Recently the New York Times reported on the rare transitioning of white collar employees to blue collar skilled trades. Sounds ludicrous, but it can happen. In the article, they mention Scott Lacerra, 37, from RG Manufacturing and Machining. Scott earned his BS from Drake University, majoring in Finance and landed a job as a credit analyst at a local bank. It didn’t take long for him to decide that the cubicle life wasn’t what he had imagined.
He left his job and found a new pathway. He landed a job in manufacturing where he started out cleaning machines and progressed to programming them. Pretty good leap for a guy that “wasn’t mechanically inclined”. This leap had paid off as he was sponsored in the RRVTMA Apprenticeship Program and will be celebrating his graduation to journeyman on May 23rd at Giovanni’s.
Good employees come in all shapes and sizes with experiences that are cultivated by their environment. When you look for your next “star” employee, read between the lines and maybe you can offer someone an opportunity to do something they didn’t even know exists.