Job seekers in the driver’s seat at Navient job fair

HANOVER TWP. — Christopher Grohol was in the driver’s seat for his job interview, literally.

The Sugar Notch man never had to leave his Volkswagen Jetta Thursday for the drive-through job far Navient held in the parking lots of its Lasley Avenue facility.

Navient was adding up to 35 people in its call center for its student loan servicing business. With the COVID-19 pandemic ongoing, the company hosted the first-of-its-kind job fair as a safe way to fill the spots.

“This is sort of our test to see if people like the concept,” said Lisa Stashik, Navient site leader and vice president of the Office of the Customer Experience.

Grohol and Angel Martin took a short drive from nearby Sugar Notch to apply .

Grohol said his father worked there a few years ago.

“I saw they were having a job fair through Indeed (a job search website),” Grohol said.

Martin was interested in working in an office job. “The benefits are really good here,” she said.

There were a number of people who preregistered. Those who submitted an application online and were qualified could be hired on the spot. Call Center Supervisor Jeira Holguin pulled up a chair to the passenger side of a Toyota Rav4 parked under one of the two tents set up for the event that ran from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. and spoke with a prospective job candidate.

New hires would start at $13 an hour, undergo training and work in-person to start at the Hanover Township facility, home to approximately 750 employees, said Matt Ford, a Navient spokesman. They would have the potential to work from home later on.

Others shared Martin’s interest in the benefits and incentive plans, Ford said.

“A lot of people are having to work part-time now one job, two jobs. Here they get the full benefits and it starts the first month after you’re hired, which is fairly fast,” Ford said.

The package offered to new hires included:

• Base pay with eligibility for a monthly performance bonus.

• Three weeks of paid time off; four weeks after one year on the job.

• Health, dental, vision and life insurance.

• 401K with an employer match.

• Tuition reimbursement.

• On-site fitness center.

• Business casual work environment.

The results were promising and a similar drive-through could be tried at other Navient locations, possibly in either Muncie or Fishers, Indiana, Ford said.

“We were able to make a few offers on the spot,” Ford said. “Others are still working through the system and we hope to contact them in a couple days as well.”

Ford directed people who could not make the event to visit the company’s web site, jobs.navient.com.