Fixed Ops Journal - December 2022 - F22

FIXED OPS JOURNAL
TOOLB X
The
A collection of news and notes from around the fi xed ops world
SPOTLIGHT IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII
FOJ FAST 15
Showroom veteran helps
job hunters fi nd a match
S
cott Trainor describes himself as all
automotive all the time.
He started selling Toyotas in his native
Canada at age 19 and ended his
dealership career managing the country's
largest Mercedes-Benz store in Montreal.
It was around this time some friends who
were running the automotive employment
site
canadamotorjobs.com
approached
Trainor about launching a similar site in the
States.
He jumped at the opportunity and traded in
his snow boots for fl ip-fl ops and moved to
Florida. Two months later, the C OVID-19
pandemic hit.
" It wasn't supposed to be a soft launch, but
now we call it a soft launch because the world
stopped, " he says with a chuckle. " It was a
very interesting year and a half. And honestly
up until a few months ago it's still been interesting
even after COVID. With the inventory
shortage, people weren't moving around or
necessarily looking for jobs.
" Now we're up and running. "
Th e site - usamotorjobs.com - is similar to
indeed.com but solely for automotive.
" We've modernized how people are connecting, "
Trainor says. " Both the employers
and the candidates are building profi les. Th ey
can see where they match up, how they match
up. It's not just using traditional resumes; it's
transparent for both.
" It's almost like a dating site. "
But Trainor doesn't play matchmaker; he
just provides the platform.
Another example of Trainor's passion for
automotive was some recent awards he and
others handed out to dealerships. Th e
PAGE 22 DECEMBER 2022
C.A.R.S. Awards (for Culture, Achievement,
Retention, Service) was the brainchild of
Trainor and partner Sandy Cerami.
Awards were given to dealerships in six categories
such as " Best Social Media & Branding "
and " Best Community Partner Program. "
Trainor, Cerami and industry leaders served
as judges.
" Th at was just an idea that I came up with a
few months ago, " Trainor says. " I really wanted
to elevate and showcase stores that are excelling
in diff erent categories. It wasn't an
award about my product or anybody else's
product. It was truly about the industry. "
He says they received about 200 nominations
across the six categories after doing only
just a little publicity.
" We had everybody from vendors nominating
stores to dealership employees to even
customers nominating stores, " Trainor says.
" And we did that in the space of a month.
Next year, we're defi nitely doing it much bigger. "
-
Dan Shine
First car: Saturn SL1, defi nitely not fancy,
powerful or good looking, but at least the
body didn't rust
First concert you attended: Struggle
Jennings
Name a pet peeve: Tardiness
Most thrilling/adventurous thing you've
done: Diving with sharks
First job: Grocery store bag boy
Something on your bucket list: Scuba
diving in the Maldives
One thing you learned on the job you
never forgot: Offer an excellent guest
experience
If you could pick up a new skill, what
would it be? Fly a plane
First website you go to in the morning:
Linkedin responding to messages,
networking and reading updates about the
industry
3 people you'd invite to dinner, living or
dead: [ " Shark Tank's " ] Kevin O'Leary, Elon
Musk and Warren Buffett
What did you want to be when you grew
up? A race car driver or anything to do with
powersports
Do you collect anything? Everything
Halloween; we put on a big haunted house
every year
You're king for a day. What's your fi rst
order? To truly focus on the people fi rst,
not what you think they want, but actually
listen to what they say and try to improve
their lives.
Favorite line from a movie: " Nobody is
going to hit as hard as life, but it ain't how
hard you can hit. It's how hard you can get
hit and keep moving forward. That's how
winning is done. " Sylvester Stallone in
Rocky Balboa
Who's on your Spotify playlist? Chris
Stapleton, Zac Brown Band, Eric Church,
Brantley Gilbert, Kane Brown
http://www.canadamotorjobs.com http://www.usamotorjobs.com http://www.indeed.com
Fixed Ops Journal - December 2022

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Fixed Ops Journal - December 2022
