Accenture Federal Services, Nationwide Insurance, Volvo Group Trucks, Digital Sandbox Inc., the U.S. Postal Service, and the Virginia Tech Applied Research Corporation were among a diverse group of 40 employers participating in the 22nd Annual Job Fair held recently in Falls Church. 

The fair is sponsored annually by the National Capital Region Chapter of the Virginia Tech Alumni Association to raise money for academic scholarships. National Capital Region-area high school seniors who have been accepted at Virginia Tech and graduate students enrolled in National Capital Region programs are eligible to apply for these awards.

The fair is free to prospective job applicants and they need not be students or alumni of Virginia Tech to attend.

Funds for the chapter’s scholarship program are raised by charging companies and organizations a fee to participate. These employers from Virginia, Maryland, and Washington, D.C., represent government agencies and contractors, technology, security, public utilities, financial services, education, and retail, and recruit for all levels of jobs, including internships, entry-level, and more senior-level positions.

“The job fair is our biggest undertaking each year and a primary support of our scholarship program. We are greatly appreciative to all the companies who participate, many of them for many years now,” said Bill Callahan, vice president of the National Capital Region alumni chapter. Callahan graduated from Virginia Tech in 1977 with a bachelor’s degree in architecture.

Greg Merritt, past chapter president and a member of the National Alumni Association Board of Directors, said that volunteer alumni are crucial to the success of the annual job fair. 

“Many of our alums, in the Hokie Ut Prosim spirit, do so much to actively support this event and the chapter. We couldn’t hold this event each year without their involvement and the support of the staff at the Northern Virginia Center,” said Merritt, who graduated in 1993 with a bachelor's degree in marketing.

Prior to the start of the four-hour job fair, representatives from Virginia Tech Career Services hosted a one-hour session on Making the Most of a Career Fair.

This year, the Graduate School, and some individual graduate programs like the Pamplin College of Business MBA and Executive MBA, participated in the fair, setting up information booths as a way of marketing Virginia Tech’s more than 45 graduate programs in the National Capital Region. Jennifer Carter, assistant director of Continuing and Professional Education, held a session on new project management courses which will be held both in the National Capital Region and online.

 

 

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