LIHU‘E — A crowd of applicants greeted Transportation Security Administration employees at a job fair Wednesday at the Lihu‘e Civic Center. “There were at least 100 people in line at 8 o’clock,” said Bill Greer of the WorkWise program, a
LIHU‘E — A crowd of applicants greeted Transportation Security Administration employees at a job fair Wednesday at the Lihu‘e Civic Center.
“There were at least 100 people in line at 8 o’clock,” said Bill Greer of the WorkWise program, a collaborator with TSA in the recruitment office. “It’s been three hours since they opened, and there’s been at least 200 people passing through.”
Shar Mata, the TSA director, said Lihu‘e Airport is the first in the nation to reinstate paper applications. She said it is also the first time TSA has worked in collaboration with the county and WorkWise on a recruitment program.
“WorkWise is excited because it exposes people to their new offices,” said Monika Mali, the TSA hiring program manager. “There were a lot of people who were still visiting the old WorkWise office site across the street.”
Mali said the recruitment is a result of TSA having the all-body scanner and the opening of two new checkpoints at Lihu‘e Airport.
“Those checkpoints won’t be operating 24/7, but during peak travel hours,” Mata said. “The new positions will be to fill that need.”
Mali said the motivation for reinstating the paper application is the need for applicants to get to know who they are applying with, rather than applying online.
She said mailers, advertisements in newspapers, radio and ads at the mall were used to get the word out to prospective employees.
“When they check in, there will be a survey taken to see which form of media was most effective,” Mali said. “But for most people, this is a great opportunity to get into a federal position. The application process is long, but once they’re in, there are good opportunities.”
One of the people waiting said he had already gone through five steps of the application process and just wanted to see if there was a way to speed up his process.
Mali said in addition to the registration, applicants have a brief orientation on what the position entails by viewing a video on the position. They also get help filling out the application and are scheduled for the computer testing, a prerequisite for the job.
The recruitment continues from 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. today at the Lihu‘e Civic Center.
“This is great,” Greer said. “There’ll probably be the same amount of people waiting Thursday morning.”
