Sally Bice of Aurora wants to enjoy the summer and thinks that working at RiverEdge Park in Aurora might be a way to do it.
“I want to enjoy (the summer) and the events that they have down there at RiverEdge Park. I’ve been to several of them and they’re always entertaining and they’re fun,” Bice said Wednesday afternoon as she sat inside at a job fair for RiverEdge Park taking place at North Island Center in downtown Aurora. “I thought it would be nice to be on the front lines for a change.”
The job fair was held Tuesday through Thursday, and each day candidates who registered online participated in 15-minute interviews for positions such as beverage server, greeter, parking lot attendant, gatekeeper, cleaning staff and more.
Jim Jarvis, vice president of programming and sales for RiverEdge Park, said the annual job fair “is pretty much being held the same time as in years past” but admitted it’s good to get a jump on hiring summer help, particularly in these trying times.
“We try to capture college students while they are still home and teachers while they’re still off,” Jarvis said. “We get a lot of teachers and college kids and this gives us the chance to do face-to-face while they’re home and have the time to do it. For us – as we start planning – we start up in June and we know we’re going to host a few of these.”
Jarvis said “it’s a really competitive market right now” and that the park remained understaffed last year forcing Jarvis and many others to wear two or three hats.
“We were hiring until a week before the park opened last year trying to fill spots and some that had accepted positions later on decided not to work that closely with people or found better paying jobs,” he said. “It’s about people who want to be outdoors, being with others and hopefully having fun with the audience, and enjoying music.”
Ideally, Jarvis said the park was looking to hire 107 people following last year when the park was short almost 40 employees.
Those registering in advance were significantly less than officials hoped for with slightly over 50 seeking interviews. Thursday was reserved for Zoom sessions for those not wanting to appear in person.
Wednesday, RiverEdge Front of House Director Maureen Morrison spoke about the first of what will likely be at least one or two more job fairs in the future and said the number of job seekers might be down a little due to recent COVID-19 concerns and other factors.
“I’m not sure at this point about the numbers, but if we follow the trends from previous years we’ll have two more job fairs after this one,” Morrison said.
Morrison said the top three things she and others conducting interviewing look for include “people who are energetic, who want to have fun and who want to be outside in this type of environment.”
“It’s really fun and exciting to work for a live concert venue, and it’s also work. You have to balance things and enjoy the atmosphere and also get the job done as well,” she said.
Bice said she elected to come early to make sure she had the best chance to get the greeter job she wanted.
“I’m retired and all I’m looking for is part-time work and I live close by and get to be outside,” she said.
Jim Jindrich of Sycamore said he was willing “to go wherever they want to put me” adding “I’ll be a greeter, I can run outside and take IDs, show people to their seats or do whatever they want me to do.”
“I’m a people person and have worked with them all my life and I love being outside,” Jindrich said. “I was a bank manager until I retired and for me, I’m retired now and I thought it was fun and games but I get bored so I’d like to get out and do something.”
Ron Russell of Winfield was also one of the first applicants and said he wanted to be a greeter.
“It’s part-time, summer, four months duration as I understand it and outside music,” he said. “It checks all the boxes.”
David Sharos is a freelance reporter for The Beacon-News.
