Photo By Karen Iwamoto | ALIAMANU MILITARY RESERVATION — Debra Blanchard, CYSS program operation specialist,...... read more read more
ALIAMANU MILITARY RESERVATION — One hundred-and-thirty-five job seekers met face-to-face with potential employers at the Directorate of Family and Morale, Welfare and Recreation Hiring Fair, here, Monday.
Seventy-six of them secured tentative job offers on the spot.
It was the sixth hiring fair launched by FMWR since June, according to Dennis Duck, deputy director of FMWR.
Reaching out
Most of the openings are for part-time, flex-schedule, entry-level positions that provide an opportunity for applicants to get their foot in the door.
“We’ve had a big push for a long time to fill our vacancies, especially for our child care positions,” Duck said. “It takes awhile to get into the government system. You have to go through a lot of background and security checks, so we always have vacant positions. … We’ve found that hiring fairs like this are the easiest way to meet with a lot of people.”
Unlike applying online, which can be impersonal and frustrating, the job fairs offer a more personal experience.
“Here, they can meet with an actual person, get their questions answered,” Duck said. “We can tell them, ‘If you don’t hear from us in a week, don’t give up. If you have questions about where you are in the process, this is who you can call.’”
Duck said that FMWR currently has over 100 job vacancies, the majority of them in the child care field. These positions include Child Youth School Services program assistants, athletic program assistants, administrative assistants, cooks and more.
Showing up
Monica Vega, who is from Oahu, said she has been looking for a job for some time now. She currently works from home, taking care of her mother and her two sons, and receives assistance from the U.S. Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program. She said she had been an assistant manager at a company that went out of business.
“It’s discouraging,” she admitted. “I thought that it was a good job, a job I could have retired at.
“But I hustle. I’ve always worked and I’ll keep going,” she added.
She said she came because couldn’t turn down a chance to meet with potential employers face-to-face.
“It’s intimidating to apply online and get a rejection saying you don’t meet the qualifications,” she said. “I always feel like, ‘If you could just meet me and see how I am. I’m a hard worker, I have the experience, I can do the job.’”
Vega applied for several positions within FMWR, but said her top choice would be working as a child youth program assistant with FMWR’s Child Youth Services program because of her previous preschool working experience.
Building skills
Corrine Burns, a youth administrator for CYS and Virginia Garrido, a child administrator for CYS, were conducting candidate interviews for part-time, entry-level positions at Child Development and School Age centers.
They said experience in the child care field was a plus, but not necessary. They were looking for candidates who possessed the right attitude: team players with the ability to not only manage children, but also build positive relationships with parents and other CYS employees.
“They really need to have customer service skills,” Garrido said. “It’s not just them that’s going to be working there. Everybody has to be happy.”
Once those candidates are hired, she said, they will receive training to help them further their career goals.
Added Burns, “Our caregivers are some of the most highly trained in the country.”
Job Opportunities
To find out about upcoming FMWR Hiring Fairs, visit himwr.com. For a list of available jobs at FMWR, visit usajobs.com.
| Date Taken: | 09.01.2017 |
| Date Posted: | 09.01.2017 17:03 |
| Story ID: | 246970 |
| Location: | SCHOFIELD BARRACKS, HI, US |
| Web Views: | 75 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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