Bilingual Job Fair A Big Success.

Sunday is the day when we see the most job advertisements in Costa Rica’s largest daily newspaper – La Nacion.

The Bilingual Job Fair was extensively advertised in La Nacion and held at the Centro Nacional de Cultura from 20th to the 22nd of February 2009

While other websites always like to focus on all the negative news in Costa Rica – and why their advertisers stick around, I have no idea – but where they see a loss of jobs, I look into it and quickly discover that apart from the construction industry, most of the jobs lost are minimum wage wage jobs in dying industries and, as you can clearly see from this site, there are dozens of companies looking to fill thousands of new jobs and these are skilled, much higher paid opportunities.

Hewlett Packard alone is looking for over 3,000 new employees…

As you can see from their advertisement, “It’s Still Day 1 for Amazon in Costa Rica” and the continue to hire new staff for their new operations in Heredia, Amazon.com …

And take a look at the corporate names below who are hoping to hire staff at this job fair …. Recognize any of them?

Hologic is hiring a number of engineers and a Director of Operations… Hologic, Inc. (NASDAQ: HOLX) is a leading developer, manufacturer and supplier of premium diagnostics, medical imaging systems, and surgical products dedicated to serving the healthcare needs of women throughout the world.

During last year’s Bilingual Job Fair, 1,500 job seekers found what they were looking for and on the very first day at this year’s event, 2,500 English speaking Costa Rican visitors showed up. They must be able to speak English because the interviews were all to be conducted in English and not in Spanish.

Arcus, an internationally recognized talent management solutions company founded in 1999 in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, is opening a new US$2 million Latin American headquarters in ULTRAPARK in San José, Costa Rica.

Arcus was looking for over 70 staff and these openings include a Research Specialist/Recruiting Assistant, Recruiters, Desktop Support Specialist, Administrative Assistant, Call Center Agents, Sales Representatives and Project Managers.

“I am extremely excited to be relocating to Latin America and play a role in the Arcus expansion plans as we seek to truly build and develop a team of professionals devoted to our near shore operations,” commented Steven S. Wolfe, General Manager. “I look forward to building a team that together, can play a significant role in the company’s overall success.”
After the Job Fair, Mr. Wolfe said that: “We found an extremely high level of English. All the positions wer offered have been filled during the faiur.”

Marisol Fernandes, the Human resource Manager for the shipping company APL stated that: “We saw a good level of English. The people have improved ther fluency. We’re really pleased. We have definitively filled the vacant positioons.”

In total, more than 8,750 people attended the three day event.

Written by Scott Oliver, author of How To Buy Costa Rica Real Estate Without Losing Your Camisa and Costa Rica’s Guide To Making Money Offshore.

Andrew Makarik

to@welovecostarica.com

Andrew Makarik is the main editor of WeLoveCostaRica, a fan of this sunny country. He is also a loving husband and a has a lovely daughter. By being a devoted family man and the biggest Costa Rica fan, he wants to make more people feel at home there. WeLoveCostaRica unites people and helps them find new home or a new travel destination. This website is a friendly community where everyone can find not only information, but also new friends and travel pals. Andrew is also passionate about IT and programming, so he himself maintains a friendly atmosphere in this cozy environment of WeLoveCostaRica.com.