Job fair a hit with employers, applicants
<p>Sherry Mayeaux, the Community Relations director for Prestige Assisted Living, talks with a potential employee during Wednesday’s job fair. “We have a lot of turnover, since we have nursing students from the college who move on after a few years,” she said. “We’re always looking for people.” (Brianna Loper photos/Daily Inter Lake)</p>
<p>Matthew Miller uses a trash can as a table to quickly fill out a job application on Wednesday. “I’m just looking for anything right now,” he said. “I just need a way to make some extra cash.”</p>
The JCPenney Court inside Kalispell Center Mall was packed Wednesday afternoon as job-seekers of all ages navigated around one another during the first autumn job fair.
Tables were full of people filling out applications on the spot and employers offered candy or water bottles to compete with neighboring booths for the attention of potential employees.
“There’s quite a number of companies here, and you have to do something to stand out,” said Becci Nicholson as she set out bags of fresh-popped popcorn carrying labels advertising Walmart’s online job application site.
Nicholson is the personnel coordinator for Walmart.
Over 30 businesses participated in Wednesday’s job fair, speaking with applicants for hundreds of jobs, including positions in retail, health care, business management and food service.
“This job fair started out as a ‘part time’ and ‘holiday’ job fair,” Roberta Diegel, the business advocate for the Montana Department of Labor and Industry, wrote in an email. “But it developed into a huge job fair with lots of full-time, permanent positions.”
The fair offered hundreds of jobs, including 175 positions with Teletech, 188 positions at Kalispell Regional Medical Center and 400 positions at LC Staffing.
“We’re looking for a lot of full- and part-time positions,” Nicholson said. “I don’t even know how many we’re looking to fill, but it’s a lot. Normally we just need seasonal workers this time of year, but this year, we’re hiring a lot more, and they can work as much as they want.”
Job seekers were all ages, from senior citizens to high-school students.
One potential employee was Jacob Hadley, a junior at Flathead High School. Hadley used the job fair as an opportunity to build a foundation for his career.
“I want to work in culinary arts some day,” Hadley said as he gathered applications from Taco Bell and Whitefish Lake Lodge. “I would like to own a bar and grill here in town, and I might as well start learning now.”
Hadley, like many other job-seekers, dressed in a tie and slacks, prepared for a possible interview.
Some companies pulled applicants aside during the fair to get additional information or conduct interviews.
According to Laura Gardner, Flathead Job Service supervisor, this year’s fair was overbooked with potential employers and booths were added and rearranged to accommodate the high traffic.
Usually, the Flathead Job Service only puts on a job fair in the spring, but since this autumn fair has been such a success, Diegel said the Kalispell Center Mall has already approached her about putting on another fair soon.
“It’s been received amazingly,” said Diegel. “We will probably do it again next year.”
Reporter Brianna Loper may be reached at 758-4441 or by email at bloper@dailyinterlake.com.