Chris Navo was shocked when he got over 100 responses to an ad he placed on the employment website Indeed for two job openings in November 2025. “I had to shut it off,” he says.
Navo & Sons, a full-service septic company in Grass Valley, California, generally has an easier time finding employees than many companies because they’re well-known, having been around nearly 70 years. And often their 33 employees bring in relatives or friends.
“And we’re willing to bring in people that are not fully trained, who may be only 19 with very few skills,” Navo says. “If they have a willingness to work and show up on time and will be nice to customers and co-workers, we’ll work with them.”
Nevertheless, when Navo posts job openings he usually doesn’t get more than a few responses, so this one blew his mind, he says. “We had 52 applicants for a technician job in the field and 50 for a general office person. They were all local people. I think the economy’s been turning lately and people are starting to be unhappy with their jobs and looking other places.”
Navo says it took him a few days to work through all the applicants. “We had to be very triage about it,” he says. “If they didn’t have it all filled out right, or it was obvious it wasn’t related to the position, or maybe they were fishing, we threw it in the no pile. Whereas, before, when you only had two applicants you started thinking, ‘Well, maybe he just didn’t understand the assignment.’”
Navo and his team rated the remaining applicants into three groups, A, B, C — “These would be our dream people, these would be fine but we have more questions and these would be fine but we really need to make sure there’s not an obvious no to it.” They did about five interviews for each job and made their selection.
“And then we made sure to call or email every single person who applied to let them know,” Navo says. “And anyone who had an interview got called by me, because it’s rude to ignore them.”
Read more about Navo & Sons in this month’s issue of Pumper magazine.
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