Barb Granter

Gilroy Gardens will begin hiring to fill hundreds of seasonal positions beginning this month. The Gilroy Gardens Job Fair takes place Feb. 27 starting at 11 a.m. Granter strongly advises that applicants be in line at least 15 minutes before the gate opens. (We think a little earlier is even better.)

Gilroy Patch: Job Fair is coming up. What’s your advice for teens trying to get their first job?

Barb Granter: They really should put in an application before the job fair. This is the first year that we have online applications, and the kids seem to manage that with such ease. If they fill out their application ahead of time, it's easier for us to put them in the right place sooner than those who haven’t filled out an application.

Patch: How many jobs will you fill this year?

Granter: We fill between 500 and 1,200 seasonal positions every year, depending on the economy. We give preference to people who have worked for us before and have good work records. So really, 50 percent of those jobs will be filled before the job fair.

Patch: If the economy is in poor shape, you fill fewer positions?

Granter: Right. If the economy is good, there’s a steady turnover of people leaving for other jobs; if there aren’t many jobs out there, more people stay with us until the end of the season. We need 800 people to run the park when we’re open full time, but we hire more than that to prepare for turnover.

Patch: What’s the breakdown for hiring in terms of age; do you hire mostly teenagers?

Granter: Yes, high school students make up the largest group that we hire. After that, we have many students from Gavilan College, especially when we can offer a good fit for what they’re studying, such as horticulture. And then there are adults filling the second job in their family or who want to work outside the home but don’t want to take on more than 35 to 40 hours a week. We also hire a number of senior citizens. Basically we hire people from 16 to 75 years of age.

Patch: And that’s in addition to your docent program?

Granter: Yes. We have about 150 docents who volunteer their time. They have different jobs than those we give to our paid employees. For people very interested in plants, botany or horticulture, it can make more sense to be a docent and focus on those areas. Many of our docents are senior citizens, but we also have college students who choose to be docents to gain some experience in their course of study.

Patch: Do teens who’ve never had a job before have a disadvantage?

Granter: This is one of the best places for a teen who has no work experience to find a job. If you bring a resume with you, great. If you have no work experience, but you still put together a resume listing your volunteer work or your after-school or extracurricular activities, even better. We expect that most of our applicants won’t have work experience; what we look for is attitude, a willingness to come to the job fair looking like the kind of employee we want to hire.

Patch: Do many teens show up at the job fair in inappropriate attire?

Granter: This is the biggest mistake that teens make: They come with the idea that if they are hired, then they will shave or cut their hair or take out their earrings or shorten their fingernails. A good number come to the job fair in sweatpants and hoodies. The people we hire have thought about the impression they want to make; they’re neatly dressed and have a very good attitude and presence.

Patch: So avoid the torn blue jeans, take out any long earrings and make sure your hair is neat. Should people come very early the day of the job fair?

Granter: People are welcome to come as early as 7 a.m., and I know that many teens do that, but I always think that’s the parents’ influence. I don’t think you need to camp out. We’re more interested in a teen’s attitude. But you do have to be here on time.

Patch: People who come after 11 a.m. won’t be as likely to get a job?

Granter: The jobs will be filled. At some point we will cut off the line, because we will have hired all the people we need.

Patch: In previous years, you have hired 15-year-olds. This year will you hire teens that young, or will most employees be 16 or older?

Granter: We will not begin the season with 15-year-olds but we welcome any 15-year-olds to submit an application online and to come to the job fair for the experience. If it’s a year where we have a lot of turnover, a 15-year-old could possibly get a job later in the year, if they come to human resources in person and ask about openings. I don’t want any younger teens to be disappointed because their chances of getting a job are slim, but the experience can be helpful when they apply for a job later.

Patch: You have worked in theme parks yourself before coming to Gilroy Gardens.

Granter: Oh my gosh, yes. My first job was at Canada’s Wonderland, outside of Toronto. I spent my formative years at theme parks in Canada. Canada's Wonderland was part of the Cedar Fair family of theme parks as is Knott's Berry Farm and Great America. Gilroy Gardens is managed by Cedar Fair, too.

Patch: And from Canada you went to work in Vegas?

Granter. Right. I oversaw the opening of Star Trek: The Experience and then oversaw the installation of Television City at the MGM Grand. That was a testing location for television pilots.

Patch: It must have been a major cultural shift to move from Las Vegas to Gilroy.

Granter: It was.

Patch: What’s your favorite aspect of being back in a theme park?

Granter: I love watching teens take on a supervisory role and enjoy the job. Working in a theme park gives you such great opportunities to learn. If you are an excellent employee with us for two to three years, chances are you’ll be a supervisor with us. We have teens who have been with us for three or four years running restaurants with million-dollar budgets. They learn cash management, inventory systems, cost of sales. They get their hands on labor budgets. Once they leave Gilroy Gardens for college or other jobs, they won’t have those chances for quite a few years. The skills teens learn while working at Gilroy Gardens will benefit them for decades and in their future professions.

gilroygardens.org/

Apply online at 

jobs.cedarfair.com/gilroygardens/index.cfm