Utah Jobs
Tuesday March 6, 2007
Everyone once in a while I get to travel and find out about jobs in different parts of the country. This time, I'm tagging along with my husband, About.com's Skiing Guide, as he visits Utah's ski resorts.
I spent some time this morning conversing with the owner of a small retail shop. He was complaining that his assistant hadn't shown up for work this morning. I asked him if that was grounds for getting fired. He told me no, it wasn't, it's hard to find good employees in this area (Park City) and he typically hired whomever would work for him. I'm not sure whether employees being hard to find is indicative of the general Utah service / hospitality job market, but I did see "help wanted" signs in most store windows and even hiring kiosks in some large retail stores.
Also, if you're looking for a job in Utah, there are quite a few sites that focus on jobs here. And, as an aside, while I'm here, I'm hoping to meet Robert Merrill, from Utah Tech Jobs and JibberJobber's Jason Alba. Both provide excellent resources for job seekers.
Photo © Mike Doyle
Comments
Part of my daily routine is to catch Allison’s Job Searching Guide however this particular article, Utah Jobs, left me asking; “where’s the meat”? I actually believed there would be a continuation of the article below the Sponsored Links section but the last part of the article referenced a possible meeting with Robert Merrill and Jason Alba from their well known job search sites. I live in the Dallas area and also see “help wanted” signs in retail store windows and kiosk’s in grocery and department stores.
With regard to the retail shop owner and a tardy employee which led to the comment; “it’s hard to find good employees in this area”, I find myself questioning the quality of the retail store and casual employment culture. The owner seemed to be resonating a perception that the tardy employee was holding him hostage.
While I too observe help wanted signs, this is not the avenue I use to seek employment opportunities. I would imagine that an area nearby recreational facilities might employ younger, sometimes immature, people.
Utah is an oasis of technical call centers with job opportunities aligned to a professional-centric community. I had hoped Allison that you might have looked beyond the slopes and mountains and presented a wider scope of Utah jons other than the apparent seasonal positions.
With regard to the retail shop owner and a tardy employee which led to the comment; “it’s hard to find good employees in this area”, I find myself questioning the quality of the retail store and casual employment culture. The owner seemed to be resonating a perception that the tardy employee was holding him hostage.
While I too observe help wanted signes, this is not the avenue I seek to explore employment opportunities. I would imagine that an area nearby recreational facilities might employ younger people.
Utah is an oasis of technical call centers with job opportunities aligned to a professional community. I had hoped Allison, that you might have looked beyond the slopes and mountains.
Hi John,
Thanks for the comments. FYI, I’ve only been here a couple of days and as I noted in the post, I was only talking about hospitality / service jobs in this area, my conversation with one person, and the help wanted signs I saw.
I do understand, of course, that there is lots more to the Utah job market, I just haven’t gotten there yet.
If you have any information you’d like me to include, just let me know via email.
Thanks again,
Alison
Interesting comments - I’ve lived here (in Utah) for almost 3 about 1/2 of that as a jobless/unemployed/entrepreneur. I’ve been going to local networking meetings, initiated a monthly blogger dinner and had dozens of lunches or breakfasts with people in the Salt Lake area to figure out the job market, opportunities, etc.
My take on the Park City area is exactly what Alison writes. Its jobs to support the tourist industry (seasonal, not career jobs). The Salt Lake City area, and the counties just south and just north of SLC has very interesting job markets. I have gone to networking events in all three areas and am amazed how different the people are, and what kinds of jobs there are.
The jobs I was looking for would not be advertised in store windows, but its always interesting to me to see how many help wanted signs there are - seems to be an indicator of the health of the local economy.
Anyway, if you have questions on the market here feel free to contact me through e-mail - Jason at JibberJobber dot com.
(btw, about Rob Merrill’s site, and JibbJobber.com, these are resources that are definitely NOT location specific (his is more than mine, but it has great info in general from a seasoned recruiter))