“I thought, ‘Oh my God, that’s so many.’ But then our admin said, ‘No, you’ve got another 870-odd on SEEK’.
“They’re still coming through now, so over 1000 … for a meat packer’s role. So pretty overwhelming actually.
“It was like, ‘Oh, how do I deal with this?’”
The interest was crazy he said, as was the expertise among the applicants.
“I think the biggest difference was I could have started up lots of businesses. I had someone that had 20 years of aviation security experience.”
Those vying for the job included several rest home workers and a computer engineer.
“[Could] probably build something and go to Mars … with all the people that actually applied.”
It was daunting to see people looking for work whose skill sets were “10, 20 times” what was required, Sharples said.
After trawling through the applications, he ended up hiring three people, including an apprentice.
His advice to young people looking for work was to avoid showing up with parents and also to tap into friends and family networks.
“And just keep on doing it because you’ve got to come across positive.”