Kim Taylor - CEO of Cluster - Hiring and Upskilling Engineers for Industry 4.0

Is there a “skills gap” for manufacturing talent? Is unemployment the largest problem facing American industry? Kim tackled these questions by talking to over 100 executives across the country. Eventually, she not only answered these questions, but started her own company, Cluster, to help solve them. 
 
On Episode 13 of the Skill Podcast, Micah shares a conversation with Kim Taylor, Founder and CEO of Cluster, a venture-backed marketplace that matches engineers to jobs and training in the industrial sector. Cluster was inspired by her family’s history in advanced manufacturing in Wisconsin and her background in online learning.

Micah and Kim discuss the impact of Industry 4.0 on the manufacturing sector and how Cluster is helping employers and talent adapt to these major changes.

Throughout this conversation, Kim and Micah cover the following topics:

Micah tells a tale about how Wisconsin entrepreneurs do product development
Kim’s early life in Waukesha County and early experiences
The early era of Michael Crow at Arizona State University
How Kim almost ended up as a journalist
Kim’s first job in the early days of online higher education
The “Jesus Factor” in online higher ed advertising
How “Regional Bias” affects online enrollment
The origins of the idea for Kim’s first company, Ranku
The Ranku story from initial idea to exit
The exploration process Kim used to come up with the idea for Cluster
There’s more to the “skills gap” than meets the eye
 Is unemployment, or underemployment a bigger problem?
 Kim explains the concept of “vertical labor marketplaces”
Why Kim doesn’t use IPEDS or BLS data to understand the labor market
 Why screening for soft skills and values is actually harder than screening for hard skills
How Cluster develops the best profile of a candidate AND of the job itself (Hint: it’s not about keywords)
Why Kim feels work portfolios are unnecessary for more experienced hires
How Kim thinks about success for Cluster and for the workers using the platform
 How Industry 4.0 is impacting manufacturing
 The enormous change that is about to hit the manufacturing sector
 The largest manufacturing sector in the U.S. isn’t located where you think it is
 Why automation isn’t necessarily a bad thing for workers (Hint: because it gets rid of the three “D” jobs)
 Why employers need to embed learning into the work of their employees every day 
 The reason that manufacturing spends 4x on employee training compared to other industries
 Cluster’s future plans to help workers acquire new skills
 What Elon Musk has done for manufacturing in the U.S.
 To make the best hires, don’t focus on keywords or skills, focus on this instead (hint: you’ll know the answer if you listened to the last episode of the Skill Podcast!)
The most important thing companies can do for their workers

Links:

Cluster
Cluster’s weekly newsletter sign up
Steve Blank’s customer development process

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This select episode of the Skill Podcast is presented by Skill FM.

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