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Employer Quotes
The quotes below are from employers in this industry: Manufacturing
They are talking about this topic: General Skills
The quotes below are about this issue:
Employers look for new hires that are motivated, trainable, and willing to engage in lifelong learning in a continuously evolving industry.
| "I think one of the issues where the schools can help us—everybody needs to do it, even parents—is to instill into the younger workforce that this is a lifelong-learning process, so it's important that you continue to see the world that way. Otherwise, you could be left behind because the technology is moving along so fast. And so many students think, 'I did my time in school, so I'll get my job, collect my money, and life is good.'" | Central |
| "We have to have somebody that's willing to learn. And somebody who understands that our way has to be the way to do it, so that there isn't this attitude of, 'Well, that isn't the way I was taught.' We want somebody who has the ability to follow directions." | Northeast |
| "Well, there are a variety of things we do at our company—there's additional testing, which includes aptitude and personality. In these categories, there's actually a craft test, a written test, and a hands-on test. Today, hiring a person is a million dollar investment, so you better be prepared to do your homework if you're going to spend that kind of money to onboard just one person. And we're talking, in the next five years, as many as 500 people. So, there's a lot of things that go into the hiring process right now, and there's a lot of things that eventually come together when we make a decision on who we onboard." | Northeast |
| "It's something you have to want to do. You have to want to do a good job, and you have to realize that you can't take as long as you want to take to complete tasks." | Northeast |
| "Most of us have been involved in disciplinary actions or terminations, and rarely do you fire somebody because they're not technically competent. Usually, it's because they're a jerk, and they're not getting along with someone. It falls more into that category." | Southeast |
| "They might have experience, but they just lack the work ethic. They lack the willingness, the drive, and the desire. And I don't know that MnSCU can teach that. I think that goes back to parents raising their kids with a work ethic and that kind of thing, but we can't solve that either." | Southeast |
| "Like I said, they don't know everything when they come out of school. But if we think that they have the aptitude, we're happy to teach them." | Southwest |
| "I need somebody to come in and say, 'You know, I've jumped through the right hoops for the right people to be able to get my little degree. And, now, I understand that I don't know what I don't know. Please teach what I don't know, and then teach me how to do it.' But they don't have that attitude. Very few that come through higher education have that attitude. A lot of technical school kids come in and think, 'Well, so-and-so who's worked on the line for 26 years, he doesn't have a degree, so I must be smarter than him.' No. Not so much. The person who's been on the line for 26 years knows how to fix every piece of machinery in this place. He's learned how to use computers and he's learned how to use the CNC machine on his own. What I'm looking for is more people in your system who understand the fact that you have to have what my dad used to call common sense. I call it logic. You need to be able to think to yourself, 'If I stick my hand in here, it's probably not going to come back.' A lot of people don't have that thinking capacity anymore. They just think, 'Well, the machine will stop itself before I ever get hurt.' No. Machines aren't that smart." | Southwest |
| "Here's what I look for—and then I'll try to teach the rest: How enthusiastic are they? Are they motivated? Because I can't teach motivation. I can't teach smart. And I can't teach trainability. Somebody comes in thinking, 'I have a four-year degree, I know everything. And you can't train me because I know everything.' Well, they're useless to me. I just interviewed three engineers two days ago, and I've turned them all down. They came out of really good engineering schools, but they know everything and they were more than willing to tell me how they know everything. That's not trainable." | Southwest |