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24 The PCB Magazine • May 2017 by Patty Goldman I-CONNECT007 I spoke with Prototron Circuits President Dave Ryder at IPC APEX EXPO, and he ex- plained one practice that Prototron has been us- ing in their hiring practices of late: temp agen- cies. Dave explains how and why it works for Prototron, and has some ideas about the bigger picture of hiring and jobs in the U.S. market. Patty Goldman: Dave, we're covering the topic of hiring and training for an upcoming "Help Want- ed" issue of our magazine. In that regard, what's happening at Prototron? Dave Ryder: With regard to finding help and hiring and that sort of thing, we used to have people come in and fill out applications. That was a regular course of business. We'd have peo- ple would come in daily. We haven't had that happen in several years, now. People don't use the conventional methods for looking for jobs anymore. One of the things that we found that works for us is going through temp agencies and telling them exactly what we're looking for. They're more like placement agencies now, but they'll do both. Goldman: But you get to trial somebody. Ryder: That's exactly right. If you decide you don't like them or it didn't work out, you make one phone call and the next day you get some- one else that fits your criteria. Particularly in our Tucson facility, that has worked pretty well. The Redmond area is a lot more competitive than the Arizona market in that regard. We're com- peting with all the big companies, the flashy places that have big, sexy products and that sort of thing. It's tough to compete, especially when rents for apartments are $3,000–3,500 a month. You've got to make some serious money to make sure you can afford that lifestyle. Goldman: You can't always offer that or you're not looking for somebody at that kind of level, I'd imagine. Ryder: Of course, we have offshore pressure. Customers are always asking, "Can't you cut the price?" It makes it quite challenging. We have FEATURE INTERVIEW