That just seems so… odd.
Personally, I’d gladly take a decent manufacturing job to have a more steady paycheck week to week, plus I like having hands-on work to balance out intellectualizing and computer stuff. But it seems all ones available around here are wanting X years of experience just to get your foot in the door.
He told me that the equipment used in coal mining is totally different that what was used here. He had gotten hired simply because he had a demonstrated work ethic and the company was willing to train from near zero experience/knowledge base.
That's just the way it used to be in an America not so long ago.
The years of experience qualification is likely due to the number of people graduating from tech schools who claim they know what they are doing, but really don’t - and manufacturers who do not want to, or don’t have the time to teach someone the finer points. It also depends on the jobs they do at the shop as to what they are looking for. If you need someone who can do precision tolerance with little to no oversight, you aren’t going to want to hire someone straight out of tech school - you want someone with experience who can solve some problems on their own, and doesn’t need another machinist to babysit them (so to speak) so that production can be maintained at a decent rate, not to mention the labor rate. If you’re paying two guys to essentially do the work of one, it’s going to seriously hamper your ability to make a profit.