Crazy Job Market

What's the CMM job market like near you?

I live and work in the far northern outskirts of Chicago. There is a fair amount of industry around me, but there are typically only two or three CMM job openings at a time within my commuting area. Most of them are normally the same few jobs that nobody wants or they just don’t pay enough.

I was up that way last weekend. South Beloit IL.

However, right now it seems like there are quite a few jobs available near me that I'd be happy to take if I didn't already have a good thing going. Also, where I work we have been down a CMM programmer for many months and recently lost two more who left for greener pastures. HR tells me that no one is even applying, let alone anyone with good qualifications! We are working to build talent from within, but it's going to take some time.

Our workload as dropped off so far this year and our hours have been cut to 40/wk starting this week. When we were busy, we were short staffed and the applicants we were getting were not qualified. No joke, we had a roofing inspector apply...

How about you?

I'm doing fine, how have you been?

Are you currently understaffed? Or should I say, more understaffed than usual?

At the moment we are over staffed but when work is flowing through like it normally is, we are way understaffed.

Do you see a lot more job openings near you?

I haven't looked lately but I'm going to take a look here tonight (St. Louis area).

Am I the only one dumb enough to do this for a living?

No... We all are that dumb.

What am I missing here?

There is a long list. What you are not missing is probably a way shorter list.

(words to fill character requirement for a post)

What a quick thorough response. That ought to count for two posts.

I know right!!! They need to adjust my post count accordingly and quick.

I'm sorry that things are slow for you right now. Hopefully it's a good kind of slow. A chance to catch your breath and take care of the things that normally drive you nuts but you don't have time to deal with. Luckily we are a tad slow too. If we weren't it would be stress city right now. But, that will change soon enough.

It's honestly bad timing for me. I'm 2 rounds into my race season and each round costs me roughly $1500 without maintenance on the bike. It is nice to have less stress at work but it ends up being a bit more stress at home.

And your comment "There is a long list. What you are not missing is probably a way shorter list." - Sums it up nicely, story of my life.

Same here brother... same here.

Probably no one withing 100 miles of this company would know what CMM stands for these days.... Based on the situation I walked into 15 years ago, no one working at the company knew either.....

What's the CMM job market like near you?

I live and work in the far northern outskirts of Chicago. There is a fair amount of industry around me, but there are typically only two or three CMM job openings at a time within my commuting area. Most of them are normally the same few jobs that nobody wants or they just don’t pay enough.

However, right now it seems like there are quite a few jobs available near me that I'd be happy to take if I didn't already have a good thing going. Also, where I work we have been down a CMM programmer for many months and recently lost two more who left for greener pastures. HR tells me that no one is even applying, let alone anyone with good qualifications! We are working to build talent from within, but it's going to take some time.

How about you?
Are you currently understaffed? Or should I say, more understaffed than usual?
Do you see a lot more job openings near you?
Am I the only one dumb enough to do this for a living? What am I missing here?

It's funny how many people have never heard of a CMM. I find it really hard to describe one to someone who hasn't been in manufacturing. I have just decided to make it sound as cool as I can. "I program super precise robots to measure stuff". Hmm, even when I'm trying, I can only make it sound so cool. I gotta work some more on that.

I had a similar experience. I no one at the company I worked at had seen or heard of a CMM until the day the Quality Manager asked if I wanted to take a week long class and become the programmer for a new measuring machine the company was buying. In those early days my only saving grace was that no one else knew anything about that machine, so it didn't take much for me to be the resident expert.

I hear it called a CMM Machine all the time! *bang my head against the desk* I guess we will call it a Coordinate Measuring Machine Machine. Reminds me of "Repairman man man" from All That back in the late 90's on Nick.

Oh the good old days of All That on Nick!