Hundreds Look for Jobs at MARP

Hundreds of job-seekers descended on the Mall at Rockingham Park Thursday evening for the mall's first-ever holiday retail job fair.

People from all ages and were filling out applications and sitting down for interviews all across the largest mall in the state, looking for any opportunities possible for extra cash as holiday shopping nears.

Mall marketing director Emily Hoang said over 620 positions at 44 retailers in numerous areas were available at the fair ranging from full-time to part-time jobs, with some for opportunities to last beyond the season.

"I surveyed all the retailers and the feedback was extremely positive," Hoang said when she approached them about the idea of a fair.

"We've got high school kids, we've got college kids who'll be here on break, we've got moms looking to work mother's hours, we've got retirees," Hoang said of the diverse crowd of people in attendance.

Beth Valentine, manager of the mall's Pandora store, said her staff "explodes" during the holiday season and thought the job fair was a great idea.

"We were already looking to hire but this was a great venue to take advantage of having a lot of people milling around," Valentine said. "We thought it was fabulous."

"It's a great chance to chat with people first-hand instead of them just coming in with an application," said Cheryl Fogg, manager of Eastern Mountain Sports. "We've had great response...I really like the face-to-face. You can get an idea of the kind of person they are."

Lots of the younger job-seekers surrounded the tables for stores like GameStop, including recent high school grad Evan Malinowski of Salem.

"I'm looking for any job I can get, really," he said. "Any job that's open around here would be great. I'm just looking for some money to get me through right now."