Companies like Watermark Beach Resort, FortisBC, the RCMP, Greyback Construction and the Department of Fisheries and Oceans all came hoping to snag some summer employees as more than 200 job seekers descended on Spirit Ridge resort last Thursday for the second of Open Door Group’s annual spring job fairs, where major employers from all corners of the job market waited eagerly to snap up any potential hires. (Trevor Nichols photo)
More than 200 job-seekers descended on Spirit Ridge resort last Thursday, for the second of Open Door Group’s annual spring job fairs, where major employers from all corners of the job market waited eagerly to snap up any potential hires.
Companies like Watermark Beach Resort, FortisBC, the RCMP, Greyback Construction and the Department of Fisheries and Oceans all came hoping to snag some summer employees, a task Cassandra Capone, the visitor experience manager at Nk’Mip Cellars, said can be a challenge.
Capone said business across the hospitality industry are angling for as many employees as they can get and a local job fair is one of the best places to find them.
“Every 10 minutes I get a resume,” she said with an excited smile. “I’m really excited because I’ve been doing a lot of online posting, but this takes way less time and seeing people in person makes a huge difference. With hospitality you usually don’t deal much in words, so face-to-face is so important to me.”
Starrlene Pickul was one of the job seekers at the fair. After making the rounds and talking to most of the employers at the fair, she clutched several pamphlets and a few sheets of paper.
Pickul explained she has been out of the workforce for a couple of years looking after her sick grandchild.
The job fair, she said, is extremely useful now that she’s trying to get back to work.
“It’s very informative; it’s great. At my age – because I’m a little older – it’s hard to get back into the tourism industry. And this kind of stuff can help a lot,” she said.
She said she’s already made some progress with a few potential employers and expects to land a job shortly.
“Overall I think it was a positive and good experience. I’m glad they put it on,” she said.
Keely Morrison, another job hunter, agreed.
“I like the fact that to hand out resumes I had to come to one place and I got to hand out like five resumes, instead of driving around town handing out multiple resumes,” she said.
Morrison and her partner Curtis Tomlin moved to the South Okanagan from the coast about a year ago searching for a more affordable life. With the cost of property soaring and few jobs available, the couple just “needed a change.”
Morrison, who currently works at a chain restaurant, said she is confident her years of housekeeping experience will help her easily find work. She said she had already passed out several resumes and had already been assured she would be getting a call.
If Jo Knight, the brand ambassador at Spirit Ridge, is an indication, Morrison is likely right.
About an hour into the fair, Knight said she had already talked to three people she planned to call in for interviews the next day and was thrilled with the prospects she had met so far.
Kendi Clearwater, an employment advisor and job developer with Open Door Group, said many of the employers expressed similar sentiments and will also be following up with interviews of their own.
She said with more than 300 people coming through both the Oliver and Osoyoos job fairs, Open Door Group considered this year a success.
She said her organization is grateful to its sponsors and hopes for an ever better fair next year.
The spring job fairs have proven to be very popular not only with people looking for work, but also employers from across the region and there’s no reason to believe they won’t continue to be successful moving forward as more and more people attend and talk about their positive experiences, she said.
TREVOR NICHOLS
Regional Reporter
