The myths of STEM worker supply shortage.

The following is observations, experiences and actual events that have occurred in the pursuit of STEM employment in the U.S.A. I am sure their are many skilled technical people who can easily add to the unnecessary obstacles I am about to mention...

We have seen and heard in business, trade, and news publications of a (so called) shortage of technically skilled workers here in the U.S.A. I am not aware of the actual source of this information and I do not intend to spend numerous hours to find out. I have spent numerous hours of my free time trying to place RF / Microwave Engineers into advertised Corporate positions as a RF Career consultant working in the interest of the potential candidate and instead not in the interest of the corporate entities that others under the title of “employment recruiter” or “talent acquisition” personnel ( ….really ? What a high priced title for such a process of simply hiring a candidate) have done. The incidents that will be mentioned here are true, recorded (via hidden recording devices placed with the potential candidates during the interview process at the facility) and actual nasty and rude dialog (via email messages) during the inquiry of the advertised employment position to be filled. These positions were advertised on websites such asMonster, Indeed, Sologig, Recruiter, Linkedin, Linkup, American Job Bank and CareerBuilder dot com. RF / Microwave Engineering is a subset of Electrical Engineering and I (the author of this document) have acquired enough knowledge through my Dad and his colleagues to step up and place RF Engineers and Technicians in properly advertised positions. This has become my specialty as I try to fulfill my obligation of running the family business with my Dad during business hours and have another potential career placing RF technical individuals into advertised positions to be filled. I am not giving away my trade secrets nor am I writing to seek validation. The purpose of this document is to allow others under the same circumstances to be aware that these incidents are occurring to others as they are occurring to you and that new reform and updated hiring practices may need to be implemented to offer candidates and corporations the chance to meet each other and possibly fill that long advertised position with the next talent that escaped earlier because of silly, stupid, uneducated, immature, decision making.

Incident Number One:

Candidate responds to RF Technician position at design center with huge corporate entity in Charlotte, NC. Phone screening process occurs before the interview at the facility. Phone screen dialog is in reference to the previous work experience of the potential candidate and the date is set for an interview at the facility. Interview at facility involves discussing RF measuring techniques, impedance matching, past experiences and soldering skill test. All of the “workers” at this facility have had their opportunity to ask questions to the potential candidate. The very last worker who was an RF Engineer sits in front of the potential candidate who has been at the facility now for four hours and asked “Are you interested in working here?” The potential candidate positively responds with a yes. “Are you willing to work as a contractor?” asked the RF Engineer. The potential candidate says yes but with less enthusiasm than before. “Are you willing to clean the bathrooms, make a lunch list and get lunch for all of us everyday?” asked the RF Engineer. Now the potential candidate has no enthusiasm and is annoyed with the butler task that has been added on to his description of an RF Technician. “Who is handling these task now?” asked the potential candidate. The RF Engineer replies that no one has been giving the task just mentioned. The potential candidate removes himself from his seat, gathers his interview documents and replies to the RF Engineer that he has the wrong guy. You are looking for a butler with an RF background and walks un-escortedout the door. This is a true incident which occurred approximately a year and a half ago as of this writing. To this very day as I write this, the RF Technician position is still advertised on Monster.com.

Incident Number Two:

Candidate responds to a Senior RF Engineering Technician position in Orlando Florida. Phone conversation only consist of when can you (the potential candidate) arrive at the facility for an interview as asked by personnel who states that she is an assistant to the Principal RF Engineer at the Design Center facility in Orlando Florida. Date is set and confirmed with second phone call and email message. Another email from the facility is from another individual who warmly welcomes the potential candidate and states that he is looking forward to working with the potential candidate. No title or rank in the hierarchy is stated and/or implied with this warm message. The potential candidate scratches his head as he ponders the thought of such a nice message via email with an implication that an acceptance of employment has taken place before the interview even occurred. The potential candidate has just completed a three year stint in North Carolina and has just removed himself from his apartment and has placed his possessions at a storage facility in North Carolina freeing himself for any potential employment opportunities that may come his way. The date and time is set for the interview in Orlando. Added to the email message was a list of all the names of the personnel at the facility that will meet the potential candidate during the interview process. The interview process was a great success. The potential candidate was able to express his technical knowledge and was given the opportunity to sell himself to highly well educated individuals with decision making authority at the design center facility. Some of the personnel at the facility kept in contact with the potential candidate via email congratulating him on a successful interview and stating that the job is basically his if he wants it. It was obvious to the potential candidate that the people at the facility had taken a liking to the candidate. Nice messages via email of well wishes and

congratulations continued well after the date of the candidates interview. They all stated that they were waiting for the candidates arrival so that they can get down to business. The potential candidate was scratching his head wondering how this all can happen with no formal written or verbal agreement of the description of the position, salary, employee status, and not even a signed acceptance of employment. The candidate request to all of the well wishers via email that no formal acceptance of employment fromeither side has taken place and to please submit formal documents either via email or Postal mail as to the conditions of this future employment at the design facility. The candidates request appears to fall on deaf ears and the only reply from the well wishers (who continued to send e-mail of congratulations) was that they did not have the authority and an assumption was made that an employment package has been sent to the candidates postal mailing address (stated on the application) and should be arriving within a day or two. Correspondence continues via email with even the offer of assistance to obtain an apartment in the area. The candidate is happy with his future colleagues, future employment and an opportunity to work with such educated, well mannered people. A month has passed since the interview at the design facility. Correspondence via email continues from the well wishers and the candidate states after each email as to the whereabouts of this employment package that should have arrived via postal mail weeks ago. The candidate now request the email address of the individuals that do have the authority to take action swiftly and bring to a conclusion the status of the candidate from candidate status to employee status. The candidate is told via email that the powers-to-be were not to be disturbed and that action to bring the candidate to the facility has taken place. It is now two days before the two month anniversary of the employment interview at the facility. The candidate calls me (the author of this document) and states that he needs a job and has been without income for over two months. I remedy the situation swiftly with a business that expressed interest in this candidate. A few phone calls are made and I tell the candidate that a job is waiting for him Monday in New Hampshire. Meet with SO&SO at this location Monday morning and immediately start your employment. I (the author of this document) tries to get into contact with the powers-to-be at the Florida facility via email and telephone. I told them that your candidate has been waiting for two months to begin employment at your facility and is waiting no more for he has accepted an offer of employment elsewhere. After I (the author of this document) sent this information via email and left messages in their voice-mail-box as to what took place, a flood of telephone calls and emails flooded my office like a typhoon. I read the emails and retrieved the messages from my voice-mail-box from my phone system only to hear and read vague statements about the status of the candidate they interviewed. As of this writing, six months has past since this incident and still no defined, formal, clarification, or reasoning from the facility in Florida as to why they behaved in such a non-professional manner. I expressed my dissatisfaction towards the outcome of this situation via email and by leaving messages in their voice-mail-box and to this day I have not received a response from this business. As of this writing, this same business and design facility center in Orlando Florida has placed the very same ad inMonster.com for an RF Engineering Technician which would have been filled if they did not drag their feet, stringing along an accepted candidate for two months.

Incident Number Three:

I (the author of this document) setup this interview for a candidate that is seeking an RF Microwave Engineering position at a big corporate facility in Columbia Maryland with a business name that rhymes with the word “ BUNNY-HELL”. I (the author of this document) gathered specific details of where, when, and to whom the candidate will be speaking to. The candidate has a PhD degreein RF. Designs, innovates, research and development, two patents, IEEE member, co-author of two RF Microwave books and is wellrespected in the RF Microwave community. It is my great pleasure to offer such employment help to such a talented individual. Everything involved with setting up this interview and the details to make this happen have been discussed via-email with the personthat will be doing the interview at the “BUNNY-HELL” facility and is well documented with no ambiguous statements detected throughout our correspondence. I carbon-copy all of the email messages to the candidate and follow through with a phone call to the candidate asking if everything is clear to him and if he had any questions or statements to make pertaining to this scheduled employment interview. All is well on both sides of this equation. The candidate arrives at the “BUNNY-HELL” facility on time and at the date mentioned two times during the email correspondence. The candidate cannot gain access to the inside of the facility due to security reasons. He knocks on the glass door entrance to attract attention. Five minutes later a middle-aged woman appears responding to the knocks on the glass door. The candidate introduces himself, explains his purpose of him being on the premises and specifically ask for the gentleman (for the purpose of this document, let's call him Mr. XYZ) that he will be having the interview with. The lady partially holding the door open explains to the potential candidate that no one has been told that any visitor was to be expected because their was nothing on the schedule mentioning that their was to be any meeting of any kind with anyone on this day.This is a secure facility and without an appointment we must ask you to leave. The candidate reaches for his I-phone to show the email message that states that an interview is to take place on this very day and at this time. The lady states that Mr. XYZ is on a scheduled vacation and will not return until two weeks later. During this dialog, a passerby in the hallway of the facility heard the candidate mention Mr. XYZ and approaches the glass door entrance. This “second” person has been told that an interview was to occur and that a candidate was to appear but had no specifics as to when and where. The candidate was invited in and asked to sign the visitor log book while an investigation as to the mix up and what is to occur ensued. Forty five minutes later while standing waiting for an outcome, the candidate has been informed that there is no official word or document of a scheduled meeting with the

candidate and Mr. XYZ. The candidate is told that they will collect whatever information gathered about the candidate, gather up a few engineers and proceed with the employment interview after all. The candidate sits across three engineers with white shirts and pocket protectors filled with pens, pencils and a steel machinist ruler. Two appear to be gray middle-aged men and the other appears to be gray and quite old. His back is hunched, his ears are filled with what appears to be well outdated hearing aids and his writing hand shakes vigorously during the interview. The technical questions asked to the candidate were of a basic nature and actually quitean insult to a man with a PhD degree. The interview was more of a monologue about the three engineers experiences, the bickering amongst themselves about the facts they were stating to each other. The potential candidate felt the engineers (who are already employed at the facility) were interviewing each other than interviewing the candidate. No application and/or personal information has been collected from the candidate during his time at the facility. As of this writing, “BUNNY-HELL” has not returned my emailsand phone calls. No correspondence from Mr. XYZ and as of this writing you can see the advertised RF / Microwave Engineer position posted on Monster.com.

The three incidents are true and have occurred based on candidates statements, emails, witnesses, recorded interviews and recorded telephone conversations. I am sure many job seekers can add to this document about their experiences too. Donald Trump stated during a debate to the public (and I paraphrase) that their is very very very stupid people in position of authority that are making very very very stupid decisions that others pay the price for when that decision is a failure. My next document will be about very very very stupid and immature employment recruiters and talent acquisition personnel that make decisions that cost the candidate an employment opportunity and cost the corporation the possibility of a talented future contributor to the corporation while they continue sitting at their desk, on the payroll posting pictures of purple squirrels as their profile picture on a professional website called linkedin. Another idiot (who I have personally named and address him directly as diaper boy) at a professional recruitment firm in New Hampshire who brags about how much money he makes off the back of professionals by placing them into dead end contract jobs with no security, advancement, benefits, or future. Diaper boy stated those very words to me via an email correspondence with me. It is quite scary to leave the future of your career that you have paid for to be educated, spent many hours developing and honing your skills on, to a pimple faced diaper boy with the only prior experience as stated on his linkedin resume is that he was a management trainee at ENTERPRISE RENT-A-CAR! More about all of this in my next document. Thank you and be and stay well.

Jennifer Kane RF Career Consultant http://www.linkedin/in/kanejennifer13201