BBCC Job Fair connects people, employers
JOEL MARTIN | Hagadone News Network | UPDATED 1 year, 6 months AGO
Ashley Lott, left, talks with Samaritan Healthcare recruiter Kyrk Taylor about employment prospects at the Big Bend Community College Job Fair Thursday.
JOEL MARTIN/COLUMBIA BASIN HERALD
The BBCC Job Fair drew a larger-than-usual crowd Thursday. About 700 job seekers had come through by noon, organizers said.
Julia Gamboa, left, talks with Cruz Vasquez about employment opportunities with Washington State Parks at the Big Bend Community College Job Fair Thursday. Gamboa , who works for BBCC, was babysitting the booth while the State Parks recruiter had stepped away.
A job seeker chats with Okanagan Specialty Fruits recruiter Nataliya Yushchuk at the BBCC Job Fair Thursday.
Alongside the job fair, Big Bend Community College held a transfer fair for students looking to continue their educations.
Joel Martin has been with the Columbia Basin Herald for more than 25 years in a variety of roles and is the most-tenured employee in the building. Martin is a married father of eight and enjoys spending time with his children and his wife, Christina. He is passionate about the paper’s mission of informing the people of the Columbia Basin because he knows it is important to record the history of the communities the publication serves. | April 18, 2025 3:00 AM
MOSES LAKE — Thursday’s may have been the biggest job fair Big Bend Community College has held.
“About 700 job seekers came through here today, maybe more,” organizer Michelle Arceo said about halfway through the four-hour event.
Eighty-two potential employers, educational specialists and other recruiters set up tables in the ATEC Building at BBCC for the annual job fair. Many of them were organized by type; there was one aisle lined with health care providers, another with law enforcement agencies. They all shared one goal: to find workers. Judging by the crowd, they were succeeding.
“It’s been really good, a fairly good response,” said Tressie Eagle, who was recruiting for Coulee Medical Center in Grand Coulee. “We’ve gotten a lot of (requests for) job shadows for people to come check out some departments, a lot of interest in our open positions, a lot of fliers given out, a few resumes.”
Coulee Medical Center recruits a lot of nurses in particular from the Job Fair, many of them coming from the BBCC nursing program, Eagle said.
“We’re meeting some youth who are interested in potential careers to be an (aviation) mechanic,” said Olga Jones, a talent acquisition specialist from AeroTec. “We hired one person that we met last year. So I think I call it a success.”
It wasn’t just students coming out of Big Bend programs like aviation mechanics and nursing who were finding opportunities.
“We’re getting a lot of great, great feedback from folks,” said Sebastian Moraga, who represented the Washington Department of Transportation. “We’re getting people who are fresh out of college, people from the Job Corps, people who are still in college, people who are back in the job market after a while. And it’s really invigorating to be able to say ‘Hey, we’re here. Check us out.’”
“We seem to have really positive results,” said James Beck, representing SkillSource. “It’s a little bit mixed. Some people are going to find something they’re looking for, and some people are not. One of the biggest complaints is that sometimes people will say ‘They might not have a job here for my specialty, or in my field.’ That going to be one of those things that rises and falls. Some fields are going to be hiring at certain times and others won’t.”
Cruz Vasquez was finding more than he expected to, he said.
“I’m looking for a job that could potentially be a career,” he said. “The plumbing (Local 538) sounded like a good deal. And there’s also jobs like working at a restaurant or something like that I can do for now and wait for a bigger job to come up.”
If Vasquez wasn’t certain what he was looking for, Ashley Lott was. A newcomer to Moses Lake, Lott was talking with Samaritan Healthcare recruiter Kyrk Taylor about possibilities in human resources.
“I was medically retired out of the Army where I served as a human resources officer,” Lott said. “And I am looking to continue my career in human resources. I wanted to come to Samaritan because I see their name everywhere and (where I live) we can see the new construction. The PUD wants me to apply to an HR role with them.”
Arceo had set up a hospitality room with sandwich makings for attendees, and the Department of Social and Health Services had its mobile unit outside to help anyone who needed it with paperwork. Over in the next building, BBCC had a smaller transfer fair going on for its own students who wanted to continue their education with representatives from Central Washington University, Washington State University and Grand Canyon University, among others.
“I’m grateful for all of the people who came out and supported (the fair),” Arceo said. “Our volunteers, everyone who made this happen. Because it really does take a village.”
The BBCC Job Fair drew a larger-than-usual crowd Thursday. About 700 job seekers had come through by noon, organizers said.
Julia Gamboa, left, talks with Cruz Vasquez about employment opportunities with Washington State Parks at the Big Bend Community College Job Fair on Thursday. Gamboa, who works for BBCC, was babysitting the booth while the State Parks recruiter had stepped away.
A job seeker chats with Okanagan Specialty Fruits recruiter Nataliya Yushchuk at the BBCC Job Fair on Thursday.
Alongside the job fair, Big Bend Community College held a transfer fair for students looking to continue their educations.ARTICLES BY JOEL MARTIN
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