Trades people

[Punisher95]

For any Trades people out here
I am trying to get my feet wet as a heavy duty tech! I find its getting a lot harder to get your foot in the door as a first year apprentice how did you guys approach or peak an employers interest any tips would be greatly appreciated

 

[The Old Guy]

Not sure what a heavy duty tech is.

Everyone is looking for help right now, but the biggest issue is finding licensed people. Contractors can only hire a certain number of apprentices based on the number of licensed people in the company.

 

[ironwill]

I have 3 tickets, and i Just worked my ass off at a contractor company and they gave me apprenticeships.
I went on to attain a couple professional designations as well.
Now in corporate management of trades driven companies and what i have my managers look for in apprentices is attitude over aptitude, someone that works hard, and has a good amount of intellect and common sense and safety awareness, integrity and ability to reason.

We only hire journeymen and i bring apprentices off the outlying workers in the company, this helps morale as the folks doing labor jobs, or production jobs or driving haul trucks, or loaders or outside working on drilling and blasting, or if in oil and gas some guys want something different than rigs and all that fun stuff. Lots of other great opportunities in industry other than trades, but that is the topic at hand in your question...
Lots of good loyal hard working people with in the company may aspire to get a ticket. If i hired apprentices off the street it would be a dis service to loyal employees as they need to see the possibility of advancement etc.
You are correct it is hard to get on as an apprentice, but that is part of being an apprentice and appreciating it, not feeling entitled. It shows you have fortitude and will grind it until you get it.

The best place i send apprentices is to a contractor, lots and lots of them hire apprentices. I was a director in mining for quite awhile, Cat, Komatsu, Hitachi etc will sometimes hire apprentices, but look in remote locations, get your feet wet, work your ass off.

Remote locations have troubles bringing in Journeymen sometimes as ticketed trades guys be it millwrights, electricians, welder, heavy duty mechanics etc all get sought after on a regular basis, no shortage of work, so they go where they want.
Rarely applying for work as we get headhunted for our skills.
Make a linked in account, post your resume on Indeed. Look for jobs everyday on these sites and it WILL HAPPEN, but polish up your interview skills and look deeply into safety and hazards in your trade and be prepared to talk about it. If you fail at this, it is a tough go.

Remote is typically colder, shittier but pays better and builds character and many greta people and a lot of fun at times and toughens you up for the future.
Go on indeed, linked in etc, lots of remote apprentice work for HD mechs out there, but you will be up North my friend, mostly.
I choose to be remote as it suits my outdoors lifestyle and less fucking people....lol...
I have been in large centres and cities most of my career, but not close to the same lifestyle at all...

 

[Sorbate]

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We only hire journeymen and i bring apprentices off the outlying workers in the company, this helps morale as the folks doing labor jobs, or production jobs or driving haul trucks, or loaders or outside working on drilling and blasting, or if in oil and gas some guys want something different than rigs and all that fun stuff. Lots of other great opportunities in industry other than trades, but that is the topic at hand in your question...
Lots of good loyal hard working people with in the company may aspire to get a ticket. If i hired apprentices off the street it would be a dis service to loyal employees as they need to see the possibility of advancement etc.

Exactly what I do. I’ll train a butcher from within, or a manager.
Plus if they have worker for you for a while, you now know what they are like.
No point in investing a bunch of training on someone who is an unknown.

I had a guy (who is a customer), pretty much tell me that he wants me to hire him to train him to be a butcher.
I explained to him that I always train from within after a min of working the front counter serving for a year.
He got pissy and stated, you ran an add for a butcher like 2 weeks ago.
I said I’m sorry but it was an add for counter help. I was moving a guy from the front into the back to train as a sausage maker. I always train from within.
Well he didn’t want to apply for the customer service position, lol.

 

[ironwill]

Yes sir, it provides a motivation. If we hired outside for all the positions, folks will just leave to go elsewhere. I always like folks to have a bit of skin in the game and then promote, it keeps folks interested if they have interest. If not everyone is good at something, we don't all have to be butchers and millwrights etc, lots of folks are excellent at being counter people and love doing it.... So i find other ways to keep them motivated so i don't lose them to other companies that do care and think about these aspects.

 

[Sorbate]

Yes sir, it provides a motivation. If we hired outside for all the positions, folks will just leave to go elsewhere. I always like folks to have a bit of skin in the game and then promote, it keeps folks interested if they have interest. If not everyone is good at something, we don't all have to be butchers and millwrights etc, lots of folks are excellent at being counter people and love doing it.... So i find other ways to keep them motivated so i don't lose them to other companies that do care and think about these aspects.

We have fun at work.
You either pay them extremely well or treat them extremely well. I do a bit of pay and treat well.

I mix things up a bit to to keep people happy. So sometimes one of the girls that are serving will ask if they can come in the back when its slow to try something new, and they will hang out for a few hours and load jerky and stuff.

Other than the last shithead manager, I never have never had issues retaining someone. There were times the really horrible employee that just sucks at the job would quit, but nope, I always had to lay them off and they would be so sad. I hate letting people go, there is not fun in it, so sometimes I wish the crappy ones would quit, lol.

Thanks god we are pretty decent at training so I don't get too many bad ones.

Its still tiring though, because my staff pool is from the kids who didn't do that great in school. I help them to work around their short comings instead of using them as an excuse to fail. I hate the way they label everyone now.