Marshalls hiring event draws large crowd

Monday was the kick off to a week-long hiring event organized by Employment Connection and Marshalls in anticipation of the retail store’s grand opening in mid-March.

The event was scheduled to begin at 9 a.m. Monday, but interviews began as early as 8:30 a.m. due to the turnout, said Dave Hawkes, site coordinator with Porterville Employment Connection.

The job center’s waiting room was crowded with prospective employees, all vying for an opportunity to fill one of 80 available positions.  

Porterville native Stephanie Duncan was among Monday’s crowd.

“I’ve been looking for a job — for a full-time job — for a year now,” Duncan said, adding that she is currently living with her mother, who is also unemployed.

The 21-year-old Porterville High School graduate and single-mother of one used to work for McDonalds in Bakersfield, but said the commute was rough.

“I did it for nine months, it was hard,” she said. “I have joint custody of my daughter, and there were some weeks I didn’t even get to see her.”

She took the job because she had trouble finding employment in Porterville, she said. 

She was unable to secure an interview with PetSmart when the newly-opened store was hiring, and said that if she is not considered for a Marshalls position, she will try applying at rue21, which is set to open Thursday in the same West Henderson shopping center.

Lindsay resident Shyann Richardson, 18, said she would do the same.

Richardson is a student at College of the Sequoias, and said she needs a job mainly due to education-related expenses, like gas.

“It gets tough,” she said. “I’m spending about $60 a week on gas, traveling to Visalia and back two or three times a week. That’s why I need a job.”

By about 9 a.m., Hawkes said his team would be interviewing more than 150 people that day.

The store, which is set to open March 15, is hiring for positions as dressing room, sales, and back room associates, and administrative, back room, merchandising, and customer service coordinators. Hawkes said some people may be offered jobs this week, and said there are experienced Marshalls store managers on scene overseeing the interview process.

The hiring event runs through Friday, from 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. at the Employment Connection center, 1063 W. Henderson Ave. in Porterville.

Contact Denise Madrid at 784-5000, ext. 1047 or dmadrid@portervillerecorder.com. Follow her on Twitter @DeniseMadrid_