I have a bakery located in Charlotte, NC. It is an established cake shop and our business is doing well. I am looking to hire experienced cake decorators and wanted to know how other bakeries went about searching for qualified candidates.

We advertise on Craig's List, posted positions with Johnson and Wales, and listed jobs on the Indeed website. So far the responses have been a little disappointing.

Would love to hear you thoughts on the best way to find the best associates!

Disappointing in terms of...?

Most of the people responding to our ads have no experience. We are looking for candidates that have some cake decorating experience and some basic piping skills.

Is there a culinary school or a vo-tech school in your area?  If there is, perhaps you could expand your search there.  You'd know, at least, that somebody from there has some experience.

Have you been crystal clear in your help wanted ad that experience is required?  I remember my old employer saying"experience a plus" on their ad for another decorator and all they got were inexperienced people because of the "plus".

My current employer has never had much luck with CL, if that's any consolation.

Around my way positions are often difficult to find because once somebody has one they'll hang onto it forever and a day.

Thank you for the response! We have posted on the Johnson and Wales career center site but so far have not received any applicants. We will continue our search and be patient. I'm sure the right we will find the right person eventually.

Thanks again!

I just thought of this: J&W is up in RI and you're down in NC.  If somebody from J&W were to apply for your position, they'd have to be local to you because they'd have to move down there to work for you and it's expensive to move...you know? Maybe that's why you haven't gotten any applicants from their site.  Just a thought.

J & W has a campus here in Charlotte.