Eric Smith is an operator at Lang Masonry. He has been here a little over eight years. Before that he worked at DuPont.
“I used to work at DuPont, and I got out of that, and I was looking to get into something else and found Lang.”
If you are in your thirties or forties looking at a job you do not want to do for another twenty years, that is the sentence to pay attention to. Eric changed lanes and started over as a laborer. Two years later he was operating equipment, and he has been doing it ever since.
“Moved up into the operator position and been there ever since, and love it.”
What the Day Looks Like
“On a daily basis, I come in, I get the masons started, I mix mortar, grout, I set scaffolding up for them. Whatever they need done, I get it for them immediately and keep them moving forward.”
“As an operator for Lang, I run telehandlers, skid steers, pretty much anything they need done.”
That is the operator role in commercial masonry. You are the front of the job. The masons cannot lay a wall if the mortar is not mixed and the scaffold is not set, so the crew’s whole day runs at the speed you set. It is a skilled, equipment-heavy position, and it is one of the fastest routes off the ground for someone who starts as a laborer.
They Trained Him
“As far as working for Lang, they’ve trained me with anything that I’ve needed to know or learn and move forward on the job with.”
Career changers usually get stuck on the same question: how do I get qualified without going back to school and paying for it? In the trades, the answer is that the qualification happens on the job. You get taught the equipment, the material, and the process while you are drawing a paycheck.
“The money’s been progressively better every year. They’ve given me opportunities to grow here.”
Eight straight years of raises, no tuition bill attached to any of it.
Different Job, Different Site, Every Day
One thing Eric brings up that people do not expect from construction: it does not get stale.
“I move from job to job. It’s not one place all the time. You get to travel, which is great, and if you want to stay home, work closer to home. You see something different every day, and there’s always something to do.”
Lang runs commercial and industrial work across the Cincinnati region, Kentucky, Indiana, and Columbus, which means there is usually a job near home and a bigger job further out if you want it. That flexibility matters when you have a family.
The Part Where You Point at Buildings
“We drive by somewhere, I’m always telling my wife, hey, I got to work on that project. And there’s a lot of them that we’ve done throughout the years. Schools, hospitals. Worked at Nucor. It was a very large steel manufacturer, massive job. All kinds of guys there. Got to work with cranes and rigging.”
This is the thing that separates the trades from most other work. You leave something behind that you can see. Schools. Hospitals. A steel mill. Eight years of work standing in concrete and brick across several states, and a running commentary for his wife every time they take a drive.
The Scale of the Work
“Lang’s a high-profile company. We do lots of big jobs. We work for colleges, hospitals, steel mills. Anywhere you want to go, we can do it.”
Colleges, hospitals, steel mills. That is the tier of project that gives an operator access to cranes, rigging, and equipment you will not touch on small residential work. The bigger the jobs your employer wins, the more skill you get to build.
Start Where Eric Started
He came in with no masonry background at all, from a completely different industry. He started as a laborer, learned on the clock, and moved up in two years.
His closing line about the job was four words: “You’ll love your job.”
Lang Masonry is hiring laborers, operators, masons, and foremen across the Cincinnati region, Kentucky, Indiana, and Columbus. Apply at langmasonry.com/careers.
