Discover Coronado hosted two job fairs in Coronado on April 17 and 18 to provide opportunities for community members to connect with local businesses that are hiring. The first job fair was held at Coronado High School during the lunch period on April 17 and included the four resorts that contribute to Discover Coronado: Hotel del Coronado, Coronado Island Marriott Resort & Spa, Loews Coronado Bay Resort and Glorietta Bay Inn. This marks the third year for the high school event and 76 students were introduced to the hospitality industry and jobs that are available at local resorts. Thursday’s larger Job Fair was held at the Coronado Library Winn Room from 10 am to 2 pm and was comprised of over a dozen local businesses, including the resorts.
Todd Little, Executive Director of Discover Coronado, said, “We added the Coronado Job Fair at the Winn Room to help residents find better jobs, flexible hours and earn extra income during these inflationary times.” Todd estimated that over 200 people, of all ages, attended the job fair and believes that inflation was a key motivator for those in attendance. “We were both surprised and pleased with the huge turnout. There was a steady flow of job applicants during the event and the local businesses were thrilled with the number of quality candidates they have,” Todd said.
Businesses included the City of Coronado and Coronado Recreation, Sharp Coronado Hospital, Clayton’s, The Henry and Blanco, local resorts, Vons, Smart and Final, Navy Morale, Welfare and Recreation, and the Chamber of Commerce.
The City of Coronado was focusing on temporary seasonal hires, but shared that they would be opening some full time positions in a few weeks. The majority of the businesses had QR codes to take interested parties to their online application website and make it easy to apply for jobs.
The Chamber of Commerce manned a table that was primarily focused on providing job seekers with information on the many local small businesses in Coronado that weren’t physically present at the job fair. They had a sign up sheet for interested candidates to be added to their online database that has a digest of smaller businesses and their openings. The chamber also used this opportunity to market for the one position the chamber itself is hiring for, a part time Membership Coordinator. Little shared, “We’re so happy the Coronado Chamber of Commerce could represent so many small businesses who would have needed to close their stores to attend the fair.”
Michael Obeso, Coronado High School Class of 2021, was at the job fair looking for new opportunities. “Right now I live in the Coronado area with my parents, I went to high school here, I’ve worked here and I’ve always loved this general area,” said Michael. “I was planning to go door to door with my application throughout Coronado, but when I read about this Job Fair in the local paper I thought it would be a great opportunity to check them all out in one location.”
Regional Manager of Restaurant Operations for The Henry & Blanco, Emma Elmes, talked with interested job seekers about opportunities at their restaurants. When asked if the job fair was a useful hiring tool for their business Emma said “We loved being part of the job fair and got to meet some great candidates, and lots of them were Coronado locals. We have reached out to a few of the candidates to have next stage interviews at the restaurant and hopefully we will extend some offers. We love being part of this amazing community and can’t wait to open Blanco and hire lots more people!”
Little added, “The staff at the Coronado Public Library were exceptionally helpful and we found the Winn Room to be the perfect setting.” For those unable to attend the job fair but interested in job opportunities, Little provided this link to a list of open positions at the Coronado resorts.
