OrlandoJobs.com meets Job Seekers at the Downtown Art & Living Expo

OrlandoJobs.com was part of the downtown Art & Living Expo. More than 15,000 folks attended and had a chance to experience live music, food and more than 100 fine-art and fine-craft exhibits. The expo was held at Lake Eola in downtown Orlando.

“We love community events because it gives us a chance to meet our candidate community who are looking for work" Danielle Bernhard (marketing director) said. "Being able to talk to our candidates in settings like this also give us great ideas on how to make the website better."

Even though the weather was a little rainy on Saturday, we really enjoyed meeting so many Central Florida residents.

Daytona 500 and Orlando Jobs...what?

OrlandoJobs.com ventured to the Daytona 500 again this year and had a great time meeting a lot of people. It is still hard to imagine that over 200,000 people attend this race. My driver is Jeff Gordon (don't hold that against me) and he didn't do so well.

We don't have a blimp yet, but the Good Year Blimp is the the one we would like to be!

A lot of the fans that stopped by the OrlandoJobs.com Hummer all had very similar questions. Most people wondered what we thought the Orlando job market was like compared to where they live. (I would be asking too if I left 20 degree weather and came to Florida) I am always happy to report that I think Orlando and Central Florida has a fantastic variety of jobs and we really are not seeing much slow down except in some of the trouble areas (mortgage, real-estate etc.) We are seeing a lot of technology, healthcare, administration, hospitality and accounting jobs in Central Florida.

Unlike Jeff Gordon's run in the 500, Central Florida is full of great great opportuntiy if you are looking for work!

OrlandoJobs.com purchases Historic Building in Downtown Orlando!

OrlandoJobs.com, Central Florida’s employment website, is moving their offices, along with their sister companies Great Insurance Jobs.com , Staff Orlando and Lear & Associates to its brand new headquarters at 43 East Pine in downtown Orlando on March 14th.

“We purchased the building in December and immediately recognized the great opportunity to move OrlandoJobs.com into the heart of the city. The building will be a visible landmark for candidates and clients” said Roger Lear, President of OrlandoJobs.com.

Scott Kotroba, co-founder of OrlandoJobs.com added,” We cater to the great companies in Central Florida looking for talent. To do that, we have to be physically visible in Central Florida as well as online. The purchase of this historic building will help us further connect with the great employers and candidates of Central Florida.”

OrlandoJobs.com is currently operating out of its office on North Orange Ave. For additional information, visit OrlandoJobs.com or call 407-645-4224.

University of Central Florida Career Fair - Find Unique Jobs before anyone else!

OrlandoJobs.com recently participated in the University of Central Florida Career Fair on February 4, 2008 at the UCF Arena. Over 200 hundred potential employers and a lot of students had a great opportunity to meet one another.

I had the opportunity to talk with quite a few employers because I was curious about the types of candidates they are looking for as well as their thoughts about the so called “recession”. What I found was great news if you are a college graduate or Alumni entering the workforce!

Here are some of the jobs that were available:

1) Accounting Positions
2) Engineering Positions
3) Marketing Positions
4) Law Enforcement
5) Hospitality
6) Technology Positions
7) Teaching/Education Positions
8) Sales Positions

I was very impressed with the amount of positions and the quality of the jobs at this event. One company in particular caught my interest and had some unique jobs and interesting product. IZEA, who is located in downtown Orlando, has a product called Pay Per Post. I spoke with IZEA's controllor David Bates and he was excited about this company. According to David, the company started in 2007 started with only 7 employees. Today, it has over 50 and growing with a blogging/advertising product that is quickly becoming a new way on the internet to market products using blogs.

IZEA has many opportunities. I like how one of their departments is called “customer love”. They also have a great employment brand (employers please take note on how to describe your employment brand in words):

“Each month we celebrate birthdays with ceremonial cakeplows. We ring new initiates in with tequila shots. We play football together and hang out on the weekends. If you enjoy the corporate world, if you are easily offended or think it is wrong to wear flip flops to work, this probably isn't the right place for you.”

That is what is great about career fairs. You sometimes can find out about future great companies before they become the next Google!

Central Florida Employment Council – Great Career Resource

I absolutely love The Central Florida Employment Council (CFEC.org) tagline, “Central Florida's premier employment and career network, serving greater Orlando with integrity!” If you have not heard of CFEC, I would like to introduce this outstanding resource you can use for career help in Central Florida. They are a non-profit organization that is committed to helping anyone in the area find employment.

Here are some of the services they perform for free (and a lot of generous support from the community)

· Resume Help
· Career Counseling
· Job Referrals
· Job Website (listings from Central Florida Employers)

In addition to all those resources, they host Five Job Fairs every year. They are the largest, most attended job fairs in the area. Thos past January, over 5,000 candidates came out to visit with over 100 companies looking to hire. The next career fair will be on March 19, 2008 from noon to 4:00pm at the Central Florida Fair grounds.

We are so lucky in Central Florida to have such a great resource and a wonderful group of people that want to help you with your job search. Dick Wilson founded the organization and Sandi Vidal is now the executive director. Their team of volunteers and employees are truly special people!

Executive Director Sandi Vidal of CFEC (pictured left)