Shortage of Skilled Technical Staff in the Food Industry

In my last three decades, I've always seen a lack of Technical people but now it's getting to a point that's really shocking.  I saw someone in his mid 20s get promoted to a senior role recently (to which I predicted he wouldn't last), 6 months later he'd gone.

When I've been recruiting for Technical Managers, it's a frequent occurrence that I'll get less than 5 people with suitable experience and often none with the behaviours I'd like.  

Why?  Is the job just that crap?  Have the old guard retired?  Is this the same globally?

We've aged out lol

My new "boss" has 5 years of experience, and zero in my finished good type and never stayed longer than 18 months anywhere  ( I don't want to travel for work so I said no thank you)

Employers treat our jobs with disdain and will not pay what is appropriate for a highly technical role-that can be very high stress.  New folks grew up in a generation without consequence, so I get how this work could drive them away

We've been struggling to find QA managers at various of our sites for the almost 4 years I've worked here on the corporate QA team.  I went through over 50 resumes helping narrow candidates for one of the sites, I think 4 of them were worth a second look.  A few were kids straight out of college with a food science background but no experience.  A handful were people with QA tech or supervisor experience wanting a step up.  My favorite one was a cop out of PA who retired after 25 years on the force and thought he could just jump into food as if it was the exact same thing as detective and SWAT work lol.

Obviously there are exceptions to every rule, but we find people want to put in minimal effort for maximum pay.  We've tried to promote a few times from within, we're happy to pay for certs and hand hold people through their promotions, but they rarely last.  We get people who talk a strong game and pretend they know everything about running FSQMS' and say they can handle audits, only to find them pushing off basic duties to their staff or woefully unprepared for what the job actually entails.

Probably the issue is that all the people that could impart their knowledge and train the next wave of food pros are busy posting on forums all day....Lol.

Seriously though, for many this is a job to learn on site.   Education can only prepare you so much.   It all varies a great deal business to business as well, so really getting hired in somewhere and learning the ropes from a senior individual can lead to a much greater chance of success in the biz.

Most of the people I know who are truly technical know it all type folks start a consulting firm and don't want to work for a company, but for themselves.   Perhaps the very future of the job is going to be farmed out... certainly not any time soon, but maybe some day the FSTL's won't even be on site other than a day or two per month.    I mean hell, all the standards care about is paperwork anyway...

This is funny to me, because I've been actively looking (getting tired of driving 560 miles a week to commute) and can't seem to find much. Compliance Management/Quality Management in the food industry, pretty dead around me. Quality Management in automotive seems popping. Thinking of jumping ship.

"A x B x C = X. If X is less than the cost of recall, we don't do one." 

This is funny to me, because I've been actively looking (getting tired of driving 560 miles a week to commute) and can't seem to find much. Compliance Management/Quality Management in the food industry, pretty dead around me. Quality Management in automotive seems popping. Thinking of jumping ship.

We're just more densely populated over here so the thought of driving that far without stumbling across about 5 decent sized food businesses (probably far more) is wild.  It's our biggest manufacturing industry in the UK.  There's vast demand outside of the US if you'd consider a big move.

We're just more densely populated over here so the thought of driving that far without stumbling across about 5 decent sized food businesses (probably far more) is wild.  It's our biggest manufacturing industry in the UK.  There's vast demand outside of the US if you'd consider a big move.

I probably pass 10 or so on my way to where I currently work, if not more. Heck, Kellog's (Kellanova) is 20 minutes from me. They had a job up that was approving suppliers (I think the title was Corporate Supplier Approval Manager or similar). I have 15+ years experience in everything they had listed for job duties. It was hybrid remote, pay rate listed 120-140 grand a year + bonus. If I had a 'dream job' that would have been it.

200+ applicants. 

Hiring manager is probably complaining that he or she only seen 5 of those from HR...

Edit: he OR SHE! That was unintentional misogyny...

The thing is those days are gone when you needed technical skills/knowledge to manage people or company. You can be from a completely different background and be running quality dept with experienced people who are just techs. The so-called experienced and seasoned employees must adapt to changing environment rather than hoping that someday they would get promoted. This is the reality. 

I don't think I ever saw myself as just needing technical skills to manage.  Not at all.  In fact part of the reason I went into operations for a while was to get people management experience.

This is funny to me, because I've been actively looking (getting tired of driving 560 miles a week to commute) and can't seem to find much. Compliance Management/Quality Management in the food industry, pretty dead around me. Quality Management in automotive seems popping. Thinking of jumping ship.

Jeez, I thought I was the only one daft enough to commute 560 miles a week (mind you, that's for 3 days a week as I work from home the other 2).

No point in me looking elsewhere as fast approaching retirement age.