I may be "fully retired"......................

YY1 said
Most management assumes they can hire and train anyone to do any job.

For the most part, that's how it does indeed work.

Unfortunately, even in the case of stellar talent, it seems like it takes a special manager to recognize it.
I've been fortunate enough to be in that situation on one and two half's occasions.
(3 jobs where 1 manager really recognized my potential, and 2 where I was recognized but not fully appreciated)

However, I've seen many cases of mediocre management thinking they have stellar talent, when really it's a snow job.
Those employees get treated as better than gold while the rest suffer.
Sometimes that's ***-kiss, and sometimes is just poor management.

The manager I worked for at O'Reilly was like that. Looks great on paper. Knows how to keep inventory. Knows how to do all the paperwork right....all that stuff. But he is the worst people manager I've ever seen, plus, he's dumb as a stump in the automotive world. His parents gave him some kinda Volvo with a sideways inline six. He's like "yeah it's gotta turbo and I'm gonna make it haul ***". I was like, ok cool. So few days later me and Evan (another employee) went to look at it. Evan's a young kid, but VERY sharp and up to date on EFI, turbos and newer stuff. So we get over there and walk up to it, he's got the hood up. We look at the engine and then at each other. Evan said "Billy, where's the turbo again?" He said "oh it's right there". He was pointing at the hose coming off the exhaust manifold going to the intake for hot air. And this is a guy who honestly has like 20 years experience in auto parts management.

Another story about him. I replaced the gas tank in my 75 Ford truck a while back. Went from 19 gallon to a 38 gallon. So, I thought "what better time to get it coated?" so I took it down to the local radiator shop and they coated it for me. Fast forward about a month later. I was having trouble with it just sporadically cuttin off. Finally, I had diagnosed everything else, and dropped the tank. You guessed it. The coating was letting loose. SO, I called Spectra and told them what happened. They guy told me all their tanks are already ceramic coated and nothing will stick to them. lol So I took the tank back and had the radiator shop boil it back clean. In between all this......Billy, the store manager looked at me one day and says "I know what it is. I bet it's the ECU." Now bear in mind my truck is a 1975 model. That's NINETEEN SEVENTY FIVE. Although it DOES have electronic ignition (GM style HEI) it sure AS HELL ain't got a ECU. I told him, "naw that's not it" He actually kinda bristled and said "I've been doing this almost 25 years, I bet that's what it is" I said that's kinda impossible when it doesn't have an ECU. His response?" "Well then how does it run?" I'm tellin yall, they are all over the place like him.