Ford can't find mechanics for $120K: It takes math to learn a trade

https://www.joannejacobs.com/post/ford-can-t-find-mechanics-for-120k-it-takes-math-to-learn-a-trade

by mhb • 8 months ago

52 196 8 months ago

Do what we used to do.

Pay them more. 120k is like 60k in mid 1990s money.

And, pay for their education. Invest in local colleges to help guide curriculum in what you need. That’s what defense contractors and mega corps do / have done.

Stop complaining and be stewards of your community. Like Henry Ford argued back in the day, “I want my employees to be able to buy a Ford”. Invest and the people will invest back.

paulpauper4• 8 months ago

Why not pay them 300k/year? 500k? It has to be viable or worthwhile for both parties

mapontosevenths7• 8 months ago

Why not pay them 300k/year? 500k?

That's a great idea! We could take the difference from the CEO's pay.

solomonb2• 8 months ago

They (and everyone else) should be paid the maximum amount the company can afford to pay while still being sustainable.

NoMoreNicksLeft• 8 months ago

You raise a valid point that doesn't deserve the downvoting...

But have you considered it fully? We're in a heap of shit if the pay that employers can truly afford is lower than the pay that employees require to earn the minimal livelihood. If there is really realsy no overlap there, then you need to stock up on canned food and shotgun shells.

mhb5• 8 months ago

We used to be able to assume that high school and college graduates could do elementary school math. Maybe what we used to do would be more palatable if we weren't pissing away money on dysfunctional public education.

paulpauper4• 8 months ago

From what I have read online, failing high school is almost impossible. GPAs inflated to the point of useless.

germinalphrase• 8 months ago

Alternatively, we have decades of credentials inflation such that our high school graduates can indeed do math - but we choose to pretend they can’t and instead insist that an expensive undergraduate degree is required for entry level work.

SonOfKyuss5• 8 months ago

There are plenty of high school and college graduates that can do elementary school math. They are just going into more lucrative fields. If Ford wants those candidates, they need to offer more competitive salaries.

tw044• 8 months ago

Ahh, yes the key to mathematics being an issue is public education. We should privatize it so that half the population goes from under educated to completely uneducated.

Or maybe we could go with the coal town model and have children accrue debt to a major corporation that they can literally never pay off in exchange for an education!

kritiko• 8 months ago

US has PISA scores that are roughly equivalent to Western Europe. I think the kids who can do math just get sorted into better jobs.

nerdponx• 8 months ago

The most dysfunctional aspects of public education have less to do with the education and more to do with the home lives of the children we are trying to educate.

In my town, most of the cost of education is just paying teachers. The school system is expensive because paying a lot of teachers is expensive, as is maintaining school buildings. And guess what? Teachers still don't make that much, especially because the union typically has to fight hard for the even basic cost-of-living raises, classroom materials are often not reimbursed by the school, and teachers have hours of unpaid non-overtime overtime work.

And the funny thing about the cost of living raises? The costs are going up because of things like housing, food, and energy for heating. Corporate profits are at generational highs and wealth inequality is growing. So teachers, just like the rest of us, are subject to greater and greater consumer surplus extraction, effectively sucking wealth out of the towns where they live and work. And then taxpayers in those towns need to keep paying for their raises, but those same taxpayers are subject to the same consumer surplus extraction.

Families with two working parents, families struggling to pay for rent and heat and food, families where everyone is addicted to social media... none of that is conducive to kids showing up and being ready to spend 8 hours learning stuff, not to mention drilling and retaining and developing an understanding of what they learned.

Everything is politics and everything is economics. Society is a deeply interconnected ecosystem. School is dysfunctional because families are dysfunctional, suffering from degradation of social structures and severe economic pressure. School is expensive teachers are expensive, and teachers are expensive because they are suffering from the same economic pressure as the families who send their kids to school.

Every household is a little capillary in a great circulatory system of money. Income goes in one end and spending goes out the other end. What's happening now is that most capillaries are receiving smaller and smaller shares of the total flow, while some special ones are swollen larger than we have ever seen before. When people say that the system is rigged, this is what they mean. Is it any surprise that the people with the power to change where the money flows are using that power to make sure more of it flows to themselves?

darth_avocado• 8 months ago

Another thing I’ve heard is that Ford is terrible at designing maintainable cars and mechanics lose money working on them because Ford doesn’t accurately represent the time it takes to fix something. It was akin to replacing the gasket requires them to pick the engine apart and rebuild it, while Ford only pays them for an hour of labor. I can’t find the exact video at the moment but the reality is that even if Ford paid $120k, you’d probably be working 80 hours a week.

GenerWork• 8 months ago

mechanics lose money working on them because Ford doesn’t accurately represent the time it takes to fix something

I believe this is mainly for warranty or recall work. If it's out of warranty, then the charges can be much higher. It also depends on the difficulty of the work being done. I had my Mustangs rear diff seal replaced under warranty, and I guarantee you that doing that wasn't that bad in terms of pay or time taken.

imgabe• 8 months ago

It sounds like this is the actual problem and instead of paying exorbitant salaries or fixing the entire US education system Ford just needs to face reality and accept how long repairs actually take and pay for that time. That and/or redesign their cars to take less time to repair.

2OEH8eoCRo0• 8 months ago

How come Henry Ford could do this but modern companies cannot?

I've only seen Electric Boat do this (defense contractor) and it's likely because the govt pays for it!

fooker5• 8 months ago

Because it takes a lot more education to work at a modern factory than what it took in 1930.

The rest of the world has kept up. Even if you could hypothetically cram 12 years of education into six months of training, the kind of mental effort required to go through that training would be quite impossible for the average person.

But why do that when it’s so much easier to blame AI or immigration, or whatever the new boogeyman of the day is.

t-writescode5• 8 months ago

"Can't" and "Won't" are two different things.

theideaofcoffee• 8 months ago

“We can’t possibly afford to do this. It doesn’t make sense! What if we pay for all of this training and they leave?”

“What if you don’t and they stay?”

These companies think they can just reap all of the rewards without any investment, it’s stupid. I definitely agree with you saying that there needs to be a return to these places taking more care and investing in long-term people. Like you said, invest in them and they’ll invest in you.

JumpCrisscross18• 8 months ago

What if we pay for all of this training and they leave?”

This is a solved problem. If they quit early, they owe the cost of the education.

bagacrap2• 8 months ago

Where do you find the pay for [Ford] auto mechanics in 1995?

t-writescode5• 8 months ago

https://www.calculatorsoup.com/calculators/financial/salary-...

I did the math in my head based on something I saw someone else share earlier today; but I was probably a bit off. Putting in 120k on this website for this year turns into about 58k in 1995

SilentM682• 8 months ago

I agree with your statement, for the most part. Investing in community college programs is one route since they are essentially a business. The main problem with the CCs is that they are very corrupt, have been issuing students worthless degrees. Essentially, the graduates don't have marketable skills. The colleges' goal is reaching a "graduation quota," and not "employability."

Another way to go is adult and high school education, i.e. the old auto shop classes that are currently very hard to find. This goes for any other trade, such as Drafting, Welding, as well not just auto shop.

So, yea, companies should pay more and invest in education, rather than bitch and complain about the lack of fully train workers.

Sol Roth

Moto7451• 8 months ago

Community Colleges being considered corrupt is not an accusation I’ve heard. Is there something behind this or are you grouping them with the issues seen with Public Universities and grants/loans fueling spiraling tuition?

The Community College I went to was about $20 per unit and offered a great education. Currently they’re $46 per unit. The instructors worked in the industry and were sharper than my 200 level University course instructors I paid $100 per unit for the year after my Associates Degree. I went to University as the Great Recession happened and had to go back to Community College as financial markets melted (and some life events happened) and that Associates Degree and an additional quarter of a Bachelors has served me well. I got my first job in software through a Community College affiliated internship, hopped to a Startup, and after a lot of years in between I’m on here musing with the rest of the industry.

There are certainly “Extension” or non Trades “Certificate Only” programs but when looking at LinkedIn’s Alumni view they’ve minted a lot of Solar Techs, Electricians, and Building Engineers. I took Electronics courses as an elective with the PV guys and it was a lot of fun and seems rather profitable for that cohort.

Ergo, I’m genuinely curious to know if this has been derailed in some way at large. Do you have any links to news on this?

sonzohan5• 8 months ago

Investing in community college programs is one route since they are essentially a business.

A 501c3 nonprofit with pretty stringent requirements (accreditation, reporting, transparency), but yes a business nonetheless.

The main problem with the CCs is that they are very corrupt, have been issuing students worthless degrees.

Could you elaborate on what you mean by corrupt, and issuing students worthless degrees? Graduates from the program I direct at a community college are generally earning 120-160k in IT around 2 years after graduation.

The colleges' goal is reaching a "graduation quota," and not "employability."

Universities yes, community colleges I would not consider this an accurate statement. At my community college our CTE programs (job training) are explicitly evaluated on student salaries as well as how many are actually employed in the industry after graduation, usually within 18-36 months time. It's actually two of the few metrics that are considered "high value", as in 2x the other value of other metrics like graduation, enrollment, retention, revenue-per-student, etc.

t-writescode5• 8 months ago

I was actually referring to full universities. The university I went to was a feeding school for local defense contractors and major conglomerates. I am quite certain that the universities in Redmond are assisted by Boeing, Microsoft and Amazon, as well.

JumpCrisscross18• 8 months ago

pay for their education. Invest in local colleges to help guide curriculum in what you need

I get that we're still pretending EVs don't exist in America. But could the dearth of internal combustion mechanics be explained as an obselescence rent [1]?

[1] https://www.nber.org/papers/w31743

rawgabbit• 8 months ago

I find this hard to believe. How did they screen applicants?

Sevii• 8 months ago

Just amazing that people keep letting the Ford CEO get away with this fake $120k claim.

fooker5• 8 months ago

You could try to start a manufacturing business and see how it goes. It’s pretty dire.

Check out the ‘Smarter Everyday’ YouTube video for what it took to get people to design and manufacture a simple grill scrubber in the US.

They could find exactly one old retired guy with the knowledge and experience to make a mold, across several states.

You can get this done and delivered in 20 minutes in Shenzhen, and talk to an expert over a storefront countertop by walking over a few hundred feet from your business.

Tadpole9181• 8 months ago

Yes, there is a lack of people with tens of thousands to hundreds of thousands of dollars to start a mass manufacturing business of parts everyone can get in China for a tenth of the cost.

There is not a lack of mechanics who can assemble Fords on a factory line from pre-built components with instructions. FFS.

Yes, America has a serious problem. No, the Ford CEO is not actually pointing it out. He's fucking lying so he can justify using what amounts to slave labor in other countries while also touting "patriotism" branding while also refusing to do even the tiniest possible to alleviate the problem via training.

znpy• 8 months ago

They could find exactly one old retired guy with the knowledge and experience to make a mold, across several states.

Have you considered the issue being no company is willing to do on-the-job training ?

I hardly can believe that retired guy had everything figured out prior to starting his first day of work.

MBCook3• 8 months ago

Can you provide a link debunking it?

deadbolt• 8 months ago

indeed.com

general1465• 8 months ago

Ford mechanic explaining where is a problem.

https://www.motor1.com/news/774805/ford-ceo-complains-shorta...

pragmatic• 8 months ago

Yes, where is a link to a job page?

Just one. The description, the location and the salary.

Again just one link.

Anyone seen one? Can you post it here?

jmclnx2• 8 months ago

So Ford's CEO said this, I almost fell on the floor laughing.

We are not investing in educating a next generation

It is people like you who caused this with chasing short term profits and paying off US Congress people and presidents to cut your taxes.

Education needs to be paid for by someone. Tax cuts for the wealthy and paying minimum wage to most workers caused this, look in the mirror.

ungreased0675• 8 months ago

The US spends a huge amount of money on education though. The root cause can’t be a lack of resources due to insufficient tax revenue, there’s no evidence of that.

IAmBroom2• 8 months ago

"Huge", yet not enough to cover tuition. The price of higher education skyrocketed past "huge".

tonyhart7• 8 months ago

but US education system isnt paid by Tax dollar tho??? student loan is to fix this and therefore dont need taxpayer

jmclnx2• 8 months ago

I do not understand this statement.

Many US State Colleges were supported by tax dollars and in the 90s, tax cuts started happening and funding for public colleges declined and fees started being added.

When I went to College, it was extremely cheep, books cost more than my tuition and fees. The state where I was had huge discounts for residents and since the college was in the City I was born and grew up in, I got even more discounts.

Now, kids need to take out big loans for higher education.

I will not go into cuts to public schools, these days, if parents can afford it, they send their kids to private school. When I was in school, the public schools were great, but they started to go down hill not long after I graduated High School.

bsder2• 8 months ago

Except they don't actually pay $120K per year.

If the auto mechanics were paid a salary of $120K per year for 40 hours per week, they'd be flooded with applicants.

Instead, that $120K number is if you can work the requisite number of overtime hours and you don't pay attention to having to buy your own tools and ...

emchammer• 8 months ago

Do mechanics prefer to work with their own tools, or is this like a restaurant getting away with paying a tipped employee less than minimum wage because they can?

Spellman• 8 months ago

Generally the rule is you buy your own tools and then take them with you if you leave the shop.

Lots of mechanics prefer owning their own tools because the community shop tools will end up beat up and not cared for. Plus, another thing locking you down to the location. On the other hand that's yet another personal expense.

bsder2• 8 months ago

Do mechanics prefer to work with their own tools, or is this like a restaurant getting away with paying a tipped employee less than minimum wage because they can?

Part from Column A and part from Column B.

It's also part of the accounting gimmicks to keep mechanics as "contractors" rather than "employees".

Which is why all the whining rings hollow.

kayodelycaon2• 8 months ago

I saw the management my parents and grandparents had to deal with. I saw the hours they worked. I saw how little they were appreciated. I saw how companies screwed over people who had worked for decades.

They haven’t changed one bit.

They’re lying about how much they’re paying people. That’s a maximum you can earn working 70 hours per week, not the base.

I am completely unsurprised they can’t find anybody to work for them.

greekrich92• 8 months ago

Invest in candidates who will be ruthless about funding education and increasing the top marginal tax rate. What's that? I'm hearing this guy doesn't want to pay taxes?

AngryData• 8 months ago

Go ahead and look up the pay for mechanics in Michigan, he is spewing pure bullshit. Most mechanics here have never in their life made $100k in a year, even with considerable overtime.

paulpauper4• 8 months ago

absurd pay claims usually mean after taking into account maximum possible overtime hours

ktallett7• 8 months ago

Ford spending $4 million to fund scholarships is going to make as much change to the system as me giving a homeless person a quarter. Considering how expensive college is, what exactly will that fund.

kayodelycaon2• 8 months ago

Maybe 200 people, if you’re optimistic.

Ancapistani2• 8 months ago

At that scale, it starts to become reasonable to consider using the money to fund private job training programs instead.

Esophagus44• 8 months ago

I encourage you to Google it rather than speculate, as this information is readily available.

This year's program… is offering $5,000 scholarships to 800 potential automotive technicians from across the country. This year, the program is available across 42 states and for students attending nearly 600 schools. In addition to tuition assistance, scholarship funds can be used to cover day-to-day related expenses like living and transportation, childcare, and tools needed for class and more.

Whether you believe all of that scholarship money will actually be given out is another question.

https://www.fromtheroad.ford.com/us/en/articles/2025/ford-ph...

tclancy2• 8 months ago

Not sure why this is downvoted. It doesn’t even qualify as a rounding error. There are individuals that spend more than this sending other peoples kids to college.

ktallett7• 8 months ago

People on here surprise me sometimes with what they down vote. $4 million dollars is 0.00002162% of the total revenue Ford US had in 2024. When you put that little value on future employees and skills, it is clear why you have such a struggle finding competent staff.

somanyphotons• 8 months ago

$company can't find high skilled people willing to work for low wages

ktallett7• 8 months ago

This is basically the TLDR of so many companies situations.

RegW• 8 months ago

Is this some obscure hint that there will be well paid skilled jobs to replace those taken away by AI?

I'm sure I've previously heard it implied that all the grooms who lost their jobs to motor cars became mechanics and chauffeurs. Surely this would be just too poetic.

theoldgreybeard• 8 months ago

Invest in upskilling then.

bgwalter• 8 months ago

The first comment on the website says that $120K is a lie.

Then of course, why would you specialize in the F150 if they add new electronic BS every 2 years, the car will perhaps be obsolete in 7 years or all tariffs on BYD are lifted in 8 years.

Maybe keep cars general and don't make them proprietary, then people will learn general skills.

1v1id• 8 months ago

I'm no expert, but from a quick Google search that looks to be twice the median income for a mechanic. If they can't find workers at that income level, it seems to me that they are either filtering based on another criteria (more than just trade school, as the article suggests) or Ford must be such an awful place to work that nobody applies.

MillironX• 8 months ago

Bureau of Labor Statistics says that the mean annual wage of "Automotive Technicians and Repairers (SOC code 49-3020)" is $55,780 as of May 2025, so yeah, something doesn't add up.

Balgair2• 8 months ago

It's very state dependent.

For example, by law in California, auto mechanics make double minimum wage if they don't own their tools (so they can go buy some). That works out to about $68k/yr these days.

$120k/yr is not suuuuuper crazy in some areas for some auto work (think restoration). But generally, yes, Ford is not adding up here

casey22• 8 months ago

20% of highschool graduates know calculus but we can't get our shit together to hire any of them. We really need H-1Bs to work on oversized RC cars the skills are just too difficult for home grown plants.

SonOfKyuss5• 8 months ago

Up until about 2 years ago, the kids taking calculus were all becoming SW engineers for 3x the pay. With the way the job market for entry-level engineers is trending lately, maybe now there will be some left over for Ford to hire.

tclancy2• 8 months ago

As an old, I feel for the author. Her bio suggests she is or was sympathetic to the working class, but she done got old and moved to Silicon Valley so I wonder.

“The Ford CEO's grandfather was one of the company's early employees, hired to work on the Model T.”

Yeah, and one of my grandfathers was a cop and the other a foreman on a jewelry shop floor. Both of which have as much to do with my coding career as the square root of sweet Fanny Adams. My dad put himself through college by working in a garage. I will admit the math in the 50s or so was more rigorous than what I had in the 80s, but the idea anyone interested in working on cars can’t be taught from almost scratch seems like a strong take. Whether you paid attention in pre-algebra or not is going to have little to do with your ability to balance four tires as a system or clean a carb or set engine timing via a computer.

pbnjeh• 8 months ago

Mechanics are a "cost center". Modern "Management" does not like paying for "cost centers".

The rest is atmospherics.

(The US has, in general, taken a similar attitude towards public education, while simultaneously making it responsible for "everything" regarding children's upbringing. Compounding the problem.)

JumpCrisscross18• 8 months ago

Modern "Management" does not like paying for "cost centers"

Nobody likes paying for cost centers.

tarsinge2• 8 months ago

I think what the parent is critical about is the "cost center" labeling, because yes once it’s wrongly labeled like this nobody wants to pay for it.

asciimov• 8 months ago

Ford needs to step up, if it can’t find mechanics.

Pay is too low for entry level people, at maybe $14 an hour. That’s before the Snap-on Truck comes by and saddles that tech with $40k of debt.

Give entry level workers a living wage, and give them tools to use (and keep after investing 3 years in the business). Have an actual pipeline for certification and training and remove the gate keeping of many dealers that prevent good techs from becoming better mechanics. Do better at engineering vehicles so they are easier to work on.

As this CEO knows, doing the right thing is harder than complaining.

sonzohan5• 8 months ago

Community College professor here, in the midst of leaving my community college for a full university.

Let me dissect this article with uncompromising scrutiny:

"...have over a million openings in critical jobs, emergency services, trucking, factory workers, plumbers, electricians and tradesmen.”

Maybe because for 30 years America sold the idea that you need a bachelors degree to do the majority of these jobs, while simultaneously implying that you only needed 2 years of vocational school? A lot of these require extensive apprenticeships and experience (576 classroom hours, 8,000 experience hours, passing exams for a journeyman electrician license in Oregon). It's absolutely not "Go to school for 2 years and get paid $120k."

Furthermore, most of the trades are brutal on your body, mind, and lifestyle.

"we don't have trade schools anymore"

We do, and we do our best to train students on only the absolute necessary skills that get them the job and working as quickly as possible. Corporations stopped meaningfully supporting them while simultaneously raising expectations. Major companies stopped most training and orientation programs or significantly scaled them back, passed the burden of training onto community colleges and trade schools, and now complain that our tools and techniques are out of date.

Ford does at my college this while keeping their name slapped on the auto mechanic's program because they helped start the program 20 years ago. Now they're upset because they're not getting the same returns while my fellow instructors struggle to teach on supplies that are 2 decades old.

"What we don't have are enough young people with the literacy and math proficiency needed to learn skilled trades."

A lot of the K-12 complaint is the No Child Left Behind act and the effects of Common Core. Lots of throwing up of hands here saying "Well guess there's nothing we can do. We have all these high paying jobs that no one wants"

Wanna fix this? Eliminate No Child Left Behind. Actually invest in teachers, tutors, and the people making the impact. Stop calling teachers 'heroes', and give us the resources to actually instruct kids. Stop assuming a household with 2-3 kids, 2 parents that work full time (overtime in today's America), are barely making ends meet, and have no extended family to help kids with homework or tutor, are going to somehow do extremely well.

In fact, we have loads of papers that demonstrate that math scores and grades are pretty tightly correlated with parents'/family ability and availability to help kids with homework. Maybe have parents work less so they can tutor their kids more?

"Workers who struggle to read grade-level text cannot read complicated technical manuals or diagnostic instructions."

They don't have trouble reading grade-level text. This is a complete misunderstanding of what those tests evaluate. More importantly: If they're struggling to read those complicated manuals or diagnostic instructions, maybe it's because most manufacturers eliminated a lot of the repairability of cars in the past few decades and scaled back their service manuals? Maybe invest in technical writing again?

They were passed on with inflated grades

Because you stopped hiring anyone with less than a 3.0-4.0. If a teacher's job is to get a student a job in the trades, you won't hire them because their GPA is poor, and we get fired if too many students fail, guess what we (instructors) are going to do?

"If they can’t handle middle-school math they can’t program high-tech machines or robotics, or operate the automated equipment found in modern factories and repair shops."

Also not correct, and a gross misinterpretation of what the national exams show. Most students can do most math with a calculator just fine, mental math not so much, but it's rare to be in a shop without some kind of computer or calculator nowadays. If you want people who have completed a 2 year trade program to be able to competently do calculus, robotics, PLCs, and program, you need to admit that the job requires far beyond 'middle-school math'.

""Servicing an electric vehicle requires interpreting data flows, troubleshooting electronics, and following precise, multistep instructions." It's not a job for "grease monkeys."

Here is the crux of the problem. All of these are needs that are way beyond a standard mechanical technician's toolkit. You need them to dual train as electrical engineers and mechanical engineers with notable expertise in 12/24v and rather high voltages for EVs. You don't want 'average technicians' for 120k, you want dual-degree mechanical and electrical engineers to work for you for less than their going market rate. If your toolchain requires more than an understanding of ODB2 (or 1-2 device) readings and a solid understanding of vehicular operations and what commonly breaks, then you've spent too much time making your products unrepairable and obtuse.

JumpCrisscross18• 8 months ago

Maybe because for 30 years America sold the idea that you need a bachelors degree to do the majority of these jobs

Sorry, who thought they needed a bachelor's degree to be a trucker, plumber or electrician?

sonzohan5• 8 months ago

A trucker (CDL) is the only one without extremely high apprenticeship requirements.

From there, who thought that you'd need a bachelors to be a barista and pour coffee? It's not just about the raw requirements, but about the competition you face in the job market.

Finally, more and more field service technician and electrician, HVAC, roles that are traditionally GED/2-years only, have extremely high experience requirements, and most are preferring people pursuing or with a bachelors in electrical engineering (electrician, HVAC), mechanical/fluid engineering (plumbing), or similar. Earlier this year I was in a remote-ish location (about 100 miles from a major city) and we had an electrical fault that legally required a licensed electrician to repair. We had multiple electrical engineers offer to help who clearly knew the problem and how to fix it according to code, but we couldn't let them touch it because they didn't have their J or better.

If you want to risk no degree and go for your 8,000 hours to get licensed (roughly 4 years experience for no/mediocre pay), go for it.

paulnpace• 8 months ago

It took less than two years for the Navy to train me to work on nuclear power plants.

drweevil• 8 months ago

Farley complained that "we don't have trade schools anymore," reports Avi Zilber in the New York Post.

Who, exactly, is this "we"? Capitalists talk up The Market, but are unwilling to pay market-driven wages and salaries, and expect others, usually the government, to foot the bill for training their skilled workers.

It would also help if Ford and other vehicle manufacturers put some thought into incorporating maintainability into their designs. Their newest offerings are a hot mess in this respect.

650• 8 months ago

Some of the students at UCSD can't do grade level math:

Example: https://www.reddit.com/media?url=https%3A%2F%2Fpreview.redd....

https://senate.ucsd.edu/media/740347/sawg-report-on-admissio...

tennisflyi• 8 months ago

This is ATS screening out perfectly good candidates

ChrisArchitect• 8 months ago

Previously:

Ford CEO says he has 5k open mechanic jobs with 6-figure salaries

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45920570

mgarfias2• 8 months ago

This makes no sense. FoMoCo doesn’t hire mechanics to work on customer cars, franchise dealerships do.

And no mechanic I’ve ever met makes 120k.

mgarfias2• 8 months ago

Also, most of the car people I know could easily debug software, they’re used to debugging fairly complex systems already. They just don’t know it.

It’s the same basic way of thinking.

addaon• 8 months ago

And no mechanic I’ve ever met makes 120k.

Plenty of A&Ps up there. Often doing more than 40 hours a week, but there's no shortage of work.

duxup• 8 months ago

I don't doubt there's fewer people in the trades, but I also don't see them making 120k generally and these claims seem questionable at best outside some very specific situations.

I worked at a company that actually paid well for a tech support team of about (roughly) 20 - 40 people at any given time covering a 24/7 schedule 365 days a year.

Over the course of TWENTY years the core group all stayed together. It was no mystery how, good training (that we did ourselves), good pay to start, good benefits, flexible / respectful management. It wasn't even 6 figures, but they were good jobs that made it hard for most everyone to leave, in a good way.

But all good things come to an end, tech support, I suspect like all "maintenance" roles they are eventually are seen as a cost and quality management starts to fade ... and everything falls apart. Management will bemoan not being able to find good people, while doing nothing to help make them good or treat them well.

I wonder how many leaders understand that it is their job to MAKE A GOOD TEAM and that it is their job to keep it that way, as opposed to expect people to just show up and do it for them?

nathanaldensr• 8 months ago

Your last paragraph reminds me of modern dating and relationship-building: people demanding everything from everyone else but nothing of themselves. Wanting it all and giving nothing. I guess we can chalk this up to living in a failed world.

kirubakaran• 8 months ago

Sure, some do that, not everyone. So I wouldn't call it a "failed world". I agree with your general point though.

ChoGGi• 8 months ago

"Servicing an electric vehicle requires interpreting data flows, troubleshooting electronics, and following precise, multistep instructions." It's not a job for "grease monkeys."

Ah yes, insults. The Best hiring method.

clearleaf• 8 months ago

A lot of these HR departments are in serious need of an investigation. If they've really determined for themselves that nobody is good enough for this job I guarantee there is some kind of discrimination or fraud going on.

Ford can't find mechanics for $120K: It takes math to learn a trade

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