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News | July 29, 2020

Land and Maritime participates in University of Akron Virtual Career Fair

By Adil Zuber DLA Land and Maritime People and Culture

Defense Logistics Agency Land and Maritime’s Engineering and Technical Support Directorate participated in a Virtual Career Fair with the University of Akron on July 14 and 16. Recruiters Adil Zuber and Shaokang Yuan, both from the Engineering and Technical Support Directorate, along with Dawn Sutton, from the People and Culture Directorate, attended the event to speak with potential applicants.

The attendee population was comprised of students, recent graduates and alumni from a variety of engineering disciplines including aerospace, biomedical, chemical, computer, electrical and mechanical engineering. This online event connected 40 employers with 130 attendees interested in both internships and full-time employment.

The current social distancing restrictions required an additional measure of creativity for the career fair that necessitated the virtual format. Unlike a traditional in-person career fair, the online environment prevented attendees from simply walking up to a DLA associate and starting a conversation. Instead, the University of Akron scheduled attendees to speak with DLA associates in predetermined segments of time. While this approach required attendees to plan ahead and limited the length of conversations, it also allowed DLA to interact with the maximum number of attendees within the available designated timeframe.

Topics of interest included career progression, the Pathways to Career Excellence program, engineering roles within DLA, work-life balance, employee benefits, telework, flexible hours, credit hours, exercise and wellness programs, and the tuition assistance program. Many attendees were excited to learn about the possibilities and advantages of a career with the federal government.

This event contributed to the Engineering and Technical Support Directorate’s comprehensive strategic approach for tackling potential workforce shortages in the coming decades by promoting federal job opportunities at DLA. This approach is in alignment with the current DLA Strategic Plan Line of Effort addressing Strong Partnerships, which utilizes close collaboration with stakeholders and partners to address both immediate needs and long-term challenges.