By Patricia A. Korte
CCC Journalism Program
BLACKWOOD – Camden County College completed another spring job fair for students and community members that allowed crucial networking between a wide variety of business employers and potential employees.
The Camden County College Blackwood campus held its annual spring job fair April 26 and gave students opportunities to network and obtain new jobs and careers. Of the approximately 50 companies that attended the fair, some of the more popular tables were that of Nike, NAVSEA, TD Bank, Robert Half Finance and Accounting, Lincoln Heritage Funeral Advantage, Farmers Insurance and The Mental Health Association in Southwestern New Jersey.
Of the hundreds of people who attended the job fair, many were professionally dressed, while others took a more casual approach – both appealing to the employers. A handful of job seekers had their resumes in hand in preparation for the few businesses, like Aldo, who were holding on-the-spot interviews.
One of the many businesses that attended the fair, Avon, has been attending job fairs for seven years – participating in approximately 10 fairs a year. Like many other companies that were at the fair, a representative from Avon, Shari, found Camden County College job fairs to be extremely successful and agreed fairs held on campus are “the most successful.”
Of the more popular tables, one in particular, Nike, enjoys being present at job fairs because it gives the operations coaches, like Ashley Betanski, a chance to “make the hiring process more personal – matching faces to applications.” Betanski also said most of Nike’s hires come from Camden County College job fairs. Although Nike does not provide potential employees with on-the-spot interviews at the job fair, they still point people in the direction of being hired.
Another business that attracted many hopeful individuals was Aldo. This spring job fair was Aldo’s second job fair. The first job fair Aldo attended was Camden County College’s job fair last year, where they found enough people to staff their whole store in the Gloucester Premium Outlets. Scola Lee, Aldo’s district sales manager, stated she prefers job fairs “because it gives us a chance to make personal connections with potential staff.”
Discovering the spring job fair from posters in the hallways and classrooms and in a hopeful search for a career that will enable him to utilize his engineering degree, Camden County College student Magdi Awad, along with every student who attended the fair, hopes to have “made a few connections” with one of the many potential employers in engineering or graphing.
For more information on future job fairs at Camden County College, contact Joe Pranzatelli at jpranzatelli@camdencc.edu
Students and business representatives network in the atrium of the Connector Building at the 2016 spring job fair at Camden County College in Blackwood. By Patricia A. Korte, CCC Journalism Program