Thousands turn out for Kings Plaza Job Fair

It was beyond a full house at the Kings Plaza Job Fair on Thursday, October 17, when thousands of job seekers, from Flatbush to Bed-Stuy and even Queens, calmly wound their way through a snake-like line on the second floor of the indoor mall to meet with recruiters from nearly 40 local, state and Brooklyn-wide businesses who had over 1,000 seasonal and part or full-time positions to fill.

The turnout was “amazing” noted Dawn Simon, area senior marketing manager with Macerich, the parent company of Kings Plaza.

“Company-wide, our philosophy is community outreach and this is a way to help out the local community and shoppers while also helping retailers” find great job candidates, added Steven DeClara, senior manager of property management at Macerich.

Marine Park resident Deanna DeSilva noticed the job fair flyers and banners while shopping at Macy’s earlier this month and decided to take a chance at getting a seasonal job so that she could earn extra grocery and gift money for the holidays.

“I’m applying to Fashion To Figure and even though the environment [at the job fair] is quite chaotic, that means we can do the interview callbacks another day,” said DeSilva, who is working part-time and noted that getting to speak one-on-one with a recruiter is a good thing.

Indonesia Knights came to the job fair after her grandmother heard about it on the radio. The college student is hoping to find “a job to start out with [because] it’s time to get out on my own.” Her brother, Malcolm Riley, agreed, noting that finding a job would help him “set up a little foundation of stability.”

The longest lines were in front of the recruiters at Best Buy and Macy’s, but applicants were visiting multiple employers’ tables, submitting resumes, filling out forms and signing up for interviews. Other participating businesses included Pandora, GameStop, Charlotte Russe, Aerosoles and Starbucks, as well as city and borough-wide organizations such as the FDNY, the YWCA and the Brooklyn Chamber of Commerce.

Case managers from St. Nick’s Alliance were also on hand to recruit parents for job training programs such as the Fatherhood Program. “We have two weeks of job readiness training and classes in relationships with their spouse and children,” said case manager Chris Florio and outreach specialist Shamel Meadows, who added, “It’s like training in probation for employers. We have connections and want to see who would be a good fit for them.”

Job seeker Christina Albert, who was accepted into the job training program, is excited about her first day of orientation and plans to pursue opportunities with some child-focused retail companies because she has her daughter to take care of as well.

Overall, said Albert, the Kings Plaza job fair was a positive experience because of the variety in employers, the fact that “the line moved swiftly, better than others,” and the friendly recruiters who “are eager to tell you about the job.”

Old Navy’s Toyia Patrick is an example of the sort of Kings Plaza success story that some of the job seekers may be striving for. The recent college graduate started as a sales associate eight years ago and worked her way up to pricing specialist and now service and training manager.

“We have about 30 seasonal jobs to fill [and] we really appreciate [the job fair] because a lot of people don’t know to apply online,” said Patrick, adding that “the face-to-face interaction is great and we can see their personalities.”