Applicants were asked to simply turn up at Maitland's Reading Cinemas with resume in hand on Wednesday for a quick interview between 3.30 and 5.30pm.

The result was an almost endless queue of people snaking out the cinema's main doors and spilling onto the footpath along Ken Tubman Drive.

The response has left Cinema Complex Manager Yvette Cavanagh gobsmacked and with a renewed faith in our younger generation's will to work.

"Last time we had a vacancy we had about 30 applicants. This time we expected 50, maybe 100 at a push but ended up with over 200 people," Yvette said.

"We had four managers interviewing through until 7.30 that night," she said.

"We didn't want to call it because these people made the effort and stood in line for hours so we interviewed every one of them."

Yvette said there are two, possibly three casual positions available for candy bar workers. The positions drew interest from school and university students and some back to work mums.

"We aren't just looking for one particular age demographic, we just need to know that applicants can be flexible with their work hours because they can be on call and the ability to work weekends and school holidays is imperative," Yvette said.

Job seekers from Maitland, Singleton and Lake Macquarie turned up for interviews.

"Normally we would have resumes on file but this time Readings wanted us to put out a casting call so we could actually speak to people face-to-face and get a feel for their personality," Yvette said.

She and her staff will continue to trawl through the pile of resumes and the successful applicants will be notified Monday.

The positions have come following the refurbishment of cinema 1 which included new surround sound, a bigger screen and 138 big seat recliners. The complex has more than 800 seats.

Maitland Mercury