commercial buildings such as stores, schools, hospitals, churches, synagogues, and mosques.
• Engineering projects – These projects involve building bridges and roads.

In addition, construction projects are divided into public and private ones. The former projects are done for governmental, state, or federal agencies. Funds for public projects are taken from tax money and various public funds. Private projects, by contrast, are fulfilled for private owners and paid from private funds.

There are also plenty of job opportunities in the Construction Sector. If applicants hold a relevant degree, they may fill the positions of the architect, engineer, project managers, or site managers. It is also possible to work in the Construction Industry as Human Resources representatives or accountants. Those who hold associate degrees and certifications can work as technicians, assistants, site supervisors, or material coordinators. Skilled workers specialize in specific trades.

The Heavy Industry is comprised of numerous sectors. There is thus a wide range of jobs available to those job candidates who aspire to work in this sector. Below are several of professions that are much in demand in the Heavy Industry:

Employed in the Construction Sector of the Heavy Industry, the Architect is responsible for designing and planning of various structures. When the designed construction is being built, architects also supervise its construction, ensuring that it is erected in keeping with their design. Among the duties that architects perform are planning layouts of buildings, drawing proposed buildings, and writing specifications about the project. Often, architects help clients to select a contractor and negotiate the construction contract. Architects work in tandem with consulting engineers, discussing with them such details as plumbing, heating, electrical works, and air-conditioning. As a rule, architects draw designs by hand and use such computer programs as CADD and BIM. There are almost 1,000,000 architects working in the United States. A median annual salary earned by architects is US$76,930.

The Geotechnical Engineer also works for the Heavy Industry and researches soil to evaluate whether it is suitable for a required foundation and whether building on this soil is safe. Among their other duties, Geotechnical Engineers assess construction sites, conduct lab tests, design structures, supervise construction, and write reports on the soil composition, stating clearly whether they recommend building on the examined site. Hired in the Construction Sector, they may design tunnels and roadways. They also construct earth dams and create strategies to clean polluted sites. Geotechnical engineers may also be called to mend leaning buildings or towers, eliminate failures of railway tracks, and prevent land from sliding. Geotechnical Engineers cooperate with civil and structural engineers, landscapers, and constructors. Other people whom they consult are geologists, project reviewers, and managers. Geotechnical engineers work both in officers and at the construction sites and on average earn US$60,127 per year.

By using heavy and complex equipment, heat, and pressure, Welders join metal parts together. Hired in the Construction, Automobile, Aircraft, and Manufacturing Industries, welders work on constructing automobiles, aircraft, ships, buildings, highways, bridges, and other metal structures. They also find applications for various welding processes. Welders usually specialize in various processes to create the heat and pressure required for melting the edges of metal pieces. Depending on what process welders use, they can be divided into plasma welders, gas welders, and acetylene welders; they also can use electron-beam welding process, laser-beam welding process, or friction welding process, among others. Related to the occupation of the Welder is the profession of the Welding Qualification Technician. The responsibilities of the Welding Qualification technician include keeping records of welders and supervising tests for the qualification of welding operators.  Annual salaries of welders depend on their specific skills and work experience and usually range from US$26,00o to US$60,000. 

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