Nissan looks to recruit potential employees for its Canton plant through their job fair in Philadelphia Saturday. The Mississippi Employment Security Commission representatives are looking to get applications and resumZs for two specific jobs at the Nissan plant: maintenance technicians and production technicians. Nissan representatives at the job fair will accept resumZs for human resources representatives and production supervisors.
Jan Garrick, an MESC employee, advises Mississippi State students to come to the job fair.
“The production technician job in particular would be a great job for a recent college graduate,” Garrick said. “The requirements could easily be met by a college graduate. The human resources representative job would also be a great job for a public relations graduate.”
Requirements for the production technician job include: 18 months of working experience (preferably factory experience), the ability to work any time shift, an agreement to work in a drug- and smoke-free environment in addition to the ability to read, write and do simple math. The production technician job consists of being on the ground floor and actually putting the cars together.
Garrick said she knows that the job would be hard work but that the benefits compensate for the labor.
“Being a production technician wouldn’t be a piece of cake,” Garrick said, “but the beginning salary is about as high as a recent college graduate can find. On top of that, the health plans that Nissan offers far outweigh most of the competition.”
Production technicians start out earning $13.25 an hour. Nissan will continue to increase the salary up to $20 an hour over a period of time.
The health plans offered in Nissan’s comprehensive benefits package include: medical, dental, hearing, prescription drugs and life insurances. Also included in Nissan’s comprehensive benefits package are a retirement plan and a vehicle purchasing program.
“In our job fairs around the state, we have received over 50,000 applications,” Garrick said. “Fortunately, Nissan has decided to manufacture Altimas at the new plant in Canton. That expanded the labor force from 4,000 to 5,300. We will be expecting a lot of applications for these new jobs.”
“In addition to offering all of the jobs at the Canton plant, other businesses are moving to Mississippi to create the products that Nissan needs to build their automobiles with. It’s a domino effect.”
The job fair in Philadelphia will run from 9 a.m. to noon at the National Guard Armory, 911 Herman Alford Memorial Highway. Anyone interested in a job with Nissan but unable to make the job fair this weekend can get in touch with the MESC by going to the WIN job center at 100 Felix Long Drive in Starkville or call 323-2272. To directly contact Nissan, go to www.nissandriven.com.