Young People Don’t Suck & Neither Do Old People…

MY 19-YEAR-OLD daughter, Carly, is back home for summer break from her first year at college. She (and her mother and I) are enjoying her full (free), four-year academic ride to the University of Florida! So, she’s this super-smart kid who has always busted her ass to be the best she could be. And last night, I asked her what I should write about in this month’s column.

She expeditiously went into a riff about the state of the workforce these days, and how a company needs to seek out both young and old employees. I dug deeper and her response was spot-on to a conversation Rick and I’d had the day before.

We all know the labor force has drastically changed these last few years. Previously, multiple individuals would apply for the same position; now it’s hard to even get one person to answer your ad. Weeks go by and no one answers your call for help.

These are strange times, my friends… Every company out there is doing everything they can to keep their star employees. And in reciprocity, those employees are not readily looking to jump ship from a company that is doing their best to keep them happy.

Conversely, there are layers and layers of what I call “stragglers” — people with some industry experience. Guys that can lay down vinyl, design, weld, drive a bucket truck, etc. But they’re stragglers because they are lacking something. They skip from job to job, always looking for the next company that’s gonna pay them a dollar an hour more, never willing to stick with a company and grow with them.

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And this is what Carly was getting at. I don’t wanna be that curmudgeon who complains about “this generation,” lol, but we old-timers generally find something sorely amiss these days, and I think it’s a personality trait. I think it is character.

You see, what Carly was saying is that all of us who have given our lives to this industry are soon going to be phasing out. It’s almost our time to stretch out on a hammock in the Bahamas and call this work portion of our lives over.

But who is gonna do it once we’re done? If you truly love this business, you care about things like this. Even more important, you care that some 19-year-old kid is eventually going to make a beautiful life for themself from this business. Just like you did.

So here are the meat and potatoes: Carly says we have to hold on to our older guys who have been here for decades, while simultaneously reaching out and training an entire new generation of sign dawgs. The old guys have to be willing to freely pass on their knowledge of “how things get done” to these young whippersnappers who have no clue.

But… there’s a caveat. Those old guys have to have character. And the new folks also absolutely have to have character. And if they do, they’ll have the world by the tail, and they will be our legacy.

At Media 1, we have completely changed how we interview and hire new people. We don’t care if they have no sign experience. We hire for character. Period.

If they are a hard worker, if they have integrity, if they have passion, if they have drive to do more than they are currently doing (if they have a driver’s license)… then we damn sure can teach them how to make signs.

This is the future! Look for character over experience, and you’ll win every time.

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