By Andrew P. McCoy and Fred Sargent
Published On February 15, 2022
Despite the many ways the soft and hard skills that service electricians must possess are so critical to the success of a service-delivery organization, sometimes electrical contractors do precious little to screen candidates for the kinds of prerequisites needed for success as a service and maintenance electrician.
One evening, as we were seated in a comfy booth enjoying the luxury of being guests in an expensive restaurant, our after-dinner conversation drifted into “talking shop” about the perennial challenges of finding capable service and maintenance electricians. As we opened the fancy cover of the dessert menu, we speculated on the notion that there might be some transferable knowledge we could gain from the way upscale eateries go about the process of recruiting, screening, selecting and hiring a new pastry chef.
We knew that great service and maintenance electricians are always hard to find. We were confident that the same degree of difficulty applied to hiring a pastry chef.
Since our hosts were business associates and long-time personal friends, we took liberties with their hospitality and asked the waiter if the pastry chef could visit our table.