Fine soldering, machine operation, machining, etc. Just basic machine shop and electronics assembly and touch up. The new hires don’t last long, and it has been that way since we’ve owned the business (15 years). They don’t want to learn and they aren’t dependable. We just soldier on with fewer and fewer people.
I’m an apps engineer for a machine tool dealer in Minneapolis, and a lot of the tech colleges in the area have done away with their machine tool programs. The high school programs are a joke, because the schools spend god-only-knows how much on diversity coordinators and self-esteem-enablers and other such worthless nonsense, and the metal shop gets stuck with worn-out junk from the 1920’s. Most of the companies in my area are hiring people with high school educations and training them themselves.
I was in the electronics industry for 30 years. I loved it. One company I worked with wanted to hire 80% new college grads and 20% highly experienced people. In a meeting one time I told them they are doing this backwards. Bring in 80% experienced and 20% new college grads. Reason being is that the new kids would do fine but would be reinventing the wheel. Let the old guys train the kids. It took this company, on average, 2 years to turn a product out when other companies were doing the same thing in 18 months. Upper management just didn’t get it. Eventually, they went from 22,000 employees down to about 7,000.
One thing to remember, companies pay a fortune in insurance for older employees. Younger employees cost less....in their eyes. Older employees are more reliable, more dedicated to the company and are worth their weight in gold if treated half way decent.
>>The new hires don’t last long, and it has been that way since we’ve owned the business (15 years). They don’t want to learn and they aren’t dependable. We just soldier on with fewer and fewer people.<<
I’m curious, since I’m one of those dependable people who just frankly enjoy learning to do new things, what would you pay a young person, and what potential for growth does that workplace offer?