Challenging to find staff who have hunting experience. Is hunting declining in interest.

[PrairieHunter]

Hello,

Has anyone else had challenges finding people with hunting experience to work at their hunting/outdoor related business?

I own a company called Skull Bracket in Laramie and we are finding that few people we interview have any hunting experience. Most of the young men who have worked here the last few years seem to have been raised by their mothers and have never hunted. The women simply never had an interest it seems. Quite shocking living in Wyoming.


And even outside Wyoming we have also been trying to find a gig worker to help with our Amazon listings and do some SEO work on our website through the summer. We have talked to at least 25 people on freeup, fiver, etc We have yet to find anyone who has any hunting experience. Seems that few of these "professionals" ever get out in the woods.

It's weird as in some ways like drawing tags it seems like hunting is more popular (or just commercialized) than ever, but on the other hand I see signs that hunting is seeing a decline when almost nobody we interview in Wyoming has hunted.

Thoughts?

 

[SAJ-99]

The problem is you have painted an idealistic picture of what you want, but no one fits the picture. is that a picture of what you need? Is hunting experience necessary?

 

[Dsnow9]

Hello,

Has anyone else had challenges finding people with hunting experience to work at their hunting/outdoor related business?

I own a company called Skull Bracket in Laramie and we are finding that few people we interview have any hunting experience. Most of the young men who have worked here the last few years seem to have been raised by their mothers and have never hunted. The women simply never had an interest it seems. Quite shocking living in Wyoming.


And even outside Wyoming we have also been trying to find a gig worker to help with our Amazon listings and do some SEO work on our website through the summer. We have talked to at least 25 people on freeup, fiver, etc We have yet to find anyone who has any hunting experience. Seems that few of these "professionals" ever get out in the woods.

It's weird as in some ways like drawing tags it seems like hunting is more popular (or just commercialized) than ever, but on the other hand I see signs that hunting is seeing a decline when almost nobody we interview in Wyoming has hunted.

Thoughts?

Talk to @Lostinthewoods about the gig worker.

Other than that, why would being a hunter be a requirement. Why not hire the best applicant and teach them how to be a hunter.

 

[DFS]

Come to southeast Montana in November and look for applicants in the field.

 

[Treeshark]

almost nobody we interview in Wyoming has hunted.

From the data I can find, less than 25% of Wyoming residents held a hunting license last year.

Even though that may seem quite low, it ranks very high vs the rest of the country.

 

[Sheltowee]

Data I'm seeing is that only about 4% of Americans hunt, so you would be about on pace if only one of those 25 you spoke to had hunting experience. I'm also guessing that the digital marketing/IT world skews even further away from hunting.

That job doesn't require deep knowledge of hunting. It requires someone who knows marketing. Hire for that.

 

[SAJ-99]

Also, some feedback that might help. When I look up your website, the ad pops up, but size isn’t optimized for mobile. Seems to look ok for IPad and desktop.

 

[seeth07]

That job doesn't require deep knowledge of hunting. It requires someone who knows marketing. Hire for that.

It does depend but you are absolutely right.

 

[SaskHunter]

Has anyone else had challenges finding people with hunting experience to work at their hunting/outdoor related business?

Why is that a hard requirement for your business? You sell skull mounts, not outfitted hunts.

Most of the young men who have worked here the last few years seem to have been raised by their mothers and have never hunted. The women simply never had an interest it seems. Quite shocking living in Wyoming.

Can't blame them or their mother's for that, but we can sure blame their hypothetical deadbeat dads who left them.

And even outside Wyoming we have also been trying to find a gig worker to help with our Amazon listings and do some SEO work on our website through the summer. We have talked to at least 25 people on freeup, fiver, etc We have yet to find anyone who has any hunting experience. Seems that few of these "professionals" ever get out in the woods.

Again, why is hunting experience required? I'd much rather have the best applicant for the job posted, than a lesser one who happens to hunt. I looked at your website and you need a nerd who knows nerd stuff to make it look better.

It's weird as in some ways like drawing tags it seems like hunting is more popular (or just commercialized) than ever, but on the other hand I see signs that hunting is seeing a decline when almost nobody we interview in Wyoming has hunted.

IMO it's mostly due to commercialization of hunting and influencers showcasing "Western hunting". Case and point, I'm from Canada and have been travelling to Western US states to hunt since 2017.

 

[Potsie]

Crazy thought…

I work at a construction company, none of our IT department or marketing department know a single thing about structural steel, or what 480v 3P power is.

If you’re looking for a fabricator, hire a fabricator. If he was raised by a single mom or not shouldn’t factor into it.

If you’re looking for a coding nerd, hire a nerd.

 

[huntin24/7]

I can only speak for small towns in parts of ND where I grew up and MT where I’ve lived the last 18 years.

I feel like overall hunting pressure in the west has gone up with more hunters, but I see few younger kids of that age where they’d just be getting into hunting being involved or showing interest. Seems like very few kids in middle school and high school are very serious about hunting at all even in small town MT anymore.

In my opinion, there are a lot more distractions for them now, not just technology, but sports is a big one too. The number of sports has increased and the travel ball/travel team part of it has made it to where sports never ends the entire year.

I know this doesn’t tie directly to your question but this has been my observation.

 

[cgasner1]

I’d rather hire someone that doesn’t hunt if I was a small business owner. I’d rather the guy be ducking out to go rafting or snow boarding while I’m out chasing bugles and he is looking after the shop.

 

[elkduds]

From the data I can find, less than 25% of Wyoming residents held a hunting license last year.

Even though that may seem quite low, it ranks very high vs the rest of the country.

I'm confident nonresidents will keep picking up the slack.

 

[Treeshark]

I’d rather hire someone that doesn’t hunt if I was a small business owner.

Not going to lie, I have considered that while interviewing.

 

[Arcola]

Not going to lie, I have considered that while interviewing.

This! I'm absent a LOT in the fall. I need employees that won't be.

 

[PrairieHunter]

Interesting feedback.

The hunting experience is really helpful for a variety of reasons, especially office staff. Even the guys fabricating really need to know the difference in what animals each bracket is for and for custom work. For office staff when they talk to hunters it's really needed to have some sort of experience to be able to answer questions about different animals or just have conversations with taxidermist. For the marketing help we have found that people with no hunting background don't really understand hunters or how to do things like put together a newsletter, do promotions, etc. We end up having to make a lot of corrections because they just don't know what they are talking about. Things like knowing September is archery season in many states. One of our old marketing people once put a domestic sheep pic on our website not realizing it was not the same as a bighorn sheep.
Stuff like that.

 

[Ben Lamb]

Interesting feedback.

The hunting experience is really helpful for a variety of reasons, especially office staff. Even the guys fabricating really need to know the difference in what animals each bracket is for and for custom work. For office staff when they talk to hunters it's really needed to have some sort of experience to be able to answer questions about different animals or just have conversations with taxidermist. For the marketing help we have found that people with no hunting background don't really understand hunters or how to do things like put together a newsletter, do promotions, etc. We end up having to make a lot of corrections because they just don't know what they are talking about. Things like knowing September is archery season in many states. One of our old marketing people once put a domestic sheep pic on our website not realizing it was not the same as a bighorn sheep.
Stuff like that.

Maybe hire a good candidate and them take them out and get them hooked on hunting? YOu can teach folks about critters, etc faster than you can teach them to code!

 

[PrairieHunter]

I can only speak for small towns in parts of ND where I grew up and MT where I’ve lived the last 18 years.

I feel like overall hunting pressure in the west has gone up with more hunters, but I see few younger kids of that age where they’d just be getting into hunting being involved or showing interest. Seems like very few kids in middle school and high school are very serious about hunting at all even in small town MT anymore.

In my opinion, there are a lot more distractions for them now, not just technology, but sports is a big one too. The number of sports has increased and the travel ball/travel team part of it has made it to where sports never ends the entire year.

I know this doesn’t tie directly to your question but this has been my observation.

I kinda feel like that's what's going on here as well. More overall hunters due to older non residents coming out West for a hunt but an overall drop in hunting interest for young people.

 

[SaskHunter]

Interesting feedback.

The hunting experience is really helpful for a variety of reasons, especially office staff. Even the guys fabricating really need to know the difference in what animals each bracket is for and for custom work. For office staff when they talk to hunters it's really needed to have some sort of experience to be able to answer questions about different animals or just have conversations with taxidermist. For the marketing help we have found that people with no hunting background don't really understand hunters or how to do things like put together a newsletter, do promotions, etc. We end up having to make a lot of corrections because they just don't know what they are talking about. Things like knowing September is archery season in many states. One of our old marketing people once put a domestic sheep pic on our website not realizing it was not the same as a bighorn sheep.
Stuff like that.

I would say plenty of Hunting "companies" hire non-hunters and have done so well that they're responsible for crowding on public land, IMO.
There's plenty of videos out there from OnX, GoHunt, MeatEater, etc, where they've taken office type workers who've never hunted, out on their first hunts. These companies are all very successful and have figured it out without every employee being a hunter. I'd personally rather hire a skilled employee who excels in their field, then teach them season dates/structures, the difference between skulls sizes, etc...

Also, as a manager, I love that the majority of my crew doesn't hunt and holds the fort while I take weeks off work in the fall/spring.

 

[PrairieHunter]

View attachment 388031

Maybe hire a good candidate and them take them out and get them hooked on hunting? YOu can teach folks about critters, etc faster than you can teach them to code!

That's pretty much what we do but it's not ideal having one person at the company who has hunted at all.

We hired a new welder today. From LA originally. Raised by his mom. Never hunted. Big Broncos fan.