The State of Tennessee has a Radio Communications Tech 3 position open with the Dpt. of Forestry. As we look for qualified canidates, we’re finding that it is extremely difficult to find people with the needed skills! The repair, instillation, and maintenance of UF radios, repeater sites, and frequency modulation seems to be a dying art! Can anyone give us any advice on where and how to reach these talented individuals, or would be interested in the position itself? You can check out the posting on the tn.gov website. Any help would be appreciated!
I would be interested if it did not involve climbing.
The average age of a two way radio tech is 59 years old and climbing.
The problem is that the cell tower industry has harvested most of the good people and no one trains someone to do this line of work - other then the cell tower industry. A college degree only teaches someone how to design circuits, not actually work on anything or do anything.
The two way radio industry as a whole has been so self involved for such a long time that no one is willing to train anyone to do this line of work - else they can go off on their own and start their own business and take business away from you. Relocation for a job that doesn’t pay much is also another incentive not to take the position - which means most people you will attract will be local. Since no one wants to climb, and most jobs involves climbing in all types of weather - not many people will be attracted to this entry level position that has any sort of education. Does this make sense to you? The company / or government entity only wants to hire the guy to do the work that their already established people refuses to do - hence you end up being cheap labor. It is an opportunity for the right person to get in on the ground floor. Just that everything has gone to cellular communications and kids today are not interested in two way radio communications… They all want to sit in front of the computer and get paid, but no one wants to do the actual physical labor and the people hiring these people do not want to pay them anything more then the minimum.
Its a catch 22 - like the chicken and the egg.
The cell tower industry does not teach anything except how to climb safely and how to build towers and attach hardware. You don’t have to know anything about how it actually works!
The kicker is the criminal background check and criminal history - most tower techs tend to be dopers or have DUI’s.
Thank you for your reply, and some of the concerns you have mentioned have been echoed by a few of the people we have talked to. The position we have posted does NOT require tower work, and we are working toward making the salary negotiable, in which we hope to be competative within the industry. We believe the stability, benefits, and great work enviroment would go a long way to making up any deficiencies in any other area.
Please feel free to check out the posting at tn.gov and apply! There are Radio Tech positions with various agencies that have sat empty for a long time because qualified applicants are so hard to find. If we can fill one position, there will be more to come!