S/P2 Careers Connects Students to Auto Jobs

Feb. 1, 2019
In efforts to attack the technician shortage that’s on the rise, S/P2 Careers formed a connection between students creating resumes for the automotive industry and businesses looking to hire.

It’s not a matter of when technicians are going to enter the automotive industry—it’s how they’re able to do so. According to the Ratchet+Wrench 2018 Industry Survey, 53.8 percent of readers listed the technician shortage as the single biggest challenge in the automotive industry today.

In efforts to attack and dismantle the technician shortage that’s on the rise, S/P2 Careers, a resume building hub, has formed a connection between students creating resumes for the automotive industry and businesses looking to hire.

Recently, S/P2 Careers announced a staggering 50,000 student resumes were uploaded to its database in 2018—which is double the amount of resumes on the site in 2017, according to S/P2 Careers president, Kyle Holt.

“It’s been really unbelievable,” Holt says.

Roughly two years ago, the company launched a course called “Land that Job: Building a Resume,” for the career tech schools with which S/P2 worked. Holt says the program took a bite right out of the technician shortage by assisting students with their resumes, as well as working to connect both shops and future technicians together.

“Every industry event we went to—it didn’t matter if it was automotive service, collision repair, diesel, it did not matter—every single industry event, the No. 1 thing that everybody was talking about was the technician shortage,” Holt says. “It was always a problem and there wasn’t a clear-cut solution.”

While the 50,000 account for resumes that have followed an approval process—undergoing edits and revisions—the 25,000 resume increase from last year shows positivity in an industry that continues to struggle against bringing new work in.

“Our focus is on trying to help that next generation of technicians and the current generation of technicians really be more well-rounded so they’re better prepared for their career,” Holt says. “Whether it’s an internship, part-time, full-time work, we’re trying to give this next generation of technicians opportunities that we just have not done a good job of in the past; we’ve got to get them into the right first employer, get them involved in the industry while they’re still in school, and keep them in the industry long term.”

Crafting a Candidate

Writing a professional resume is a skill that often requires an additional set of eyes the first time, S/P2 Careers has learned. According to Holt, a total of 78,000 students who are interested in joining the automotive industry have created resumes on the site.

“We have candidates in all 50 states,” Holt says. “There’s some states that have far fewer states than others; for example, Texas is the state that has the most candidates in our system.”

However, out of the 78,000 resumes, only 59,000 were placed on S/P2 Careers, Holt says.

“We have a team that reviews every resume and determines [if] that resume is incomplete, incorrect, or inappropriate,” Holt says. “If it is, then we hold it.”

Resumes are often held as it’s likely the student’s first resume created for the workforce. Students are then able to correct their resume which is later put up on the site for employers to sort through.

“We’ve actually seen about a 20 percent increase in the number of resumes created, but one of the things that we’ve done is we got a little tighter this year on our review process and what we are willing to allow to be posted and visible to businesses,” Holt says.

Students can choose whether or not they want to post their resume on S/P2 Careers once it’s approved by team members.

Building a Connection

After a resume is approved and completed, S/P2 Careers has found that students often hesitate to reach out to those in the industry. Holt identifies a gap that the program has tried to address by opening communication lines for both the student and potential employers.

“What we’re finding is many of the students are not necessarily proactive in reaching out to industry because that’s not a skillset that they’ve been taught along the way, and many of them are waiting for their instructors to tell them where they should go, or have industry come to them,” Holt says. “It’s just not a skillset that they’ve learned yet.”

A little more than 700 businesses have access to approved student resumes, Holt says, which includes larger organizations and single-owner shops.

“They can see the entire resume except for contact information and student’s last name,” Holt says. “We want to make sure we protect the students privacy, while giving them every opportunity to find [career opportunities],” Holt says.

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