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Employer Quotes
The quotes below are from employers in this industry: Transportation
They are talking about this topic: Experience & Credentials
The quotes below are about this issue:
Employers strongly prefer candidates who have had internships or other relevant work experience.
| "And then we have some other people that are coming in, and they may not have the degree, but they have some relatively decent experience. And we're really looking at those people. We just hired one lately, actually, and he's been wonderful. We're mentoring him. We're training that person and bringing them along. And I think that's kind of what we're going to have to do." | Central |
| "There is tremendous pressure for service departments or dealerships to be profitable, and it's very hard to take on a student that isn't trained. Upon graduation, they're pretty much turn-key, and turn-key for an employer means that they're going to be productive. They can come in. They understand the product. They understand a dealership facility because they've done an internship. Three months in school, three months in our shop and so when they're graduated, they're ready to go, and that's I'm looking for, someone that's ready to go that can be productive." | Metro |
| "I agree about the importance of internships. I mean, I'm looking at students through a college program, or any other program that has the student working either in the shop that's sponsoring them, or has gotten some good experience on the side while they're going to school. [Without hands-on experience], it's going to take me a long time to get them up to speed, and that's a lot of money to risk." | Metro |
| "Well, it's like a risk management. Often times, what people think the job is doesn't turn out to be that when they get there. So the internship gives them a chance to come in and see what it is that they think they want to do, but there's a window there that allows us to see who this person is, too. So it's a lot less risky for Tom when the person finishes the program and he says, 'oh, this guy shows up on time, he's a great guy, he seems to have a real wit about him, yeah, I'll hire him.' Well, the internship gives us a chance to try them on as much as them try on the occupation." | Metro |
| "Q: So you'd be looking for somebody that has had an internship with you, or a similar business? A: Yeah. They know they can be productive." |
Metro |
| "I think as far as schooling is concerned, internships are extremely important. You just can't have a student go to school for a couple years and never set foot into a service department. Maybe they worked at running pizzas. All of a sudden they graduate, and they say, 'Okay. I'm going to get a job now,' and that person is going to be very hard to be employed and be productive. So in my view, internships are extremely important, extremely important." | Metro |
| "As unexciting as doing certain services on a vehicle is, changing oil or tire rotation, but even though you have a student who's graduated from a two-year program in automotive, hands-on experience in an everyday atmosphere on the job [is very important]. It's a great place to start someone, and you can really see where their skills are. How can they apply themselves to the work? Do they understand it? I mean, at the simplest level of doing the simplest service on a car, it becomes very [obvious] where some of the strengths are." | Northwest |
| "They a semester on a specific topic, and then they move on and they cover a different topic the next semester...I mean, without continuing to use those skills, they come into the workforce, they've got some knowledge. The first two to five years is additional training, just hands-on, getting to experience it yourself, to work on it more than once or twice, to really feel comfortable and to be able to let them go off and do the job themselves." | Northwest |
| "It's a struggle to find somebody every time we have someone leave or retire...even somebody with mechanics training, who has the knowledge to come into the parts industry too. There's a little gap there with experience people in the younger people." | Northwest |
| "The internship is going to give that student...real-life experience, and it's going to open his or her eyes. This is what it's like on a daily basis. This is what I train for. This is the industry I'm getting into. So it's an eye-opener...'Can I buy into this industry? Do I want to further my career? Is this what I want to do?'" | Northwest |
| "We really have no choice—[we can't hire drivers] without two years verified work experience. So you end up with these kids that are coming off the farm and they're trying to work, sometimes we can get them on probationary status, double up drivers, if you will, and they'll do their own training, that's probably the best case scenario right now. But, you know, truck driving is not the fanciest job in the world." | Southwest |