Students and community members who are looking for jobs or just curious about what’s out there can attend the College and Community Career Fair from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m. April 30 at the ICA Gym in the Odessa College Sports Center.
“We are hoping to have as many people show up to this event as possible, whether they are looking for a job right now. Obviously, we have targeted it at this particular time because graduation is just right around the corner so ideally, a lot of our students that are going to be completing their degrees can meet a bunch of potential employers and have a chance to really have a good conversation and see what all’s out there,” said Aaron Trimble, OC Career and Transfer Coordinator.
About 40 employers are expected. Workforce Solutions has partnered with the college and will have people on hand promoting their services, as well, Trimble added.
The college usually invites the community to job fairs. The only exceptions would be events where they target students.
”For instance, this evening (April 23) as a prep prep event for the career fair we’re having an etiquette dinner over at O’Cuisine … Our culinary arts students are going to put together a three-course meal and we’ve got a group of 15 students that have registered for the career fair that we are inviting. They are going to be able to practice some basic table etiquette. We’re going to go over good topics for casual conversation in a non-formal setting; topics to avoid, how to properly introduce yourself, including some really good things to mention, like how long you’ve lived in the area, whether you’ve got pets, little things like that that you may not think about. But perhaps by being a little bit more deliberate, we can help these kids, make things a little easier for them as they navigate the career fair,” Trimble said as he was interviewed in the Keith Career and Transfer Center.
Last year, the career fair drew about 126 people. They are hoping to exceed that number this year with the help of more marketing.
“In addition to that, we are obviously heavily marketing it to all of our students, not just our credit students over here of which there are about 8,100 but all of our continuing education students across the street. That total comes to around 15,000, so we’re heavily promoting it to them. I have done personal outreach with the Odessa Development Corporation to ask them to promote it so we’re trying to go a couple of different routes here to really get the word out,” Trimble said.
He added that they want to make this a really good experience for students and employers because OC is trying to build strong relationships with them.
“It’s kind of a big focus right now of the school to really boost up our post-graduation outcomes; essentially, just really focus in on the different things that have changed at the state level” in terms of the community college funding formula, Trimble said.
He added that there is a study by the Journal of Developmental Economics showing that if you look out 10 months from a job fair, a very high percentage of people who attended end up being employed.
“It’s about double the amount that don’t attend one, so if you go what winds up happening is you can make connections, and those connections open up your eyes to different fields and companies and jobs that you maybe didn’t think about before, but you can see how your skills tend to apply to these different roles,” Trimble said.
Additionally, not everyone posts their jobs on Indeed.
“A lot of times there’s going to be a lot of opportunities out there that you may not even know about and this is where this college can really step in and help with those post-graduation outcomes by having those partnerships already in place with those companies so that they know they can trust the people that we’re sending them and we know that we’re sending those students to good companies that are going to treat them well that are not going to try and lure them away and to immediate full-time employment and want them to actually finish their education,” Trimble said.
They have also taken students on tours of businesses in town and students have been able to meet with higher-ups.
“We’ve had a lot of success with that with our auto diesel programs over at the building on Eighth Street. We’ve been taking some of the students on tours for some different locations and businesses here in town, where they’ll show up with resumes in hand, have a chance to speak to managers and HR people and actually walk through the field and see all the stuff that goes on at that company. We’ve had some success with that as well,” Trimble said.
He added that some companies will be hiring on the spot.
“We’ve actually got spots set up for them to come in and do interviews right then and there,” Trimble said.
He added that they will be offering professional headshots and help with resumes.
With summer right around the corner, high school students looking for summer employment are encouraged to attend.
“We’ve got some employers that are going to be right in line with looking for students around that age, supermarkets, stuff like that, that they could work at,” Trimble said.
He added that there will also be opportunities for people already in the job market.
