jmasters wrote:

You may want to evaluate whether your requirements listed in the ad's
were too restrictive (in terms of pay, hours required to work,
necessary skill set, etc) or evaluate whether the skillset you want can
be instilled in anybody with a modicum of interest in that kind of work.

You might also want to check with local high school instructors to see
if there are students who are good at that kind of work who might be
interested and trainable. Yes, that might require a bit more help on
your end, but many schools (at least where I'm at) have dropped
vocational programs, and the economics suggest (to me anyway) that
electronics repair is dwindling. I have a 2 year degree in electronics
repair (digital area, not so much analog as in radio's, amplifiers, etc)
and did cryptographic repair in the military for 4 years. The degree
was acquired approx 15 years ago, and the writing was on the wall back
then, which is why I chose the digital track and then continued on with
Computer Science degree work.

Some other suggestions might be to see if there are local military
bases with electronic repair shops nearby, with people who might be
willing to make some extra money. Then there are other shops - if you
offer better compensation, training opportunities, benefits, etc. You
might be able to score. Try leaving cards in nearby sandwich shop
bulletin boards.

I'd also look in the phonebook for copier or appliance repair shops
(supply houses might work too) and see if they can recommend some good
people they've seen around. FWIW, it seems that the emphasis of late
towards preparing kids to go on to academic careers in college (and the
lack of funding for voc-ed programs) as well as the fast-paced move
towards extremely high density/complexity (and disposably priced)
electronics has removed a lot of economic incentives for continue work
in this area.

You may also want to consider contacting local college career centers
to see if you can place advertisements on their bullletin boards to see
if you can't score on any students who are retraining (away from prior
electronic tech jobs) and could use some extra money. Or if there are
technical schools in the area (not necessarily electronics, but more
"technical" in nature where people might be training for another line
of work)

Check dice.com and monster.com for resumes and see if you can find any
local resumes for technical people with keywords like "electronic",
"repair", "television", "audio" or "radio".

If you want to find people for this type of work, you won't usually
find them via a newspaper ad. Check out local Ham/Computer swap meets,
be willing to ask around. When you find someone, get references. Don't
be overly rigorous. You want to find someone who's good, unless you're
not willing to pay for good techs. And that needs to be evaluated as
well. And you need to be sensitive as to whether or not your shop has
a good reputation for employment. A number of dealerships around here
can't seem to find good tech's, but they treat their techs like dirt,
and word gets around.

One other idea that just came to mind would be any local electronic
parts stores. We have a couple of places in town, some of them are
high priced salvage shops, but they bring in people who rummage the
bins for electronics parts, and those types of people know how to find
their way around repair work/circuit boards.

And it would be helpful if you'd put your locality, as there might be
someone here on this forum that might be looking for extra/new work.

Good luck!

Justin

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jmasters

One other point: Some companies get a bad reputation whether the
deserve it or not and people just ignore the ads. I worked for a
engineer to order electronics manufacturer. I wore a jacket with their
logo on it to a hamfest and got heckled all day long and bored with
stories about how bad everything was at the plant. When I would tell
them that I had never seen what they were talking about in the years i
worked there, I was called a liar, because his buddy's buddy told him
all the horror stories while they were out drinking, or there 14th
cousin 17 times removed got fired and they were all horrible people.
One people get that mindset they won't even consider applying for a job.

I have had two shops want to hire me in the last two years but I am
now 100% disabled. I can troubleshoot, but I can barely walk and have
lost so much strength I can't even pick up some of the test equipment
anymore. I always enjoyed being a tech whether I was self employed,
working in an old TV shop at 13 or working in manufacturing on the floor
or in engineering. You will find a lot of good people who could do the
work but have become frustrated because no one was willing to give them
a chance because of physical problems. I got my last job because the
company was desperate. They wanted four techs for production. I was
the only one who applied so they finally took the chance and were
surprised I could do the work of two or three of the other techs every
day, but I would have to take days off for doctor's appointments. When
I started running out of vacation and sick days to cover them and too
ill to accept much overtime I was laid off. they told me I was no longer
a team player because I "Had the nerve!" to refuse overtime. Employees
aren't machines, but some plaes forget that, too.


--
Beware of those who post from srvinet.com!

Michael A. Terrell
Central Florida