MYRTLE BEACH — Doreen Rogers has been on the job hunt for about a year.

“I would be very happy to start to work tomorrow,” she said.

She’s hoping Frontier Communications, which held a job fair Monday for a new call center in Myrtle Beach, will finally be the company to offer a position.

Rogers was just one person in a steady stream of interested applicants at the fair on the Horry-Georgetown Technical College campus. At least 200 people came to learn more about the company and the job in the first hour and a half.

Tim Ruedy, area general manager for Frontier Communications, wasn’t surprised by the turnout and said they expected a big crowd of job seekers.

The fair was informational and all interested applicants should apply at frontier.com/careers.

Attendance won’t necessarily mean a leg up on the competition. Ruedy said one way to stand out in the online applications is prior experience because the work will start soon. The call center will be open in the next couple of weeks when the first batch of employees finishes training - a total of 110 people will be hired.

The staffing should be complete by the end of September, Ruedy said. The jobs pay $11- $12 an hour.

Rogers said she is keeping her fingers crossed with hopes that showing up to meet people like Ruedy helps her in the long run.

“I chose to be a stay at home mom,” she said. “Right now, I’m not valuable to the workforce. Now that my kids are grown and I want to work outside of the home, there’s no value to me compared to someone who’s been out and working.”

Jerry Large isn’t looking for a job, but instead is keeping an eye out for opportunities in the Myrtle Beach area so his 40-year-old daughter can relocate from Indiana.

His wife Donna, who worked for AT&T, is planning to come out of retirement and apply for the job though.

“I enjoyed my career and I like working with people,” she said. “I thought this might be interesting.”

Horry County Council recently authorized the Myrtle Beach Regional Economic Development Corporation and the county administrator to move forward in negotiations with an unnamed company considering another call center. Currently called Project Blue the potential site is in the Carolina Forest area.

Donna Large said call centers could make sense in the area because of the rural communities.

“The market is big here particularly in the rural or semi-rural areas,” she said. “There’s probably a lot of business that needs to be done to keep customers happy and bring in new types of communications. It would be very helpful to the community.”

Ruedy said the new call center is needed because the company is growing and expanding into the broadband world.

Friendliness is the most important quality for applicants, he said, though computer and problem solving skills are beneficial.

“Being authentic is the most important thing,” Ruedy said. “If anything we’re looking for cheerful people.”

Contact AMANDA KELLEY at 626-0381.