Fort Cavazos participates in first all-Army career fair

ARLINGTON, Texas - Fort Cavazos participated in the first Army-only career fair April 13 at Globe Life Field in Arlington, Texas, reaching people near and far, Army and civilian.

With more than 43 commands participating, the career fair was large, playing host to many people not only from Texas, but across the nation.

The U.S. Army Installation Management Command coordinated garrisons' involvement at the career fair, said Gwendolyn Kimmich, chief of the staffing/classification branch at IMCOM. Allowing the garrisons to join the career fair was a good opportunity, she said.

"… It allowed (garrisons) to tell the story of what they do on a day-to-day basis, kind of really letting applicants know what to expect if they were to go work in one of these locations and organizations and kind of what they would do for the Army as a civilian," Kimmich explained.

Fort Cavazos had two booths at the fair manned by people from all six of the directorates - Directorate of Emergency Services, Directorate of Public Works, Directorate of Human Resources, Directorate of Aviation Operations, Directorate of Plans, Training, Mobilization and Security, and the Directorate of Family and Morale, Welfare and Recreation/Army Community Service - on post.

"It was Army exclusive," said Shelley Tippens, workforce development chief, of the career fair. "It went really well. … It was a considerable amount of people from the area (who attended) and there were even some Soldiers that drove up from here, from Fort Cavazos, to the actual event, looking for possible positions (for civilians)."

The booths advertised open civilian positions from the directorates, with even a few having the ability to direct hire. These jobs included security guards, dispatcher, maintenance mechanic, information technology specialist and equipment operator, Tippens said.

"For this particular event, it was to highlight the Army but it's also to give individuals another opportunity because, a lot of times, federal jobs go unnoticed," she said. "People, especially students, they just don't know. They don't know that those opportunities are available, and we did have quite a few students come through the area, even some that were from out of town, who heard about the event, flew in, that were actually graduating in May. Events like that open the door for those opportunities that are unnoticeable, opens the door for those people that we normally would not touch."

While Tracy Crawford, director of Aviation Operations, DAO, had no positions to advertise, he went to tell his story as a Department of the Army civilian and the positives of Fort Cavazos.

"If you're not within that Department of Defense bubble, there's a lot of uncertainty," he said. "… So, I wanted to talk to that, about the career opportunities.

"I talked so long to so many people that I was hoarse at the end of the day," Crawford added. "I talked nonstop to people and finding out what they were interested in, what their backgrounds were, showing how a Department of the Army civilian career might best fit their skills and experience."

Crawford said he was able to take several resumes from attendees and distribute them to his garrison partners.

He concluded, "The way I look at it, if one person ultimately gets hired from that action, it was successful for that recruiting event."

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