The job market is changing. It’s not enough for a student to finish school and seek employment. Employers are now looking for candidates who also have work experience to back up their education. ManpowerGroup is a San Diego staffing agency hoping to help students fill that void. They held their third recruiting event on campus on March 11.
Manpower has two locations in San Diego: Downtown and in the Mira Mesa neighborhood. Students were invited from San Diego and Imperial community college districts to submit their resumés via email. Once a resumé was received, the student received a confirmation email that acknowledged their submission and gave the time, date and location of their interview with Manpower.
Interviews were conducted between 11 a.m. and 4 p.m. in BT-203. Upon arrival, students went to the desk counter to show instructional assistant and point person Patricia Pugnier their resumé. In turn, Punier gave the interviewee a ticket with a number and an additional information sheet from Manpower to complete, then explained to each interviewee that when their name was called, they were to give the recruiter both resumé and information sheet.
Trevor Blair is the workforce development manager for the Downtown location and the organizer of the recruiting events.
“This third run, well we asked people RSVP’d, just let us know they were coming and it was lighter than the first two days that we did couple of weeks ago. But today we’re … almost at 60 people who’ve come through from 11 to about 2:30. … It’s great to see,” Punier said of the event.
The room was a spacious classroom and sparse computer lab with an office to the left of the entrance where three recruiters (in the morning) each met with one student at a time to review. In the afternoon, only two recruiters remained. Students were encouraged to take seats at the computers to complete the information sheet and work on homework. The environment was quiet.
Vanessa Christie, a student at San Diego City College, had been waiting almost an hour to be called to see a recruit. Christie said, “I kind of expected a bit of a wait.”
Devon Eaddy, another student at City College, said his interview was good and expressed that he hoped he would get a second call for a job.
“Yeah it was great and then they provided interview clothes in case we came unprepared. So with the whole system it was great,” Eaddy said about the experience.
Although there was short notice about the event, he said he heard about the recruiting event at the Student Counseling Center and the Career Center on campus.
“3 of Manpower’s clients all had open positions, in significant numbers, that we thought could be a match for City College students. Particularly those students looking for part-time positions,” Blair said via email.
Blair described Manpower’s relationship with City College as “long standing,” having collaborated with Dean of Business and Information Technology and Cosmetology Rose LaMuraglia for workshops and speaking engagements.
According to LaMaruglia, the job market has changed significantly over the past 20 years and employers now seek candidates who have working experience in addition to education.
