Skill Gap- It’s Not About Wages

Great article,

Good wages are earned! Not because you have a high number in seniority.

I have to agree about your statement about China. I have a few contacts there, and I look forward of visiting that country.

Also what your statement of:

Raising wages alone does not create great machinists. Aptitude, attitude, talent, training, and experience do.

A statement like that is alike a government program throwing money at a problem with no clear ROI. Practical experience and aptitude can not be undervalued.

There is also a whole other side to this issue as well and that's management.

Poor management or management that lacks the proper knowledge, mindset, and security/maturity in itself is as much of a problem as worker knowledge and skills and unfortunately in too many companies that is the source of greater problems than limited work force skill sets will ever be. An unskilled or inadequately skilled worker can be trained to be a good worker where as under qualified manager is much harder to identify and train. Especially if he was placed there by someone above him who is also inadequately qualified to truly do their job properly.

My wife and I are both good examples of people who are highly skilled and knowledgeable in our fields however that said both of us have been continually passed over by companies that are supposedly looking for skilled people simply due to our obvious skill set and creditable references in our life's work portfolios clearly being greater than that of the management that are currently in the company we have gotten passed over for being "over qualified" too many times.

From my life's working experiences we are not an isolated set of cases by any means. I personally have witnessed conversations with mangers that passed over perspective new employees specifically just because the application and resume clearly showed them to have superior skill set mindset and experience that was superior to the people who where running things.

How many here know that they have been turned down for jobs they applied because your skill set and documented work experience clearly showed you to be of a caliber greater than that of the people whom ran company?

Ever dummy down a job application and resume to get hired?

Ever get ran off for a lame reason when your skills and abilities where seen as a possible threat to a manager even though you had no interest in causing them harm or other?

I have and too many times as well.

Haven't encountered that sort of skills discrimination. I do contract work and my clients like that I have the skills/experience to deliver solutions. I deliver, they pay, no angst.

When hiring (subcontractors) I like to hire people who are smarter than me as this strengthens the team and reduces risk on projects so I don't think I would discriminate against you because of that.

If you are discriminated against because your skills are deemed a threat then that's probably a good thing....better than having to work with paranoid fools.

I'll agree on working with people that are smarter or more experienced than me. It gives me a chance to learn. I've never felt intimidated by my betters, rather I looked forward to learning.

That said, it's really dissappointing when you meet someone who has a shining resume and reputation and find out down the road that it's all fluff. When you go into a project expecting to learn only to find out that they'll be leaning on you because they can't do or don't know.

The best employees are the ones with inquisitive minds. When you give them a basic task and, not only do they complete it quickly, they learn about it so as to improve it.

The owner of the machine shop I work with still employs his original mentor. The mentor is retired but spends time at the shop doing the more intricate and detailed jobs. The owner keeps him around to pick his brain when he gets stumped. It's kind of like having an encyclopedia to reference when you need it.

The owner of the shop has also noticed the difference between machinists and operators. A machinist will know how to set up a job, how deep a bite to take with a given cutter, etc, which tool to use and how many different setups a job may take. An operator puts the raw material in according to instructions and pushes the start button. The shop owner says that he's lucky if the local trade school gives him operators. It takes years of experience to make a machinist.

No one doubts that if you want the best CEO's or Sports stars etc you have to pay them well. After all the people with talent and drive look around when young and decide what they're going to aim for.

So no, raising salaries doesn't create more skilled workers, but it helps get the skilled, brainy hard working kids to apply for the jobs and take on the apprenticeships.

It's the same reason the smartest kids go into law or accounting rather than engineering.

Not so much law anymore. At least in the US, there is a glut of lawyers and enrollment in law schools has dropped considerably. The same may be true of accounting. I saw some numbers this past year showing average accounting salaries to be lower than average engineering salaries.

One thing about major sports in the US is that they utilize a 'free' apprenticeship program - college. The NCAA-controlled sports do a good job of selecting and training sports 'stars'; just look at the signing bonuses some NFL draftees get: millions of dollars before even showing up at pre-season camp.

Just to follow up my previous post. This article discusses the latest LSAT statistics. The number of test takers is way down.

http://taxprof.typepad.com/taxprof_blog/2012/11/number-of-lsat.html

I'm not a machinist, I'm a structural engineer but I'm sure the general truths carry through all of the technical trades and professions. Basically, on the search for more money; I didn't ever start out a search for more money, there was always a dissatisfaction with management, or perhaps mismanagement, first, then the search for another job and then the pay became part of the evaluation. It was interesting to note that all of the exit interviewers wanted me to say that my reason for leaving was for more money.

I didn't ever start out a search for more money, there was always a dissatisfaction with management, or perhaps mismanagement, first, then the search for another job and then the pay became part of the evaluation.

I believe most can say this, I left (3) jobs for a considerable less pay, for either opportunity or the challenge.

I should have maybe play things smarter, but I never regretted do it.

Nicely "penned" mate. We are in each other's heads on that score. GA.

You're right, higher wages alone won't attract talent, although it might keep it in-house. But there needs to be a stable job market before talent will consider your need as a career. Today it seems that most companies don't want to recruit and develop raw talent, they just want to buy it already developed. Some of them have ignored talent development for too long and are in trouble because their old talent is retiring and nobody can replace them. It's the company's own fault. If a person cannot get a job (company has unrealistic hiring expectations) or keep a job (due to outsourcing) then he's not going to explore or stay in your field long enough to become the experienced talent you desire.

Companies want a major commitment from employees (education, experience, tolerance for working hours and conditions) yet are unwilling to commit to employees (training opportunities, career ladders, job security). I'm not saying that every candidate is viable, and I'm not saying that economics doesn't force hard decisions. But when a person becomes mature enough to realize that they need decades of employment to live life (pay a mortgage, put kids through school, afford retirement, etc.) they notice when companies and job types have high turnover. If you're considered obsolete due to age or salary level after only a few years, and your industry tends to cast you out, that's NOT a serious career choice. So if your company doesn't grow its own talent, and consistently churns its workforce to keep salaries low, don't be surprised when you run out of experience and have trouble replacing it.

Precision machinist jobs were open even as the rest of the economy tanked 2008-2009. Open jobs in want ads the entire time for skilled machinists. Milo