This year, hundreds of positions are opening up at the Houston Airport System (HAS) and a push is underway to find the best and brightest to fill them. Keeping the sixth-largest airport system in the world running smoothly is a job that requires the assistance of hundreds of employees. Folks like T.J. Jennings and Sal Navarro who take care of the trucks, cars, bull-dozers, backhoes and countless other vehicles in the Houston Airport System’s fleet of vehicles – more than 400 in total. Or like Bill Zrioka. Zrioka is a senior planner for HAS who deals with the details, timing, and funding of the airport system’s master plans. He and Jennings, and Navarro are just a small part of the talented workforce already employed at Houston’s airports. According to Arthur Laborde, human resources staff analyst for the Houston Airport System, more employees are needed to handle the operations and technical responsibilities of running a three-airport-system. “We are on a rampage,” he says. “What we’re trying to do is get our name out there. The misunderstanding is that we hire pilots, airplane engineers and mechanics. We don’t hire those people – we hire for all types of other jobs, like laborers, accountants, security personnel, computer aided drafting and design, architects and systems technicians, just to name a few.”

© Houston Airport System Keep an eye out for the Houston Airport System at career fairs like this one.

In April and May of this year, HAS is gearing up to fill 30 new labor positions available at Bush Intercontinental and William P. Hobby airports.

Qualifications for working at the airports vary from one position to another. Some openings require only an eighth grade level education and a desire to work hard; others necessitate advanced college degrees and/or certifications. Accordingly, salaries range from $8.43 an hour, for entry level positions, to six figure incomes for senior level careers.

Before a job offer is extended, however, employment histories must be verified and a 10 year criminal background check must be passed.

Whether you are just starting out in the work place, are retired or are simply looking for a new challenge the airports are great place to work, Laborde noted.

“I know everything about a car and we use lots of them at the airports,” Navarro concurred. “I can build one from scratch if I have to. Whenever a contractor wants to tell me ‘it happened like this’ or ‘I have to do that’, I can say ‘I don’t think so’ and let them know how to get the work done faster, making sure they meet the proper safety requirements.”

The aviation environment offers roughly 1,500 employees the opportunity to use their enthusiasm, expertise and experience in ways critical to the daily operations of the multi-billion dollar Houston Airport System setting.

“It’s a great opportunity to learn,” says Zrioka, who spent four years in the army and several years working downtown as a planner prior to joining HAS. “This is a totally different type of planning; getting to know how airports operate and grow and develop is different from commercial planning. Airport planning is its own animal.”

This year the Houston Airport System is scheduled to attend more than a dozen job fairs throughout the Houston metropolitan area. Plans are also underway to host at least two employment events at the airport system.

In late February HAS will be recruiting at the Houston Area Urban League Career Fair and in late March they will have a booth at the Houston Area Consortium of Career Centers Fair. The latter regularly draws top local, national and international recruiters – the likes of Shell Oil and Toyota.

For information regarding employment opportunities at the Houston Airport System call the employment information line at 281.233.1515 or logon to www.fly2houston.com and search under jobs.

It just might change your life.

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