Local Companies Prepare for Upcoming Columbus Job Fair

GOLDEN TRIANGLE, Miss. (WCBI) – There may be a job out there with your name on it.

The WCBI-Golden Triangle job fair is just two days away here in Columbus.

Dozens of companies from the area will be at the Trotter Convention Center to interview candidates.

It’s face time with a prospective employee, and for the people who do the hiring that’s what they say works at job fairs.

“We attend them in Webster County. We’ve been to them in Starkville. We’ve been to them in Tupelo, and there’s a lot of people out there who don’t know about Prestage farms,” said HR Director for Prestage Farms in West Point, Jim Murray.

Job fairs give companies the chance to get that name recognition with applicants.

Murray continued by saying, “We’ve been able to get some good applicants from these job fair that normally we wouldn’t have gotten.”

Shasta Dodd, the Director of Marketing for Waters Truck and Tractor in Columbus said, “We received multiple applications that we still have on hand that we’re still going through and trying to collect new members of our team.”

What’s more is learning about new jobs within companies.

When you hear company names like Prestage Farms in  or Waters Truck and Tractor, you may associate them with certain fields, but that’s not entirely the case.

“We have a fleet of trucks that we haul swine, and we have to have mechanics in our shop to work on. We’re always looking for mechanics,” said Murray.

“We have in-house financing departments; we have in-house accounting departments, marketing departments, even IT. We handle all of that in-house,” Dodd said.

By keeping these local job fair going strong, hiring local and advertising local, local companies will continue to grow.

“We went from carrying about $3 million in parts and inventory to now over $5 million in parts and inventory,” said Dodd, describing the company’s growth in her 7 years with Waters.

Murrary said, “When I started here 11 years ago, we had 220 employees. Now, we have 300, so the copany is continuing to grow.”

These are just two of the dozens who will be in attendance at this week’s job fair, all looking to grow their workforce.