Career fair brings employers, potential employees together
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PABLO — Students and interested community members picked up information on careers, talked to recruiters and got some ideas for summer employment at the 2015 Salish Kooteani College Career Fair held at the Joe McDonald Health and Fitness Center on Feb. 17.
Job Corps brought a busload of students to the fair.
“I found a lot of resources, a lot of things to do — and scholarships,” said David Plant, a Job Corps student.
His classmate Natasha Chcischilly was talking to hospital representatives because she’s interested in the medical field.
Thinking about employment during the salmon run, students Brandon and Mandey Kittson visited with representatives of Inlet Fish Producers, Inc., Kenai, Alaska. Inlet employees Bobbie Heimgartner and Eddie Jackson were on hand to answer questions and steer prospective employees to applications and the website at inletfish.com.
SKC highway construction training students Erik Rodriguez and Chase Sheehan were stopping people to tell them about the program.
“The best recruiters are my students,” said Shannon Ahhaitty, recruiter and administrative assistant for the highway construction program said. She’s proud of her students, “a diverse group.”
Not many students come from east Los Angeles to Pablo, but Rodriquez did to visit his dad in Kalispell. He fell in love with Montana and decided to stay. But he needed an occupation because “the whole part time job thing” was tough.
His dad had driven trucks for 18 years while his mother drove a truck in the United States Army, so Rodriguez thought he’d give it a try.
“I’d never set foot in a diesel,” he said. “Now I can drive ‘em, uncouple ‘em and back ‘em up.”
He’ll graduate this fall and has plans to work in the oilfields or the mines to save enough money to open his own kickboxing gym.
Sheehan will graduate in June and might drive a truck for Inlet Fish Producers; he’s always wanted to go to Alaska.
Allison Pretty On Top, an SKC Internet technology student, was interested in many of the 71 programs at the fair.
“It will help people who aren’t in school,” Pretty On Top said.
That’s especially important to Pretty On Top and friends Darell and Arlanna Harjo, who moved to Pablo with her. They will be attending SKC in the fall but need summer jobs.
In addition to discovering more about careers that interest them, students could learn about social media in a short workshop called “The Good, The Bad and The Ugly.”
Held at the Johnny Arlee/Victor Charlo Theater, Rachel Andrews, SKC Human Resources, talked to students about social media and how it can be used to enhance their ability to find a job or to present themselves well— or can be very detrimental, depending on what they choose to post.
The career fair was hosted by SKC and Lake County Job Services.
