Over 1,600 people apply for 250 call centre jobs

on 10/01/2013 00:00:00

More than 1,100 people, mainly from Co Wexford, but also from as far away as Dublin and the west of Ireland, arrived for the open days last week.

Ever since the 250 jobs were announced last month, the Waterford-based company has been bombarded with email applications.

One of Eishtec's owners, Colm Tracey said the company had a phenomenal response once the jobs were announced.

"We had 1,600 online applications. We contacted everyone by email and text and felt the best way to get a handle on it was to have an open day."

Eishtec is opening a new call centre in Drinagh just outside Wexford town in October which will provide support for Orange, T Mobile and EE customers. The company already employs 400 people in Waterford.

"We were overwhelmed with the response and the quality of the people. It was a good few days and hopefully the Wexford community can see that this is not just another jobs announcement; these are real jobs.

"We interviewed about 300 people each day. Coming towards 7pm on Friday, we knew we weren't going to be able to interview everyone so we took names and we have a list and will be contacting them."

Mr Tracey said there were a wide variety of applicants, aged from the late teens to people in their 50s and 60s.

Training for the first 40 jobs begins on Jan 21 and will take three weeks.

"We hope to do 30 a month between now and October.

"We've been getting a mixture of applicants from retail, hospitality and other backgrounds. We are thrilled with the talent coming before us."