The Chamber's Community Job Fair a great success

THE WOODLANDS, Texas – With local businesses seeking candidates and over 250 potential applicants looking for jobs, The Woodlands Area Chamber of Commerce Community Job Fair reaped big results for many.

“Employers found this job fair to be very helpful,” Chamber President Karen Hoylman said. “The economy has picked up; hiring has picked up. The overall response from employers was that they found a large variety of applicants with good resumes. We’re very grateful to Liberty Mutual as presenting underwriter for the event and to Sam Houston State University for hosting us this year. We had lots of space, a lovely facility, and lots of parking which worked out well for everyone.”

Links for the employers seeking candidates are still accessible to attendees at The Chamber website's events page, according to Ashley Byers, Chamber Special Events Director. Mini-seminars included Interview Preparation, Dressing for Success, and How to Negotiate Employees. A long line of people indicated the popularity of Interfaith’s Work Force Solutions team who did resume reviews for attendees and provided helpful tips for improvement, Byers said.

“The Chamber continually provides events to help us run our businesses,” Amy Milstead said. Milstead is the president of Milstead Automotive & Transmission and was recently elected as The Area Chamber of Commerce Chairman-Elect for 2013-2014.

“It was wonderful to see so many candidates come through the Job Fair seeking jobs. Our company found some good fits for jobs open and that made it time well spent for us. Initially, we hoped to find one specific person to fill a particular need, but we ended up with leads for several entry level positions as well. I hope other employers will take advantage of it in the future and hire locally. The person for the position we needed most to fill was more qualified than we expected to find there,” Milstead said. “We were surprised and happy to find someone with his capabilities who is a perfect fit for the job.”

Staci Pennington, human resources specialist with Milstead Automotive and Transmission, needed to fill a recently vacated controller position, and decided to attend the Annual Community Job Fair. The event was hosted at the new SHSU Woodlands Center adjacent to the LSC-Montgomery College.

From the start of the event Pennington had a steady flow of traffic throughout the day. Although she had a particular position to fill, she found the number of qualified candidates impressive.

“There was zero lull time throughout the day,” she said. “I’ve been to job fairs before, but this was one of the busiest I’ve ever experienced. The professional environment had some excellent applicants, and the majority was well educated. At the end of the day it proved very beneficial.”

Pennington had collected applications from several attendees, but late in the day she overheard someone talking at table next to her. Managing to get his attention before he turned away, she asked some questions and heard all the right answers. He had a Master’s degree in accounting, was CPA licensed, and was open to exploring a new opportunity.

"I was so excited to go back and share the information,” Pennington said. “Within just days after the Job Fair, we hired Scott Weatherly. Within a week we had the person we needed, and by the next week he was in his new office. Attending the Job Fair was a great investment of time and effort for us--time well spent. When administrative staff positions do become available, we’ll definitely seek out candidates at the Job Fair again.”

For someone hoping to find a job that fit, Scott Weatherly thinks he came pretty close. Interviewing for a job and beginning it within a week of the Job Fair was way more than he had hoped for.

“I graduated from SHSU with my Master’s degree in accounting last year and received an email about the job fair,” Weatherly said. “After leaving my resume with Staci, I soon received a call to interview and two days later was notified that I had the job. I highly recommend the Job Fair. It was the perfect matchmaker.”

For information about future job fairs, visit the events calendar and the Chamber's event listings.