From the road: Spain, August 2022, on an interviewing trip — the same one that took Dennis to Maranello.
I always try to eat where the local workers eat when I’m overseas recruiting. It’s not always possible, but when it is, it’s a great way to talk in a relaxed atmosphere — just another person around the table, all eating the same thing, no airs and no graces. We’re all human, and we all have to eat.
Yesterday it was paella for lunch. Anyone who’s spent time in Spain eating at the traditional places workers eat will tell you: every Thursday, it’s usually paella as the menú del día, the cheap menu of the day. I never knew why. So on Thursday I got schooled by three Caterpillar technicians on every possible reason.
The stories ranged from: in the old days, fish was landed at the ports on a Monday, and the catch sellers slowly worked their way through the countryside, not reaching many places until mid-to-late week — hence fish paella on Thursday. Through to: no, no, the restaurants bought their stock on Friday, ready for the weekend, so on Thursday they cooked everything left into the paella and nothing was wasted.
It made for a very interesting lunchtime. I love my work. Just love it. For the record, my Spanish is hopeless — fluent in French and spannerspeak, but Spanish, er, no. So it’s a good job there are Caterpillar field service technicians in Spain who are fluent in English then, huh.
Don’t recruit just Cat trained technicians.
Recruit people who are Cat trained technicians.
Most people applying for work in Australia from overseas just want a job — any job. We find out who they are as people, what drives them, what they need. Then we find the right role for them. And it’s never about money: in my experience, when you find someone the role they really want, the last question they ask is “how much is the pay?” Everyone knows the pay is going to be good. It has never been the deciding factor in the recruitment I’ve been part of.
International recruitment of Caterpillar field service technicians, done right.
The places in these stories are real. We meet every candidate face to face, in their home country — here’s how our interviews work, and here’s the map.