63 vendors at Times Leader Career Fair looking to hire NEPA people

WILKES-BARRE TWP. — Wednesday’s Times Leader Career Fair featured 63 vendors, all seeking to hire new people for jobs of all types.

Just about every employer at the Career Fair decorated their tables and each offered incentives, like ink pens, candy and even the COVID-19 vaccine — but that was only at the Sheehans Pharmacy table.

Kerry Miscavage, Times Leader Media Group vice president of sales and marketing, said she and Controller Marc Couchot wanted to thank all the vendors and job seekers who participated in the Career Fair.

“We want to thank all our recruiters and job seekers that came to visit us today,” Miscavage said. “The activity was certainly promising that folks are ready to get back to work.”

Miscavage and Couchot urged people to keep checking the Times Leader newspaper and website for more job openings as they become available.

“And to top it all off, we were able to vaccinate several people, thanks to Sheehans Pharmacy of Plains Township,” she said. The pharmacy was offering free COVID-19 shots during Wednesday’s event.

At the Hershey Foods table, perhaps the best incentives were offered — Hershey’s milk chocolate bars and Kit Kats. Who could resist those to stop and listen to what the Humboldt Industrial Park vendor was offering.

Erin Pisarcik, a human resources generalist, and Rod Knittle, reliability lead, were at the table to talk to prospective candidates about some great positions at Hershey Foods.

Pisarcik and Knittle said Hershey’s is looking for production operators at $20.18 per hour and a $1,000 sign-on bonus; maintenance mechanics at $30.28 per hour and a $4,000 sign-on bonus; and electrical control specialists at $33.52 per hour and a $10,000 sign-on bonus.

Pisarcik said the Hazleton area plant currently employs more than 600 people and they are looking to hire an additional 100 for the facility.

“This career fair gives us the opportunity to meet potential new employees and take their applications,” Pisarcik said.

The 63 local employers on-site represented a variety of industries.

Even the Career Fair’s host site, the Mohegan Sun Arena, had a table set up. Will Beekman, ASM Global’s general manger of the arena, said four full-time positions need to be filled and many “event-night” jobs as well.

Beekman said the full-time positions are for an operations manager, premium services manager, and maintenance technicians. The event-night jobs are for refreshment counters, ushers and other positions.

“We’re always excited when people come to this venue,” Beekman said as he watched job seekers walk through the door and around the arena’s concourse area. “We are also very community-minded and we enjoy having people see our facility. We are always happy to open our doors to the public.”

A few tables down, representatives of Navient were busy talking to prospective candidates.

Matt Ford, Corporate Communications for Navient in Wilmington, Del., said the company was looking to hire 30 customer care representatives and bilingual customer care representatives (English/Spanish).

“We also have 10 openings for loan servicing specialists,” Ford said. “Navient has deep roots here in the Wyoming Valley going back over 30 years and we are proud to continue our growth as part of this tight-knit community. We currently have over 700 employees at our Wilkes-Barre site. Job seekers can always find the latest job openings at our website, jobs.Navient.com.”

Lynn McCarthy of Sheehans Pharmacy, said free COVID-19 vaccines were being offered — Pfizer, Moderna, and Johnson & Johnson.

“We just want to help with pushing back the pandemic,” McCarthy said. “We try to make it easy for people to access the vaccines.”

Maria Savidge of Wilkes-Barre said she was going to apply for a position at Navient. She said she just finished up at Luzerne County Community College and is now looking to enter the workforce.

“I’m an internet coder,” she said. “I’m hoping to talk to employers here and see what jobs are available.”

On Sept, 8, the Times Leader held a virtual Career Fair, and Wednesday was an in-person event at the arena.