Roomie’s recent success in the job market has prompted me to take a closer look at the e-mails I’ve been getting every day from monster.com for the past several years. I’m used to needing (but not having ) PLC troubleshooting experience, but this morning I got turned down because I had no experience with conveyor belts.
Conveyor belts, for fuck’s sake!
I can (or at least could) program, calibrate, troubleshoot and repair Yaskawa and Brooks robots, maintain and repair systems that combine compressed gasses with RF energy in a high vacuum environment, and a shitload of much more complex equipment than conveyor belts.
This is worse than being turned down by guys who service electric lift trucks.
Grumpy 
Conveyer belts???
The E&H had conveyer belts…there’s your experience right there!
I actually thought about that, but somehow I don’t think that those are the kind of conveyor belts these guys had in mind. It was a staffing company, so the lady I talked to had no understanding of my background, or any leeway. No conveyor belt experience = we can’t use you. It’s too bad, too. It was right here in town, and the pay trumps Roomie’s by a smidgen. Whatever.
Fingers crossed you can find something soon. : *
Thanks, Sweetie. I’m not absolutely certain that I want something else – the evil that you know, and all. I do know that more than nine bucks an hour, and consistent full-time hours without the week-to-week schedule uncertainty would be nice.
Yeah I know. But maybe a good opportunity will pop up. You never know. =)
Can you bypass the staffing service and apply directly to the company?
That company (like most in the area) uses temps exclusively for new hires. Not sure what it is about companies around here, but even $20+/hour mid to high level technical positions are temp-to-hire. Everywhere else I’ve lived/worked, only bottom end (assemblers, general labor) used staffing companies. Roomie’s situation as a direct hire was a very rare occurrence.
It seems like most companies have gone that route lately, and far too many of them are moving to permatemps. I noticed the trend when I was working at Motorola. I understand that it’s cheaper for the company to not have to go through the hiring process and to not have to cover benefits etc, but at the same time how are we going to build a well trained and competent workforce if companies aren’t willing to invest in workers and the workers are stressed and worried about not getting called back? Yeah, I know that some people will never amount to a hill of beans as employees, but this system seems designed to take those that are good and break them.
I follow the logic of companies who do this, but, like you, I firmly believe that it is ultimately counterproductive.
One of the things that stands out to me is that if we don’t hire people and give them access to benefits, or pay them well enough that they can afford health insurance AND basic necessities it pretty much proves that we “need” socialized health care. I’m all for a healthy populace but I look at the Native Americans or the welfare program and BAM! there’s the proof that the government is incapable of handling socialized anything and this is just going to turn into one more way for them to control us.
The job market is like any other market. Right now, the demand is low enough and the supply high enough that employers can get away with doing things like this. When (if) things recover, things will improve as companies compete for the good employees.
That being said, I completely agree with you on anything socialized.