Tuesday, January 15, 2008

Some Good News & Some Bad for Red Hook Ikea Job Seekers

Ikea Crop

The Red Hook Ikea started taking applications yesterday from Red Hook residents for positions at the sprawling store that will open on Beard Street in August. There is some good news and some bad news for residents with limited job experience or training. We went through Ikea's job listings yesterday and found that the big retailer listed eight job categories for which residents get a three-week head start in applying. About half require very specific job experience, but several appear suitable for entry-level work, assuming the applicants have high school diplomas or GEDs. The eight categories are: Safety & Loss Prevention, Recovery Co-Workers, Food Service, Maintenance, Interior Design, Sales, Logistics and Customer Service. The jobs in Loss Prevention require 5-7 years of experience, Food Service requires 2-3 years food prep experience and certification from a culinary arts program, Maintenance jobs require knowledge of carpentry, plumbing and other trades and Logistics "Co-Workers" (who work in the warehouse) require some technical skills. This leaves Interior Design Jobs working with displays in the store, Sales positions and Customer Service. Interior Design jobs require computer literacy whereas the latter two require "computer aptitude." All require HS diplomas or GEDs. It's not known how many jobs Ikea is filling and how many are full-time and how many are part-time. Instructions on applying are in our earlier post. Ikea filled its management jobs, all of which required significant experience, with employees from outside the city.

Related Post:
Ikea Starts Hiring Next Week: Red Hook Residents Getting Three-Week "Head Start"

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5 Comments:

Blogger Peregrine said...

It doesn't sound like the bar is set too high. There should be plenty of local people qualified to fill a lot of those positions.
I think the real question is how IKEA is advertising for those jobs.
Are they making a real effort to get applications from the area?

1:34 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

The question actually should be - if there are people who want jobs at Ikea in Red Hook, are those people pursuing those jobs on their own?

7:24 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Sounds like a bit of bait and switch to me. Didn't the community board give the green light to IKEA based on the promise of jobs to Red Hook residents. If they had the required skills wouldn't they already be working? What about the Red Hook residents that haven't been working and don't have the skills/experience required? Will the community board hold IKEA to their promises?

5:20 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Sounds like a bit of bait and switch to me. Didn't the community board give the green light to IKEA based on the promise of jobs to Red Hook residents. If they had the required skills wouldn't they already be working? What about the Red Hook residents that haven't been working and don't have the skills/experience required? Will the community board hold IKEA to their promises?

5:20 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

The Employees from outside the city are employees from other ikeas in the US. They're only there for a limited amount of time to help with the store grand opening, training new workers, and within a few months they're back to where they came from. So all the jobs that IKEA promised are still there. They're on the website and the skills and experience are not that hard. I have a friend that was hired at 17, in High School, who is now in Lost Prevention. IKEA is a company you can grow with.

4:14 AM  

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