What is the feasibility of getting an unskilled labor job in Hawaii from mainland? (how much, job market)

[thatsong64]

Originally Posted by hotzcatz

However, thatsong64, you had to physically be in Maui to get the job.

True.

Originally Posted by hotzcatz

Why should an employer hire someone on the mainland when there are a dozen applicants already here who they can meet in person?

Also true. No they do not hire from the mainland except for highly skilled jobs.

Originally Posted by hotzcatz

Kansoku, how about taking a long vacation in Hilo and looking for employment while you are there? If you leave all your important stuff already in boxes on the mainland, then if you find employment, you can have someone mail you the boxes. If it doesn't work out, then you'll still have a place to go back to after your vacation.

great advice.

[CoolSocks]

Originally Posted by Kansoku

For the tourist bus driving job that you need to know Japanese, as long as you know fluent Japanese are you guaranteed a job?

Absolutely no job is automatically guaranteed simply because you have a certain skill or qualification. When a person is interested in a job or position, the normal route is apply, interview (if your application is taken to the next level) and wait. Like others have said, it will be really hard for you to get the kind of job you're looking for without already living in Hawaii.

[OpenD]

Originally Posted by Kansoku

For the tourist bus driving job that you need to know Japanese, as long as you know fluent Japanese are you guaranteed a job?

Sorry, no.

Assuming that you are a US citizen or have a valid work visa, the next thing you'll need is a Commercial Driver's License, a clean driving record, clean background check, and clean drug test. If you have all that, you'll be eligible to be interviewed for training, if and when an opening occurs, which doesn't happen often. My friend who drives tour buses has had his job 11 years and isn't going anywhere soon.

[mdand3boys]

The 2 big, Big Island tour bus companies have advertisements all the time, looking for bus and van drivers. You don't have to know Japanese - they have tour guides on the buses for that. You do have to have a clean driving record and pass a state mandated physical with a special state form filled out by the doctor.

But yes, knowing Japanese really helps. The Japanese generally don't like to rent cars/drive when visiting places that have left hand drive - Japan is right hand drive.

[OpenD]

Originally Posted by mdand3boys

The 2 big, Big Island tour bus companies have advertisements all the time, looking for bus and van drivers.

I'll have to ask my friend what's up with that. He's been driving 11 years, is highly rated, has been employee of the year, etc. And his big complaint lately is that biz has been bad and he hasn't been getting booked enough to make a living.

[mdand3boys]

Originally Posted by OpenD

I'll have to ask my friend what's up with that. He's been driving 11 years, is highly rated, has been employee of the year, etc. And his big complaint lately is that biz has been bad and he hasn't been getting booked enough to make a living.

If he hasn't been getting hours though,there is more to it. The East side has had a large increase in tourists these past 6 months. Watch the buses and vans leaving the cruise ships. They are all full.

Moderator cut: personal remarks are off topic

The mandatory health insurance for 20+ hour per week employees also has a lot to do with it. It is cheaper to hire 2 part-timers than 1 full-timer.

[hotzcatz]

Driving a tour bus doesn't pay all that well and they generally have screwy hours so it is hard to have another part time job. It used to be that drivers got kickbacks and tips, but now a lot of that goes to the company instead of the drivers.

There are jobs which can be had, but you pretty much have to be here to get them.

[OpenD]

Originally Posted by hotzcatz

There are jobs which can be had, but you pretty much have to be here to get them.

Yeah, and that was really the point,. It absolutely doesn't matter in the least how many bus driver ads there are, the OP is never gonna get one from the mainland.

[OpenD]

Originally Posted by hotzcatz

Driving a tour bus doesn't pay all that well and they generally have screwy hours so it is hard to have another part time job. It used to be that drivers got kickbacks and tips, but now a lot of that goes to the company instead of the drivers.

Totally by chance I talked to a driver of a Robert's Tours bus about this today. My buddy and I took a drive down to Punalu'u to the black sand beach where the turtles come up on shore, hung out for a while watching a pack (herd? pod?) of turtles body-surfing in toward the beach, and as we were leaving to go up to the little church on the hill to take some photos, a Robert's driver stepped off his bus and I posed the question to him... "I've heard from a friend that there's almost no turnover in jobs there, but somebody else says there are ads all the time for drivers. What's the story?"

He said, as my friend had said previously, that there's virtually no turnover in drivers of the big coaches. He's worked there 12 years, couldn't even remember the last time a new driver started, more than a year ago at least.

"Must be for Hele On bus," he said, "that's not such a good job. Contract drivers, lots of politics, lots of crazy, not so good money." Or perhaps the little vans that hold a dozen or two passengers, which he said did have high turnover because they... as you suggested... work screwy hours for not much money.

Then on the way back home we drove by the Volcano Country Club Cafe, where two (2) large tour buses were parked, and two (2) huge flocks of tourists were inside eating lunch and I went "AHA! That would be one of those kickback opportunities Catz was talking about."

Then for some reason I flashed on one of my favorite signs down in the Hilo Bayfront shopping section... a little bento place that is open for breakfast and lunch only, closed by 3, with a hand-lettered sign taped crookedly in one window:

Resumes being accepted.

So how you gonna hear about THAT kind of "employment opportunity" on the mainland? Seriously, you have to be here already.

[Jungjohann]

I BEG TO DIFFER!!!!!! IT'S A 'FLUCK' OF TOURISTS..... NOT A 'FLOCK'!!!! GET SOMETHING RIGHT, WOULD YA!!!!!!!!!!!!! TOURIST!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Aloha and,,,,,,, uuurrrrpppp,,,,, scuze me,,,,, okolemaluna


+u, never leave an 'uuuurrrrpppp' unfinished