007 - Tyler Doliber

Chasing It for Real

A profile of Tyler Doliber, heavy equipment operator, Sargent

Portrait of Tyler Doliber in Las Vegas, Nevada at ConExpo 2026. Shot on 35mm Kodak Tri-X 400 film with Leica R6.2.

Some kids grow up on a job site. Tyler Doliber grew up trying to peek through the fence at one.

"Kind of a lifelong passion for me. Three-year-old me always trying to peek through the fences at job sites. I've always collected the scale models. I didn't grow up around it. My father was a boat mechanic, so, kind of an adjacent industry, if you will. But I've been trying to chase that passion ever since, playing video games and anything I could do to get a little bit into it. Here I am doing it for real."

Tyler is a heavy equipment operator for Sargent, an employee-owned outfit out of Maine. He started as a college intern for two seasons, went full-time in 2024, and has been going ever since. But the way he got into heavy equipment is definitely not the traditional way.

Two Joysticks and a Laptop

Tyler couldn't operate real machines as a kid. So he found another way in. He'd watched YouTube videos of people running heavy equipment simulators, and realized that was a door he could actually walk through.

"I'd seen YouTube videos of people that had done it, and I don't have the opportunity as a 12-year-old to go do it for real. It's kind of hard to get to a wheel loader at 12 years old. But I'd seen someone that had two joysticks on their desk and I was like, all right, I can get used to the controls. I can figure that out."

A gifted laptop from a friend got him started, an old business one. Then came the joysticks.

"Got two joysticks for Christmas and off I went from there. Now I've got a whole homemade sim-rig at home with joysticks and pedals."

Which means Tyler does the thing most people would find hard to believe. He operates heavy equipment all day at work, then goes home and operates it some more.

"That is exactly what I do."

Why construction, and not racing or shooter games like some of his friends? For Tyler it's the machines, and the calm.

"It's just the big machines for me, and it's really relaxing. You bench load a truck with an excavator and you just get a good flow going, put some good music on. It's a good way to relax. Racing games, the shooter games, it's all kind of stressful. I have friends, they get into it and they're yelling and screaming. I can just sit back, relax, have a nice drink, just have a good time."

And it built him a community. The people he plays with online share the same passion, and some of them he finally met in person for the first time at ConExpo.

Seeing Your Work Materialize

Ask Tyler what he loves about the job and he lands on something concrete.

"It's seeing your work materialize. This past season I stepped into the role as our fine grade grader operator. So we did five miles of road reconstruction, and that was my first road job and my first grading job. I have a really cool picture I took of me and the grader prepping for pavement and then the paving crew right up behind me, and that whole chain where you can watch that progression go right through."

He studied construction management in college, so he knows the other side of it, too, the paperwork, the production numbers on a spreadsheet. But that's not what does it for him.

"It's hard to see that directly, like that day. You put pipe in the ground and you can see your physical production numbers change. It's that progress where you can take something one day and then try and improve upon it the next day and you can physically see that improvement, directly as it happens. You're grading and you do a thousand feet one day and you can say, 'all right, let's challenge, let's go for 1100 feet.' You just keep pushing that progress a little more and a little more. Next thing you know, you're twice as efficient as you were two months before. And it happens quick."

That speed is exactly why he chose earthwork over vertical construction. "I have friends that went to high rise building construction and those projects are three times as long as an earthwork project. That shorter timeframe is what satisfied me, and that's why I went to the earthwork side."

Still Get to Sit in a Cool Machine

When the days are long and the job is hard, Tyler's reason for pushing through is the same one that got him peeking through fences at three years old.

"It's that lifelong passion. I've always been so infatuated with heavy equipment that even if I have a terrible day, the boss is upset, we didn't get enough numbers, something broke, whatever happened, I still get to go sit in a cool machine at the end of the day. The grader is a really satisfying machine to run and to learn because there's so much to learn in it."

The work demands a lot, and he doesn't pretend otherwise. But the crew makes the difference.

"It is a big physical toll for a lot of people. Long hours, long days. But it really makes a difference when we have a good group of people, especially working for Sargent and that employee-owned, start to own their own things and become really passionate about it. I started grading, my foreman, it was also his first time grading, and we took a lot of ownership of that grading item. We were able to work together to grow together. And as much as it was demanding and it turned into 13, 14 hour days chasing those paving numbers, when you have a good group, it's pretty easy to wake back up the next morning and do it all over again."

Does it feel like just a paycheck? Not to Tyler.

"Sometimes I forget I'm even getting paid. I have some days like that I'm like, 'you're paying me to do this? This is awesome.' I work with a lot of people that it can be that way [just a paycheck], but for me, I'm just having a blast every day."

Figure It Out Yourself

Tyler is young to be stepping into the roles he's in, and he sees something in his own generation that construction runs against.

"With a lot of technology we've come to expect a lot immediately, instant gratification, if you will. But taking a step back and realizing that we're all doing our best and trying to put our best foot forward."

He has a theory about why patience and hard work come more naturally to him than to some of his peers. It traces back to his dad.

"I think it just comes from my upbringing, my father being a mechanic and always trying to figure things out with him. He's a very DIY guy. I don't think we've ever called someone to work on the house. So trying to learn how things work and how everything works in the background to understand what really goes into stuff. I have friends who are the first to pick up a phone or go to the auto shop to get their car fixed, where I'm going to try and figure it out myself."

Don't Let Your Emotions Get the Best of You

Asked what message he'd give the industry, Tyler doesn't talk about machines or money. He talks about something he learned the hard way, stepping into bigger roles young.

"Try not to let your emotions get the best of you. I had a few times last summer grading where I started to let my emotions take over. I thought that people were upset at me or something like that. But if you can take the emotion out of it and really listen to what people are saying, it can really help those interactions. People say, 'oh, my boss is a terrible person, my boss just yells.' But if you take a step back and just really listen to what they're trying to say, take it as not a direct personal insult, it can totally change that dynamic between you and your coworkers."

For someone who's climbed fast, it's a hard-won kind of wisdom.

"That's been the biggest thing that has helped me, especially stepping into higher roles at a young age where you think everyone's out to get you, but they're not. They're trying to help you learn and grow, and everyone's trying to grow together. We're just all trying to build. We're all going the same direction."

Tyler Doliber is a heavy equipment operator at Sargent and lives in Old Town, Maine.