THUNDER BAY – The Second annual Opportunities Northwest Job Fair, organized by Dougall Media, was held at the Valhalla in on Thursday and hundreds of attendees were ready to meet up and make connections with potential employers.
Event consultant Nancy Milani said that she expected over 1,500 people to attend after receiving 400 more pre-registrations than last year and having more than 80 businesses show up to meet with potential employees.
“Some of them are actually on-site doing interviews, so it's a great opportunity for people to come down and to see what's out there,” she said.
“There's a variety of sectors here, there is everything from mining and transportation, health services, education, there’s just so many different booths there. It’s very, very busy from the minute we opened the door today.”
Many organizations were thrilled at the chance to meet so many potential employees.
Ontario Native Women's Association human resources coordinator Tanya Towner said that it's been amazing to network and meet everybody coming through the doors.
“They're learning about who we are,” she said. “If they know ahead of time and just getting to experience us and experience everybody's here and interact with all the other local companies.”
Attendees like Pat Levesque were excited to go back to a more old-school way of job hunting that gives them the chance to meet employers face to face.
“Personally, I like to meet with people. Online, I don't like that personally, and I think there's a lot of people that that want to do a one-on-one,” said Levesque.
“Companies, I believe they get a better sense of who you are, what you're all about, you can't, basically, lie about anything, you're face to face, and you look at the person in the eyes and you can tell.”
