Recruiters say it can be difficult to find the right candidate

PITTSBURGH—What is the current hiring situation in the rubber industry?

It depends very much on which part of the industry and what kind of job, according to rubber industry executives acting as recruiters at the Career Fair at the International Elastomer Conference, held Oct. 11-13 in Pittsburgh.

“It's always very difficult to find people with experience in tires and rubber products,” said Gene Mone, senior corporate recruiter, human relations in the ContiTech division of Continental Tire the Americas L.L.C.

Conti generally looks for chemists with a material science background in polyurethanes, rubber and/or elastomers to work for both ContiTech and the entire corporation at ContiTech's operations in Fairlawn, Ohio, Mone said.

Successful applicants should expect to travel about 25 percent of the time, she said.

Conti always is searching for qualified job applicants, according to Mone. Attending career fairs at conferences, online job postings and visiting colleges with strong chemistry and polymer science programs are the company's main methods of searching, she said.

“It's hard to find the really talented people,” she said. “But the University of Akron has a really fine polymer science department, and good talent can be found out of the Pittsburgh-area schools.”

At the Career Fair, Conti was looking for applicants for a position as a technical leader in rubber and polyurethanes, specializing in lightweight conveyor belts, according to Mone.

The company wants a hands-on manager with an advanced degree in chemical engineering or material science, she said.

“We don't have a lot of openings now, but next year we expect around two or three,” she said.

Lloyd Willey, retired director of intermediates and industrial chemicals for Prochimie International Inc. and now a consultant for the firm, represented Prochimie at the Career Fair in its search for a new sales engineer. A sales position, however, is the most difficult one to fill today in the rubber industry, according to Willey.

“I'm probably the only one here looking for someone for a sales position,” he said.

The paucity of applicants for sales positions can be seen on any industry job board, Willey said.

“On the job boards, the resumes are posted according to groups, by quality control, research or other areas,” he said.

“But never do you see a sales grouping, ever.”

A major part of the problem is that polymer science schools simply don't place any emphasis on sales as a career path, according to Willey.

“Polymer science students see researchers at work and take them as their role models,” he said. “Salespeople are sort of looked down upon. Yet clearly there's a lot of opportunity in sales. You can see it right here on the trade show floor. Most of the people here are in sales, and you have to wonder how they got here.”

Applicants for sales jobs in the rubber industry tend to fall into two groups, according to Willey.

“The first is someone just out of school who doesn't like this research thing but doesn't know anything about the industry, unless they end up going to a very large company with a great training program,” he said.

“The second is a senior salesperson with 25 or 30 years in the industry, who maybe has been downsized out of a job,” Willey said. “He may have three or four productive years left before he retires.

“If you're looking for someone who really wants to make sales his career, it's really hard to find them.”

Possibly the most specialized company at the Career Fair was Golf Pride, part of Eaton Corp.'s Hydraulics Division. Golf Pride has manufactured slip-on grips for golf clubs for more than 50 years, according to the Golf Pride website, and it now manufactures grips in more than 60 sizes, designs and configurations.

It's difficult for Golf Pride to find qualified people, according to Chief Technology Officer Steve Davis.

“We're talking to people in the industry, but rubber chemists are few and far between,” he said. “We're trying to find out the reasons why. We're talking to people in the Hydraulics Division, at the University of Akron and at various materials suppliers.”

Davis said one reason may be that polymer science students at the University of Akron are 80 percent international, “and when they get their degrees they go home.”

David Bender, senior research engineer-tread product development at Bridgestone Commercial Solutions, attended the Career Fair in search of a truck tire compounder for Bridgestone Bandag.

“With tread com-pounding, it's important to know the basics, but it's not a big deal to train someone for the job,” Bender said.

“If you're familiar with the tools, we can train you.

“We think we will find someone qualified at the Career Fair.”