In this episode, Liz and Dan highlight the community resources that will be available at our upcoming career fair April 28th, 2022 from 3-6pm and what services they offer job seekers or anyone interested in career information.

Highlights:

Opportunity Center, CRPL Workforce Development Assistance

Urban Dreams

TRIO at Kirkwood

Impact CR

IowaWorks

DeltaV Code School

All right. Good afternoon, Liz. How are you?

Hey, good afternoon. Welcome to Careers &

Coffee.

Yeah, we're doing an afternoon edition

today. So I just got some water going, you know, mid afternoon.

Liz is still going strong

Yeah. It's cold. It's stupid weather outside.

Yeah, we've been having a rough spring. And it's

been a little bit since we've done Careers & Coffee. We've

we've been busy. Getting ready for what's going on right behind

me. So I don't know. Can you see that was

Looks like a career fair.

A career fair?

Coming on up?

Yeah, not too far away. That is next week,

taking place Thursday, April 28. 3 to 6pm at the downtown Cedar

Rapids Public Library. We have 37 employers registered right

now as well, as well as six community resources that are

going to be there. Unless if you don't mind me asking, Could you

talk about what a community resources real quick,

I'm really excited about this career fair. This is

a first time that we've done this. And we've done career

fairs for a number of years. And it's the first time we really

had, you know, all of these community resources come

together in a centralized place to offer services to job seekers

to really help anyone who's just maybe thinking about a career

change, maybe doesn't quite know. So even if you're not

ready for a job, change 100% Be sure to stop by sometime during

the career fair. And check out the community resources, we're

going to have the opportunity center at the library, which is

all about matching job seekers to right, you know, with their

skill sets to the right types of career paths, we'll have the

public library workforce development assistance team as

well. And they can give you a tour of the resources that they

have at the library so that you could come anytime and get help

from the librarians. Urban dreams is going to be there. And

they do a lot of workplace matching with like, they'll have

employers that they talk with and they can help match. Job

seekers to them and their focus is living wage. So they really

want to help you find a job that pays a living wage. So if you

struggle with that, then they're definitely someone you want to

talk to. And they're also located the lad library,

anytime. And I think they have a food pantry as well. So pretty

cool. TRiO at Kirkwood is not exclusive to Kirkwood students.

So it's open to the public. And the team, there's going to be

talking about the different resources that Kirkwood can

offer. People who want to change careers, get more skills,

upskilling, and what kind of assistance is available to them,

because there are quite a few programs from the state level

down to the community level that offer assistance for job seekers

who want to upskill because we know that we have a lot of

potential jobs, potential employees that just need a few

more skills that could really get them into a role that's

going to be good for them. Impact CR, which is part of the

Economic Alliance is going to be there talking about networking

opportunities. So that's kind of cool. And then IowaWorks is

going I will work then delta V Code School will be there. So

IowaWorks is the local Iowa Workforce development team, but

they have so many resources. And it's really helpful to stop by

and talk with them anywhere from just like role playing to

understanding, you know, understanding what opportunities

are out there locally for your particular interests. And then

Delta V Code School is kind of cool. They're willing to teach

anyone how to code. So if you would like to, if you'd be

interested in learning about coding, and how that could be a

great career path for you, and what kind of opportunities are

there they'll have some free resources for you to learn about

what services they offer?

Yeah, very cool. And really well said was I kind

of put you on the spot there, and you just ran rattled off,

you know, a six businesses, six nonprofits area nonprofits, and

knew on the back of her hand exactly what each one does. That

was awesome. So those community resources will be on the first

floor of the downtown public library. So you'll be able to

find those right as you walk in through the front of the back

door, and we'll have people there to kind of help you

navigate and find your way around. And then on the second

floor, there's going to be a lot of fun happening. And that's

where jobseekers can go potentially get hired on the

spot or find their next gig. 37 Employers will be up there. We

have a couple of different areas that are going to be blocked off

just for job seekers meeting with employers. We're going to

have an application station there. So if you need to get

online and apply to a job right away, you'll be able do that. So

I was just kind of looking down our list of employers that we

have signed up. And I mean, I'm looking down the list and seeing

a lot of just what sticks out in my mind is the variety and

uniqueness of just employers from kind of completely

different walks of like what they you know, what they might

be looking for. So customer service jobs, manufacturing,

production, nursing, maintenance, job drivers. So, a

lot of variety, we have places like Freund-Vector Anamosa to

State Penitentiary, Performance Food Service, International

Paper, Mercy Medical Center, Johnson County, Iowa, Kirkwood

Community College, a variety of non some nonprofits. So just a

lot of different variety as to meet any job seeker and to what

they might be looking for.

Yeah, and it's really great for people who

aren't quite sure what they want, because there's going to

be so many different paths that you could take at the career

fair. And it doesn't hurt to talk to an employer that you're

not sure if they have a role that we might be right for you.

So let's just say you have a background in HR, I mean, you

could work at any of these companies, potentially, because

those skills are universal. If you're, if you like to do office

management, you know, it could be office management at a supply

company, or it could be an office management at a

healthcare company, there are different, there are different

skills and roles there. And we'll detail all those out when

you get to the career fair, and some of the emails that we send

out ahead of ahead of it. But, yeah, anywhere from working on

World Class microwaves or being in a warehouse to being a

welder, or working with kids, or becoming a reporter, those are

all going to be jobs that are going to be detailed at the

events, along with countless others. So really encourage you

to come. Yeah, absolutely.

And thinking back to last fall, we had a

career fair last September at Newbo City Market. And when we

were talking to job seekers there on the spot, many of them

said, like, Hey, I don't know what I'm looking for. Because we

would ask and, you know, try to help them out in any way that we

could. And it's really, it's perfectly fine to not know what

you're looking for. And, and I think that's, you know, some,

some people might have a little bit of anxiety coming to a

career fair, like, you know, I don't really know what I want.

And so this event, really, between the community resources,

and having so many employers available, is supposed to kind

of put you at ease, and especially be being at the

public library, where there's going to be a lot of people

there anyways, you know, reading, hanging out doing

research studying. So come as you are, should be a really fun event.

Yeah, I would say like, if you are planning to,

you know, try to get a get a role with a, employ a local

employer, go ahead and dress to impress, but dress to the level

of the position that you're looking for. So it might be

different for a truck driver than it would be for an office

manager. So, with that said, yeah, come as you are, I mean,

it's completely accessible. So you can park in the ramp and

walk in on the second floor, you can park near the library and

take the elevator upstairs. So it's physically accessible, but

also hopefully mentally accessible. I would say from

those job seekers that came to our last career fair, we got a

lot of testimonials from job seekers that were like, wow, I

really didn't know these types of opportunities were available

right here in my community. So we hope that you would come away

from this career fair thinking the same thing.

Yeah, absolutely. And you can sign up

online, obviously, totally free. But at corridorcareers.com

you'll see links to the career fair. Also at the bottom of the

page is a little ad, where you can go through and sign up. So

you can just show up to that's we always we encourage that as

well. So it'll be laid back fun day. Next Thursday. That's April

28th. 3 to 6pm at the downtown Cedar Rapids Public Library. All

right, let's any parting words for

I hope you'll join us- We can't wait to talk with

you and hear about your experience job searching in

2022. It's a lot different from last year. So looking forward to

it.

Definitely. All right. Thanks, Liz. Thanks,

everybody. See you next week at Career Fair!