'It's the perfect summer job'
Water park hires hundreds, with loads of young folks

June 22, 2008
By CHRISTINE S. MOYER

YORKVILLE -- Carol Eichelberger is exhausted. Since March, Eichelberger has been interviewing and hiring more than 300 employees for Yorkville's new water park, Raging Waves, which is expected to open Saturday on Route 47. It's a tiring job, Raging Waves' human resources manager said of sorting through around 500 applications and conducting slightly fewer interviews. Then factor in that a majority of the applicants were teens and college students -- some of whom were interviewing for their first-ever jobs -- and the endeavor grew even tougher.

"It's been a fun process, grueling, exhausting," Eichelberger said recently on her cell phone, rushing somewhere for work. "We definitely are welcoming (employees) of all ages," she noted. "But the audience that does have a really big attraction (to the water park), of course, are the teenagers."

Meet lifeguard Amy Haisch. The effervescent 19-year-old from Oswego plans on twisting down the Three Sisters slide and bouncing along the lazy river on the days she's not working at what is billed as the state's largest water park. "Why wouldn't I want to work here?" Haisch asked on a recent afternoon. "It's the perfect summer job." On an early June day, Haisch joined a group of employees in hard hats and jeans, preparing the park for patrons. They swept, readied computer systems and set up lounge chairs. Haisch admitted to being nervous for her job interview. But she relied on interview do's and don'ts, which she learned in a high school class.

Her colleague, 19-year-old Eric Oleson of Plano, who was hired as a lead supervisor at the park, said he used common sense and the assistance of a good friend to help him ace the interview. "I just knew I shouldn't dress like a complete slob," the Southern Illinois University at Carbondale student explained. "I had one of my girlfriends pick out a shirt I would wear," Oleson said. "I'm not going to lie." The shirt was so nice, in fact, that Eichelberger still remembered it weeks later -- a striped button-down. "From my brother's closet," Oleson quickly added. In turns out, age does not indicate interview performance, according to Eichelberger. There was only one teenage job applicant out of the hundreds who interviewed that she found appalling. "The way (the teen was) dressed, answered questions ... are you kidding me?" she said.

For many of the interviews, usually lasting 20 to 30 minutes, Eichelberger described herself as both interviewer and teacher, coaching teens when they got stuck. She urged the young job seekers to think about the big picture and consider questions in terms of their personal experiences. "If I ask you to give an example of a leadership role you had," Eichelberger said she told one prospective employee, "maybe (say) I was captain of my soccer team." Then, she said they often sighed, "Ohhh," in understanding. Following their interviews, Eichelberger communicated with many of the potential employees through e-mail. She broke into laughter thinking about some of the e-mail addresses that popped up in her inbox. "'Triple X love kitten,'" Eichelberger said, "just doesn't fly with employers." So she stressed the importance of having a "good, plain" e-mail address appropriate for business purposes to the teens she hired.

The park's general manager, Michael Fijas, views the number of qualified applicants as a sign that there is "a definite need for something like this" in the community. In the business for about 20 years, Fijas said summer labor is an issue for water parks, which often have to hire foreign students who are working in the United States.

"I'm thrilled," Fijas said, to be "bringing all these (local) people in." For many of the young employees, Raging Waves means more than a sweet summer job. It's something to do. "In Sandwich there's only a movie theater," said 19-year-old Kelsi Lemar. "This is probably one of the biggest things to come around here." She thought for a moment and then added, "It's probably the most fun thing you could do in this area." Her teenage colleagues nodded their heads vigorously in agreement.