Career fair a huge success

Melissa Strle
Times Reporter

 

A career fair hosted by McBride Career Group is being deemed a rousing success by organizers.
The Sept. 13 event, which drew about 160 people, showcased 15 employers along with a few community resources at McBride’s downtown office location.
“There were people lined up out the door before we were even set up,” said McBride career coach Kristin Steidel.
The fair was designed to help bring employers and prospective employees all into one meeting place and facilitate a sharing of information regarding job opportunities.
Steidel said it was a good sign the job fair was busier than the last one held in the spring, and she was glad they also had more employers this time.
“I thought the response was really, really good this time,” she said.
According to Steidel, all employers were very busy at the fair, and BioCan in particular was exceptionally busy and conducting on-the-spot interviews. The employer had three different job descriptions including a class one driver position.
“There’s a lot of men from oil and gas layoffs who are looking for work and a lot of them are qualified,” said Steidel, who added she was surprised by the number of summer-type positions available.
For instance, Landscape Plus was hiring full time, permanent positions for the fall.
The RCMP, the Canadian military, McDonald’s, Walmart, Mark’s and Lyalta Gardens were some of the other employers at the career fair.
Michelle Fox-Salim, McBride Career Group program manager, said the fair increased McBride’s exposure to employers.
“As a result, we’ll have some of these employers post with us throughout the year when they have positions,” she said. “I think we’ll see a lot of employers post with us because they can see the quality of the individuals that they’ll get applying.”
McBride Career Group saw a lot of prospective employees the week before the career fair, helping them get ready by building up their confidence with resume tips, interview tips and personal presentation tips.
Fox-Salim said there was a good turnout and they were pleased with the preparation of job seekers who had resumes and who prepared and dressed for the occasion.
Next year, McBride hopes to expand the fair and will consider moving it offsite to a bigger location to accommodate more employers and potential employees.