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I need to hire people with experience. I long ago gave up on people who were all about their Internships, Member of so on and so forth. All it got me was expensive people who spent more time talking and less time actually working. Then after I spent a year training them they would jump to another company without a word. Just not show up one day.
So these days I Just look for what they have done and how long they have done it.
We do hire at all levels of experience. However we do like to hire new grads and grow them up internally. Easier to train someone up from the beginning than break all the bad habits they often pick up elsewhere. For top candidates we'll pay for grad school and pay their salary while they attend.
In the long term I would agree. But if you're young and willing to live in a dump with others in hostel-like conditions for a few years you can bank some serious money and then go buy a house in a small city. And the prominent tech company on your resume may open up a lot of doors.
I can see your point, but it is flawed thinking.
Taxes eat up a LOT of that money, especially in California.
Then factor in the high gas prices, crazy high rent, food prices, etc, etc.
I live in a 2600 sq ft home on the water in Virginia, and make less than 100k/year.
I used to live in the bay area making 110k/year and could barely afford my 500sq ft apartment that was next to a busy street.
I hear you but not sure any the HVAC guys I know could do 7 straight 15 hour days...
I do HVAC trouble shooting and things like relays and condenser fan replacement... 8 hours on a hot roof would finish me...
Now long shifts in Air Conditioned Hospital space downloading/updating software is another thing.
HVAC is in such high demand in NC that my brother who is a felon was able to land a job as a Apprentice and is now making $18 an hour with benefits. He was making more as a Contractor but he choose job security over pay.
Recently attempted to hire for an engineer position. This position was specifically designed for new college grads. Started with several hundred resumes. Most were eliminated in the first cut lacking basic qualifications. There's part of the problem -- some folks apply to everything in hopes of getting a random hit. Weeded it down to a group of candidates to interview. Over half of them turned down the interview. Made an offer to one. Couldn't come to agreement even though we offered a pretty generous package, someone else still beat us out. Tried again, made second offer. Same result.
Now we're on our third try.
Bottom line is top candidates are in demand and can negotiate. Problem is there really is a strong difference in quality between the top candidates and the rest. Not like A-B-C but more like A -----D--F. I've posted on this before but I was amazed how poor so many of the resumes were. No internships. No professional societies. No research/project while in college. Probably 80% were not much more than: Went to college; got degree in XYZ.
Whereas the top 20%: Went to college, got degree in XYZ and ABC; research in LMNOP led to published paper; member of project team in junior year, where I did X; captain of project team in senior year where I did Y. Member of blank and blank. President of blank. Internship at company K where I did blank that saved blank dollars.
Sure we can hire warm bodies. But finding qualified people who can learn and have initiative. That's a different story.
arent internships supposed to be a tax-deductible loss for employers.
HVAC is in such high demand in NC that my brother who is a felon was able to land a job as a Apprentice and is now making $18 an hour with benefits. He was making more as a Contractor but he choose job security over pay.
The thing with the trades is that you make most of your money putting in tons of overtime. You could just get a computer science degree and make the same amount (most likely even more) just working a 40 hour week. And you don't have to worry about climbing around on a roof in 100+ degree heat.
So your suggestion is that we pay recruits from other areas more than everyone here gets paid? Is that what your employer does? So if the candidates is local the employer pays them less?
Currently we are competitive with the area. Its a small industry. We only compare incomes in other hospitals. Our county has 8 area Acute Care hospitals. I have friends that work at three other hospitals and I can tell you that we are all competitive with the pay.
I have looked at jobs in other states and I can tell you that we pay more than hospitals in other states. Back in 2007- 2008 I was trying to move to Arizona and was surprised at the pay. I was looking for something a bit more or at least equal to what we make but it cost less to live there so the employers pay less money. Recently looked at Tennessee because my wife has friends there and family in the north part of Georgia. The hospital in the city we were looking at pays a lot less than what we make here.
The problem is not pay as you suggest. The problem is that for the past 25 or so years everyone has been telling kids to go to college and get a degree in English, Sociology, or something else. There parents were both working so much that the dad's never taught the boys how to fix anything, or maybe there was no dad in the home to do that. Many young people decided that it was a lot more lucrative to learn about computers or communication but few wanted to learn about pipe fitting, steam, plumbing, or any number of trades.
Today I was speaking to one of our contractors and he was telling me that the problem he sees is that few people went into Construction right out of high school like many of us did when we were young. He works for a company that has more work then people able to do the work.
No, I think the real issue is that sometimes a person from a low COL area will get lowballed when moving to a high COL area and won't actually get the market rate, while the high COL person might get a higher salary than the local person in a lower COL area just to be able to recruit the talent. That person might get the top of the range while someone with comparable skills in the local area could get the middle of the range. I think that is part of the reason why there is a push to not allow employers to ask prior salaries, as salaries are often a reflection of your location or job sector.
As for other issues, in many cases, jobs have odd titles that don't necessarily reflect the job duties. I know in government, they will put jobs under one of 5 different titles and if you don't know where to look, you might not know where to find them. The titles aren't necessarily intuitive and people usually had other made up titles in addition to their official title. If employers want the best candidate to apply for the job, the title should reflect the duties.
Another issue is that resume writing advice is out of date telling people to stick to a one-page resume. If you have years of experience and are looking for a mid-level position and may have 100-1000 people applying for a position, how is one page going to differentiate you from all the other applicants? I've looked at friend's one-page resumes and haven't been able to figure out what it is they actually did and I knew irl what their job was. Other jobs have the awful text box application systems where you have to fill in what you do in a tiny text box and can't even upload a resume, so of course you're not going to spend the time putting in all your duties if the text box is limited to 200 characters or you can't see what you are typing.
The problem with making it TOO easy to apply for jobs online is that employers will get hundreds or even thousands of resumes from people with zero qualifications. Literally zero. It's work to weed through them. Ten or more years ago, you had to print and mail your resume or fax it. A level of effort that matches that (say, text boxes that allow you to paste info from your resume) and checkboxes confirming (for example) that you live in the area and have the degree or experience required would, I think, filter out people with no qualifications but not be too much work for people who do.
Whereas the top 20%: Went to college, got degree in XYZ and ABC; research in LMNOP led to published paper; member of project team in junior year, where I did X; captain of project team in senior year where I did Y. Member of blank and blank. President of blank. Internship at company K where I did blank that saved blank dollars.
Sure we can hire warm bodies. But finding qualified people who can learn and have initiative. That's a different story.
You want people in the top 20% in their field. Are you offering wages in the top 20% of your industry?
The thing with the trades is that you make most of your money putting in tons of overtime. You could just get a computer science degree and make the same amount (most likely even more) just working a 40 hour week. And you don't have to worry about climbing around on a roof in 100+ degree heat.
Typical Commercial HVAC tech with good experience exceeds 100k per year on straight time in Los Angeles. Most make 150k +. Generally you also get a vehicle, some tool allowance, PTO and a good retirement package depending on where you work. You also arent sitting at a desk all day.
The problem with making it TOO easy to apply for jobs online is that employers will get hundreds or even thousands of resumes from people with zero qualifications. Literally zero. It's work to weed through them. Ten or more years ago, you had to print and mail your resume or fax it. A level of effort that matches that (say, text boxes that allow you to paste info from your resume) and checkboxes confirming (for example) that you live in the area and have the degree or experience required would, I think, filter out people with no qualifications but not be too much work for people who do.
I have a friend who is just about top of the line in his field (Power Electronics). The company he worked for suddenly sold out to a overseas company and he was laid off. He thought it would be easy to get a job. He went online for 6 months sending out resume after resume and applying at the online sites. Got 5 replies in all that time.
Hi finally just got up and went into a local company got to see the operations officer and was hired on the spot. Said they had been advertising for 3 months and couldnt get any qualified candidates. My friend mentioned that he had applied twice for jobs that the company had advertised and hadnt received a single reply.
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