Q&A Tech Talk - Recruiting

True North Equipment has numerous career opportunities available. Those opportunities range from Internships to Management positions. We have several ways of calling attention to these positions, like our company website, social media, job search engines, employee referral incentives, etc. Those are great resources, but potential employees have questions, and a student needs inspiration in deciding on a career path. The recruiting team at True North Equipment prefers to be present, have in-person conversations, and display John Deere technologies. Job Fairs and Trade Shows are a great way to meet people at True North Equipment, see what we do, and experience what we can offer them.

The experience visiting True North Equipment at a Job Fair or a Trade Show starts with a hello, carries on with a Q&A conversation, and leaves you with a better understanding of what True North Equipment can do for you and what they are capable of. To start the Q&A conversation about employee recruitment, we talked to True North Equipment's Human Resource Manager, Kevin Phelps.

How many tradeshows or job fairs does True North Equipment attend? What are their names and where are they?

Typically, True North Equipment will attend 4-6 tradeshows or Job Fairs throughout the year. We are always present at the Northern Valley Career Expo, which is an event for area high school students, we attend the Fall and Spring job fairs put on by Job Service, we also attend the North Dakota State College of Science Career Fair in February. We have many options throughout the year to attend to virtual offerings as well.

What is the experience like/ What should attendees expect?

Attendees should expect to have a conversation with one of us that is attending the fair or potentially multiple people from True North Equipment . We are there to answer your questions, see what fit the attendee might have within True North Equipment and what they have to offer.

What is True North Equipment’s goal in attending Job fairs?

Exposure is the biggest thing. I don’t think too many people think about the agriculture career space when looking at changing jobs or careers. We have plenty of variety in our workforce here at True North Equipment to suit many different prospective employees.

What is the in preparing for job fairs? (i.e. registration, show prep, obtaining a farm simulator, employees attending)

For the majority of the fairs we attend we go through the registration process, then we prep to see what we need at our booth the day of, swag, candy, hand-outs for attendees, etc. With one of the events, we did have a farming simulator that we did have to go pick up, learn how to use, and bring it all back when done (That was a lot of fun!). Students get a kick out of things that are unique to them that they don’t get to see very often.

What do you tell visitors when they stop at our booth?

I ask them if they know about True North Equipment and then we have a conversation about the company and what our current hiring needs are and what they are looking for in a career.

On average, How many visitors can you see at an event? A lot to a little (this really depends on the event). The Northern Valley Career Expo brings in roughly 2,100 students so we are really focusing on building our workforce pipeline at a younger age, again, exposing them to opportunities in the agriculture field that they might not see on a day-to-day basis. Some smaller fairs can bring in a couple hundred people.

When recruiting, what is your focus? What positions or what direction do you take them? (i.e. students sign up for JD programs, adults with experience go apply)?

With anyone I always direct them to the opportunities that we have. Just because something isn’t available right now, doesn't mean it wont be available in the near future. We talk about our John Deere Tech programs for both Diesel Technology and Precision Technology, we talk about general Ag classes for potential in sales, small engines for our Turf technicians, etc. Some of the attendees have some unique skills that might fit very well within the Ag space, its working on finding the right fit after the initial conversation.

Have visitors filled out an application at a Trade Show or do you direct them to apply on our site?

Depending on the position, typically we see our applications come through afterwards. We will direct everyone to our careers page, which we have a QR code for on the table.

How easy is it to apply for course on the JD program? How easy is it to apply for a position at True North Equipment?

If students are interested in our JD Tech program we must direct them to NDSCS first to apply. After that we work with them on sponsorships needed for the program. That process does get a little lengthy, but we work with the student the whole way through, if needed. Its pretty easy to apply at a position for True North Equipment. Head on over to https://www.truenorthequipment.com/about-us/careers/ and check out the listings, hit apply, fill out the information, and someone from the HR department will reach out to you on your application.