RALEIGH – This month, the North Carolina Tech Association (NC TECH) will host its second Virtual Tech Job Fair to connect job seekers to companies seeking talent in North Carolina. Participating employers range from corporations like Ally Financial and Deutsche Bank, to tech startups such as Morrisville-based inMotionNow and Winston-Salem’s Inmar Intelligence, to government and non-profit entities.
The event will be held on Oct. 14 from 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. Job seekers will be paired with recruiters in online booths via Premier Virtual, a platform that facilitates hiring events through interactive chat and video.
Tickets are free for job seekers. So far, NC TECH says more than 250 people have signed up with resumes uploaded in the online job event platform.
Several hundred job vacancies will be available, says NC TECH Vice President of Strategy and Development Michelle Calton. Jobs include a mix of IT and other roles, ranging from accounting to marketing and sales to client development to customer service and support. Employers are also seeking candidates with security clearances.
More specifically, Calton says NC TECH sees employers looking for talent in .NET, SQL, Java software development, systems and security engineers, online instructors, network operations, business intelligence and supply chain analysts, cloud consultants, machine learning and AI specialists, data scientists and architects, app/web developers, test engineers, UX/UI design, technical and customer support, quality assurance, SAP analysts, salesforce managers, and sales and business development.
Job seekers can tune in at any time of the day as their schedule allows, a new benefit compared to in-person events before the coronavirus pandemic.
As of Tuesday afternoon, the companies confirmed to participate include:
- Ally Financial
- Beacon Technologies
- Conduent
- Deutsche Bank
- First Citizens
- Inmar Intelligence
- inMotionNow
- MAXX Potential
- Resolvit
- Western Governors University North Carolina
- U.S. Department of State
- Local Government Federal Credit Union
NC TECH welcomes more companies to register ahead of the event next week. Employers can participate regardless of where they’re located in North Carolina, and they don’t have to be members of NC TECH to register.
NC TECH Adopts Virtual Job Fair Model
Like so many other industry organizations in the U.S. and beyond, NC TECH saw an opportunity to pivot as all aspects of life, work and play moved online in the COVID-19 pandemic. Pivoting to the “new normal,” NC TECH has spent several months digitizing its programming and events, including the annual NC TECH Awards Gala, coming up in November.
NC TECH saw success with its first-ever virtual job fair in May (also hosted via Premier Virtual), drawing more than 1,000 job seekers and over two dozen employers. Pre-pandemic, NC TECH’s in-person job fairs would typically attract around 400 attendees.
Some companies that participated in May are also returning for the October job fair, including Deutsche Bank, First Citizens, Inmar Intelligence, MAXX Potential and WGU North Carolina.
Going ‘virtual’ for job fair produces benefits for job seekers, employers, says NC Tech CEO
NC TECH had a positive experience with the Premier Virtual platform for the first event and is using it again in October.
The virtual job fair model is gaining traction as employers continue shifting to remote work both short- and long-term. Brooks Raiford, CEO of NC TECH, says that in this remote working environment, the organization “is committed to offer the tech sector innovative workforce strategies to find talent needed to grow their teams.”
Participating employers will benefit from collecting applications for posted vacancies and having access to the resumes of registered job seekers, Raiford added. They can communicate with candidates directly in real time or after the fair concludes.
Beyond the COVID-19 pandemic, Calton says NC TECH intends to continue hosting virtual job fairs for the foreseeable future.
“The virtual event allows employers to participate regardless of location, manage multiple conversations, and build a candidate pipeline post-event,” Calton adds. “Candidates looking for new opportunities can interact with a variety of employers to learn about their workplaces, benefits and vacancies, all from the convenience of home.”
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Status of Tech Jobs in North Carolina
The October virtual job fair comes a month after NC TECH released its latest IT job trends report, which found more than 27,000 jobs available across North Carolina in August—consistent with figures from July.
Overall, IT job openings are steadily bouncing back from a low of 22,500 in May. As expected in the pandemic, job openings declined nearly 2,000 since August 2019.
Looking for work? 27,000 high-tech jobs available across NC, report says
These figures come as unemployment rates decreased in all of North Carolina’s 100 counties in August, according to the latest figures from the Department of Commerce.
