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Employer Quotes

The quotes below are from employers in this industry: Information Technology (IT)

They are talking about this topic: Experience & Credentials

 

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The quotes below are about this issue:
Employers emphasize they can provide extensive on-the-job training for new hires to ensure competency in the specific programs used within their sector of the industry. Therefore, a basic skill set is more important than vendor-specific certifications.

Employer Quote Region
"We expect them to have to the basics down and the knowledge base down, but as for implementing them in our environment they pretty much have to learn from the ground up. And we have a lot invested in our employees. It takes one to two years for them to become proficient at what they do. So, that's been our experience." Central
"Our technical requirements are quite high, so we don't expect someone to come in up-and-running. But we do require the basic skill sets that we can teach and train and mold. Because I think with that, they're just ready to go forward." Central
"Speaking from a PML perspective, we can train them on all the technical aspects. We can give them all the Microsoft training. We can give them all that. That gives them book smarts and an understanding of the technology." Metro
"Give us the technology platform so that we can grow that employee internally." Metro
"So, being able to train them and get them up-and-running as quickly as possible. Then, also, those new people coming in—meeting those skills and being able to fit into the teams and the methodologies that we're already using." Metro
"We have had to address some of our hiring needs by investing in training. Hiring folks and then training them in management positions. Those kinds of things." Metro
"We're looking for that raw technical talent because as soon as they walk in our door we'll probably teach them something else." Northeast
"We don't see a lot of people with much experience coming in, so we tend to hire a lot of folks coming out of [non-MnSCU college] that have the HIS degree. And then we teach them a little more about software configuration, support, and development." Northeast
"We do a lot of training, and it's working fine. It's just finding the new people coming in with the correct background." Northeast
"You maybe have some more traditional technical roles networking so they need to understand networking concepts and be certified. And we're talking about a specialty software niche, healthcare software. So, if you have some clinical context, you can step into that as long as you have a technical aptitude. So, we're looking for some combination of clinical context and technical aptitude, and we'll train on the rest." Northeast
"Well, being a little bit familiar with [MnSCU college's] curriculums and the tech college, too, first and foremost, every single time somebody asks us about training someone, we'll say that those soft skills are—by far—the most important entry-level thing you can have. We can teach them about anything else if we have to." Northwest
"Employer: We're very specialized. And if we can get those core values, we can train and we can get...

Question: You can teach them the job?

Employer: Right. I mean, they need to have the basic stuff on how technology works and how networking works and math and obviously engineering skills, but we can get them into our specialized niches if they come with a hard-work attitude."		 Northwest
"Employer: In doing some of the most rudimentary things that we need somebody to do—like managing a few hundred work stations and work station imaging—I think they get some of the active directory stuff and maybe some of the other OS stuff, but the real industry standard or in-practice imaging and some of the basic functions of the work stations that you see across the spectrum aren't necessarily there. I haven't seen that there. I don't know if it's being taught or not, but I have not seen it. And it would help. It would certainly sway my decision if I would see that somebody's actually done that and has experience.

Question: So, you're looking for that?

Employer: Well, we're teaching it to them once they get here, that's for sure."		 Northwest
"We deal with all different types of equipment in the central office. There's any number of vendors that design a piece of equipment that can do the same thing, but it has different ways of operating, different ways of being provisioned. The experience comes from working in the various systems and understanding how to provision those without taking it out of service. So, you might be working with a Metaswitch here, you might be working with a Cisco device here, and you might be working with an Alcatel-Lucent device here. So, the experience comes with understanding all the various systems and how to work with them. Not all those skills are taught coming out of a technical program. They've had some hands-on experience, but not necessarily with all the different devices that are out there." Southwest
"From my perspective, again depending on the type of individual you're looking for, they have the basic skills required and then, from that point, there's a lot of on-the-job training. They are generally assigned to work with an experienced employee and they learn as they go. We cannot send an inexperienced technician out to work on a customer's network and risk it going out of service. So, they have to train with those individuals and understand how things work and interact before they are allowed to work on their own." Southwest
"You have to have broad knowledge and experience. So, you cross-train into other areas and fields, particularly the higher-skilled people." Southwest
"Once they have that basic understanding and that skill set, then the on-the-job training is what we need them to have." Southwest
"They never have all the right skills. I mean, they have the basic skills that they need, and the technical understanding of certain things. But many things are learned through on-the-job training. They have the basic skills they need and the rest comes with experience as they work in the job." Southwest
"They have a general understanding of IT and the basics, I guess. They understand how the various players and the network work. But they may not understand how to go out and provision an Ethernet interface in an Alcatel-Lucent device. Those are the hands-on experiences that they have to learn and understand." Southwest