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17 how they can ascend. "It helps to advertise to students who have a desire in pursuing the industry," adds Shona Mack, human resourc- es generalist at Accuride. Good recruiting can entice other students as well — students who otherwise may have no interest in trucking. Smith says Hendrickson has updated its recruiting signage to better showcase the breadth of its positions, and appeal to a broader selection of students. Trucking is a large indus- try. Every employee doesn't have to love trucks. Com- municating that message to young people opens the ears of previously uninterested talent. "Recruiting is all about selling. You're trying to sell candidates the rewards of working at your company," says Teresa Sato, director of human resources at Peterbilt. She adds, "We have many long-service employees at Peterbilt who joined the com- pany not originally seeking work with commercial ve- hicles. But once they get here and learn about the industry and opportunities Peterbilt offers, they value our focus on quality, innovation, integrity and business results." And with so many students and graduates clawing for jobs, just knowing positions are available can open other students' eyes to trucking. "A company as large as ours has job openings all the time," says Brian Thomas, marketing communications manager at Alcoa. "We're always looking for people, and we want [students] to know that." Another great way industry operations are fi ghting the employee shortage is through internship programs. These short-term employ- ment opportunities give stu- dents a chance to experience day-to-day life in a business, says Mack. Accuride teams with schools around its Evansville, Ind., headquarters to fi ll its internship program. Stu- dents entering the program are hired for a set period of time and once on staff, they are given projects and tasks consistent with full-time employees. Mack says this gives the students a real-world experi- ence within the operation and allows Accuride to see how the students might respond in a larger capacity. It also provides the best marketing possible, word of mouth. "The word of mouth really gets out there," Mack says. "We've been at job fairs and people come to our booth and say 'I had you marked. I wanted to see about your company' and that's really great. It's reassuring to know it is working." But it's important to note word of mouth is not immediate. Recruiting takes dedication and time. "When we fi rst went to campuses there was very little awareness about [Al- coa]," Thomas says. "We'd see students run to Google, Microsoft. They didn't really know us. "But once we were able to show them you can fi nish school and have a really suc- cessful career and you don't have to just work for one of those companies — once we were able to bring that to light — we started seeing that brand awareness and interest in Alcoa." Internship programs also can double as grooming pro- grams for potential managers and executives, which can be enticing for companies and employees alike. Marc Karon says he's created an apprenticeship W W W . T R U C K P A R T S A N D S E R V I C E . C O M J a n u a r y 2 0 1 5 | T R U C K P A R T S & S E R V I C E Accuride attends job fairs and hires interns for its co-op program through long-standing relationships with Evansville, Ind.-area colleges and universities. By proactively visiting vocational schools and career fairs, Hendrickson is working to introduce its company to youth interested in the automotive industry and technical careers. Cover Story