For many companies participating in Warren County Community College’s Career Fair earlier this month, the goal was two-fold: to raise awareness of their businesses to prospective employees down the line, and in many cases, to offer opportunities that are available right now.

“It was a very successful day,” said John Peppas,  Teaching Administrator and Area Chair- Business & Accounting at WCCC. “The feedback from both the companies and the students was really good. I believe the companies achieved their goals for the day and many students were able to schedule follow-up interviews. One thing that was quite clear as a result – there are plenty of jobs to choose from.”

Participating companies included Abilities of Northwest Jersey, Albea Group, Alternatives, Inc., Bihler of America, Inc., Borealis Compounds, Custom Alloy Corporation, Fulton Bank of New Jersey, Home Instead Senior Care, Physical Therapy Plus, Quality Automotive, QuVa Pharma, Suburban Propane, and Volt Workforce Solutions.

Many of the companies had immediate openings. Some offered amazing benefits, such as educational reimbursement and on the job training. The types of jobs being offered ran the gamut from manufacturing, office work, to service providers.

“This is great exposure for us,” said Kelly Hennefeld, Manager, Compensation & Talent Management for Suburban Propane based in Whippany. “It’s a wonderful way for students to find out who we are even if they are not quite sure if they are interested. Good exposure for us and the students.”

Terry O’Hare, Plant Manager at Custom Alloy Corp. in High Bridge, noted that “if we can interest just some of these young men and women in our company” then we’ve succeeded. Custom Alloy Corp. produces pipes for pipelines throughout the country. “For people who like hands-on work that’s what our company offers,” he said.

“This is a good way for us  to participate in the community and have people think of us,” added William Matos, Jr., Human Resources Manager at Albea in Washington. “It gets our brand out there and let’s people know who we are.”

Matos pointed out that Albea has a “very mature workforce” and that the company expects a lot of attrition with retirements in the next 3-5 years.

“We are looking to our future,” he said. “So being at an event like this is very important. for us.”

Happy with the success of its first Career Fair, WCCC is already working on plans for another one sometime in 2018.