Companies Hiring, but Selective Amidst Large Pool

Though Hauppauge businesses say they have plenty of job openings to fill, employers are taking their time searching for a perfect match among the piles of resumes from job seekers.

ClearVision Optical, a designer and distributer of eyeglass frames and sunglasses, has four job openings ranging from an enterprise applications specialist to marketing communications writers.

“I think the reality is there might be a supply of talent, but in that huge of pool you still want to be selective and take your time to find the right match,” said Jennifer Trakhtenberg, ClearVision’s senior talent leader.

“The last thing you want to do is bring someone into the organization, train them, and then not be comfortable with the talent you have,” she added.

Trakhtenberg said potential candidates must go through several interviews, submit a writing sample or work project and agree to a personality and motivation assessment to make sure they fit into the company’s culture.

“In any role we have, a strong technical competency is a must, but we place a huge emphasis on cultural fit,” she said.

Jennifer McGraw, director of marketing for in Hauppauge, said she also weighs candidates' personalities in the equipment and furniture distributor's search for a Long Island lead sales job. 

“If someone has such a great personality, it's going to be more important than someone who is less likable but has a lot of contacts. I would always err on the side of personality,” she said.

The marketing director said she expects filling the Hauppauge job will take longer, despite a high unemployment rate.

“We all know our expectations are so lowered from everything that’s happened with the economy," she said. "You wonder if a person was so good, why are they out of work?”

That's in a direct conflict with conventional wisdom that says the overflow of willing workers makes it a great time to hire, McGraw said.

“We had the same position in New York City open for about seven months. We got a ton of resumes, but we could not find the perfect match,” McGraw said.

Many of the commercial and industrial businesses in the Hauppauge area have posted their job openings through Internet search engines like Indeed.com, including Coca-Cola Enterprises, Allstate Insurance and others.

Allstate, one of the nation's biggest insureres, is hanging a help wanted sign outside of its Hauppauge offices for multiple claims assistants.

, a represantative for Hauppauge-based  - a software firm specializing in sonar detection that picks up work through contracts with the U.S. Navy - said the company also looking to hire eight senior software engineers before the summer. Those are highly specialized jobs that require a lot of technical experience.

At the same time, another major insurer in Hauppauge, MetLife, has an , though to be considered, applicants need at least 10 years experience in the mortgage industry.

Not all of the openings in Hauppauge are so specialized, though. Sears Hardware is looking for an assistant manager, and architectural firm Oldcastle Building Envelope is looking for accounts payable clerks to make between $10 and $15 an hour. Coca-Cola Enterprises has also posted job openings for a cooler mover that delivers vending equipment.