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Sheri Kuretich, human resources manager, and Nancy Viter, VP of operations, of Sunstone Circuits speak with Nolan Johnson about what they see from the perspective of a prototyping shop, the current state of the hiring market, and how they have used ISO 9000 as an information repository to pass technical knowledge from experienced employees to newer ones.
Nolan Johnson: What I wanted to talk to you both about is the passing of the guard, bringing in new people, recruiting your staff, etc. What are the current major trends?
Sheri Kuretich: The biggest change over the past five years is how we hire. We used to have a lot of walk-ins. People would drop off their applications often enough that we had a full folder, but now, we’re lucky if we get two or three walk-ins each month. Today, the internet allows for online recruitment opportunities, and we receive a lot of responses that way from diverse candidates. We’re currently hiring for a position where we’re talking to people in completely different areas, but they have relevant experience to the circuit board industry, so it’s pretty exciting when those individuals become a part of our selection pool. There aren’t many circuit board shops left in the Pacific Northwest, so it’s not that often that we have an applicant with direct circuit board experience unless we’re open to looking into people in other geographical areas.
Johnson: Sunstone is located in Mulino, Oregon, outside of a metro area. Were walk-ins primarily local people?
Kuretich: Yes, or people that were in the industry in Portland, Beaverton, or further south and knew of us because they were in this industry at some point, but that doesn’t happen very often anymore.
Nancy Viter: A lot of it is by word of mouth.
Johnson: So, there’s a shift in how the local community interacts, and that also seems to line up with a need for more specific skills.
To read this entire interview, which appeared in the November 2019 issue of PCB007 Magazine, click here.
