Halliburton finds fertile recruiting ground in Atlanta

<p>Halliburton Co. found fertile ground in Atlanta on a 22-city tour recruiting workers to help fulfill its $4.5 billion contract with the Pentagon for work in Iraq.</p><p>The company hired 112 "high-quality" employees during a recent two-day job fair downtown.</p><p>"Atlanta was the most successful," among the 22 cities, according to Chris Ward, chief recruiter for the mid-July job fair.</p><p>Atlanta provided more workers than any city outside Halliburton's home of Houston, Ward said.</p><p>Oklahoma City was next with 100 hires.</p><p>The Atlanta workers, chosen from 400 applicants, will be sent to Baghdad in early September to work for KBR, the Halliburton division running the Pentagon contract.</p><p>"We hired carpenters, equipment operators, welders, food service people, labor foremen, heating/air conditioning specialists, electricians, truck drivers, auto mechanics," Ward said.</p><p>The applicants ranged in age from 24 to 78, although most of those hired were in the mid-30s to late 50s.</p><p>Salaries ranged from $60,000 to $110,000 a year for an 84-hour workweek.</p><p>"It's about the same as working two jobs in the States, but then in Iraq, we pay for food and housing and there are few expenses and not much to spend money on," Ward said.</p><p>Ken Cobb, 59, an unemployed former professor with a masters degree in business administration, will get $80,000 a year to refuel jets.</p><p>"I've been out of work a long time because your age just knocks you out of consideration," Cobb said. "But not with KBR and Halliburton."</p><p>___</p><p>HASH(0x2866908)</p>

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