Second annual Career Expo reaches out to the city

Warner Pacific College welcomed over 200 participants and 30 vendors at its second annual career fair, held in McGuire Auditorium on Monday April 11. Industries represented included banking, hospitality, insurance, retail, sales, and administrative services. In addition to quality job offerings, attendees connected with local non-profits such as Worksource Oregon, Goodwill Industries, and Self-Enhancement, Inc. (SEI).

The career expo committee included career specialist Nicole Booker, Director of Career and Life Counseling Denise Haugen, ADP Marketing Relations managers Carol Selva and Aaron Pontius, Business Professor Roger Martin, and several WPC students.

Committee members saw the career expo as a creative way to demonstrate the college’s overall mission to “be in the city, for the city.” The committee recruited employers that were hiring and actively promoted the event to the greater community.

One job seeker commented, “This career fair is different from all the rest because, it’s intimate and I feel I really have a fair chance at connecting with employers.”

Another expressed, “I have attended the Warner Career Fair Event for two consecutive years and both times I left feeling optimistic about my future career endeavors and the current financial climate, because employers are feeling confident about hiring again.”

Megan Enos, the Director of Academic Counseling at ADP, said she attended the expo to show her support of students and to “capture the unique way in which businesses are introduced to the Warner community and the way students are engaging with employers.”

The committee has already started planning the next career expo for fall 2011. The team will examine ways to improve the expo by creating surveys for job seekers and cooperating businesses.