Jimmy Currier
Observer staff writer

People came from near and far to the Santa Ana Star Center on Monday. No, it wasn’t for a concert or a sporting event, but rather it was to find a job.

More than 1,150 people came to a job fair hosted by Hewlett-Packard. The technology company is hiring for sales, technical support and technical solutions consultant positions. HP plans to open in late December and hopes to employ 1,350 people by the end of 2012.

Randall Davis, site manager for the Rio Rancho center, said the company has a great candidate pool and he’s very happy with what he’s seen so far. Job fairs are a method to find employees whose skills match what the company needs, Davis said.

The job fair started with candidates watching a presentation about HP and then candidates spent about 15 minutes in individual interviews with technical support or sales managers. Those who made a favorable impression may be getting call- backs for another interview. Those who didn’t make the cut were directed to the New Mexico Workforce Connection site to obtain information on job services that may help them apply for future HP positions or other career opportunities. Services include interviewing workshops, resume workshops and salary negotiation workshops.

Margaret Sachs of New Mexico Workforce Connection said the organization wasn’t only assisting HP in employee recruitment, but also trying to get people into a career or a job. The organization offers skills assessments, workshops, resource rooms, job announcements and training opportunities.

In addition to hundreds of folks from Rio Rancho and Albuquerque that attended the fair, Patrick Newman from New Mexico Workforce Connection said people from Utah, California, Colorado, Las Cruces, Silver City and Socorro came looking for work.

“This is not only great for Rio Rancho, but it’s great for the whole state,” Newman said. “Unemployment has affected a lot of people and this shows that people are willing and ready to get back to work.”

HP recently broke ground on a new facility and plans to employ 1,800 people in 15 years. The company says the majority of the jobs will pay at least $40,000.

The positions HP is looking to fill include inside sales, technical support and technical solutions consultant.

Inside sales representatives are responsible for selling the HP product portfolio to a targeted list of small and medium businesses, via telephone and working in collaboration with original equipment manufacturer sales teams.

Technical support representatives provide technical support to internal and external customers in a phone/web based 24/7 call center environment.

Technical solutions consultants provide remote service customer access, pre-sales, post-sales and service delivery to solve various business systems and applications problems for customers, onsite engineering personnel and authorized service providers on standard, specialized or complex systems.

For more information on jobs at HP, visit HP.com/go/job or call the New Mexico Workforce Connection at 896-1765.