Putting the Valley to work

WASILLA —The 18th annual Mat-Su Employer Expo is returning to the Mat-Su College today from 10 a.m to 3 p.m. Hosted by the Mat-Su Job Center, this event expects to have more than 110 employers from both the private and public sectors. A variety of jobs will be up for grabs in the largest job fair event in the Mat-Su Valley.

“The Mat-Su Employer Expo is a crucial part of helping to build up the Valley’s workforce. Last year we linked 96 employers with over 670 applicants and we are expecting the same level of excellence this year,” said Joe Knowles, Mat-Su Job Center Supervisor in a recent press release for the event.

Aside from the slew of potential jobs on the market, attendees can engage in three skill-building workshops, about 15 minutes each. The Mat-Su Job Center partnered with Joint Base Elmendorf–Richardson (JBER) Military and Family Readiness Center to offer a “Linked-In 101” workshop. The Alaska Commission on Postsecondary Education (ACPE) will lead a workshop to show attendees how to use their resume builder and how to navigate their website, which, according to Keiba Kimp, Employment Services Technician/Business Connection for the Mat-Su Job Center, is a fairly handy place to research career paths and the associated labor markets and colleges. She said that many educators use it in their classrooms.

“It’s a really good tool,” Kimp said.

Kimp said that the job center recently put out a quiz in the Frontiersman that asked the public “Are You Work-Ready?” This quiz polled the community on their upkeep of ‘dos and don’ts’ when applying for a job. She said that they received a quite positive response and most people got the correct answers. Despite a mostly resounding success ratio, one of the biggest takeaways from the quiz Kimp found was something she encounters all the time: making an effective resume. One the quiz questions asked, “Do you just use one resume or do you tailor to that is particular to the employer?” People often worry too much about the format of the resume or will often make a one resume-fits-all approach, Kimp said.

“The important thing is not the format; the important thing is fitting the resume to that job,” Kimp said.

This event may be the highlight of the year for the Mat-Su Job center, but the center is active throughout the year as a community resource, according to Kimp.

“We’re more than just putting on the expo every year,” Kimp said.

The Mat-Su Job Center offers free resources and tools to assist both job seekers and employers with the entire job search process to include weekly workshops on resume-writing and job interview skills. The resume writing class is on Wednesdays and the interview class is on Mondays. Both are free to attend and start at 10:30 a.m. For more information, contact the Mat-Su Job Center at 907-352-2500, or visit their website at jobs.alaska.gov.