{"id":8516,"date":"2014-04-17T19:07:23","date_gmt":"2014-04-17T23:07:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.southsidecentral.com\/wordpress\/?p=8516"},"modified":"2014-04-17T19:11:56","modified_gmt":"2014-04-17T23:11:56","slug":"some-thoughts-about-todays-danville-job-fair","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.southsidecentral.com\/wordpress\/2014\/04\/17\/some-thoughts-about-todays-danville-job-fair\/","title":{"rendered":"Some thoughts about today&#8217;s Danville Job Fair&#8230;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The Danville Pittsylvania County Chamber of Commerce hosted a job fair at the Institute today (with a lot of help from numerous partners). SouthsideCentral was there covering it (and hey, looking for a new job too!) and I&#8217;ve got a Big Board of Random Thoughts about it.<\/p>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<p>Let&#8217;s bring on that Big Board of Random Thoughts&#8230;<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>You&#8217;ve heard it here a quadrillion times, and I&#8217;ll say it again. The Danville Pittsylvania Chamber of Commerce is a top-notch organization and is superbly led by the amazing Laurie Moran. That&#8217;s not taking anything away from the other staff members of the chamber at all. Lynette Lawson &amp; Kate Farmer do their jobs perfectly and go way past the call of duty just like Laurie Moran. If you own a business or work for one, make sure that they&#8217;re members of the Chamber. It&#8217;s well worth the investment.<\/li>\n<li>Danville&#8217;s office of the Virginia Workforce Center is simply amazing. They helped run today&#8217;s job fair and you couldn&#8217;t ask for more from the workers there. They truly are dedicated to their job of finding people work and they do an awesome job. I&#8217;ve used their services and have only met a few of the people in the office, so I&#8217;ll throw out my highest compliments to Susan Calvitti &amp; Terrence Glass as two of the most amazing people who take their time to explain the various ways they can help and then they totally follow through with everything they say. If I knew the name of the woman that helped me at their office yesterday, I&#8217;ll be glad to add her name to this &#8220;Amazing Workforce Center People&#8221; list.<\/li>\n<li>There are jobs available. There are a lot of jobs available. It usually takes a while for a new job search to pay off, but good people are going to get jobs. It&#8217;s easier to find a new job when you&#8217;ve already got one, but never lose hope. Good people get jobs.<\/li>\n<li>There are lots of people who are looking for jobs. My goodness, there had to be at least 800 people attending the job fair.<\/li>\n<li>There are lots of people who have no idea how to look for jobs. My goodness, over 70% of the job seekers that I saw were dressed totally inappropriately for making first contact with a prospective employer. I spoke off the record to a few sources who sadly told me that this is a huge problem with the local workforce. That&#8217;s a damned shame.<\/li>\n<li>I was amazed at the realm of types of jobs available from the employers. You had opportunities from general labor\/light industrial to managerial positions available.<\/li>\n<li>I&#8217;ve made fun of the Institute before, but I&#8217;m always amazed at how beautiful the place is. Now that Jerry Gwaltney is at the helm and has implemented business plans to make the place live up to its potential, the Institute is becoming a key player in helping to build Southside&#8217;s economy.<\/li>\n<li>I&#8217;ve always been a supporter of Congressman Robert Hurt, but today&#8217;s conversation with him really showed me that he is in touch with Southside and their problems. I expect some heat from the Usual Partisan Hack Subjects for this, but I&#8217;m saying it anyway. Yeah, Congress is a bunch of dysfunctional idiots but Robert Hurt is just 1\/435 and can&#8217;t get much done by himself. Putting the pressure on the Army Corps of engineers to end their idiotic policy ban on industrial park construction permits was a giant step forward for the region&#8217;s economy. Hurt worked with the Democratic side of the aisle to take care of this quite real problem.<\/li>\n<li>Education is a big problem with this region&#8217;s workforce readiness. It was good that one big part of the job fair was devoted to the educational opportunities that are available at low (or no) costs to people. Now, the dilemma is how to get people to continually improve their education.<\/li>\n<li>There are a lot of businesses that a lot of people (including me) simply don&#8217;t know about. While visiting the booths today, I learned a lot about the local economy.<\/li>\n<li>As I said to Congressman Hurt, I&#8217;m in awe that the local chamber doesn&#8217;t stop at the Pittsylvania County border when it comes to events like this. As Laurie Moran said today, people are willing to commute distances to work if the pay and benefits are good.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>There you go. I can&#8217;t wait to see the official numbers of how many people attended today&#8217;s Job Fair. I&#8217;m simply amazed at what this region can do when everyone works together to make an event like this happen.<\/p>\n<!-- AddThis Advanced Settings generic via filter on the_content --><!-- AddThis Share Buttons generic via filter on the_content -->","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Danville Pittsylvania County Chamber of Commerce hosted a job fair at the Institute today (with a lot of help from numerous partners). SouthsideCentral was there covering it (and hey, looking for a new job too!) and I&#8217;ve got a Big Board of Random Thoughts about it.<\/p>\n<p> [&#8230;]<!-- AddThis Advanced Settings generic via filter on get_the_excerpt --><!-- AddThis Share Buttons generic via filter on get_the_excerpt --><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[4,58,26],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8516","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-businesscentral","category-danville","category-pittsylvania-county","odd"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pwqFk-2dm","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":false,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":5099,"url":"https:\/\/www.southsidecentral.com\/wordpress\/2009\/08\/24\/images-danville-and-pittsylvania-countys-newest-magazine\/","url_meta":{"origin":8516,"position":0},"title":"&#8220;Images&#8221; &#8211; Danville and Pittsylvania County&#8217;s newest magazine!","author":"SouthsideCentral","date":"August 24, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"The Danville-Pittsylvania County Chamber of Commerce is introducing a new magazine about the area. \"Images\" is a new magazine that will highlight the Danville & Pittsylvania County area's quality of place, vitality and individuality. It will be distributed to prospective new businesses, employees and residents. The magazine is advertiser-supported by\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;BusinessCentral&quot;","block_context":{"text":"BusinessCentral","link":"https:\/\/www.southsidecentral.com\/wordpress\/category\/businesscentral\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":11778,"url":"https:\/\/www.southsidecentral.com\/wordpress\/2015\/01\/16\/business-after-hours-1152015\/","url_meta":{"origin":8516,"position":1},"title":"PhotoCentral: Business After Hours (1\/15\/2015)","author":"SouthsideCentral","date":"January 16, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"The Danville Pittsylvania County Chamber of Commerce held their monthly Business After Hours at the Danville Family YMCA on Thursday night and it was a great time. The YMCA is an amazing place and we'll take you on a PhotoCentral of that on Friday... but let's take a look at\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;BusinessCentral&quot;","block_context":{"text":"BusinessCentral","link":"https:\/\/www.southsidecentral.com\/wordpress\/category\/businesscentral\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/i.imgur.com\/Q3pFbW9.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/i.imgur.com\/Q3pFbW9.jpg?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/i.imgur.com\/Q3pFbW9.jpg?resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/i.imgur.com\/Q3pFbW9.jpg?resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":8099,"url":"https:\/\/www.southsidecentral.com\/wordpress\/2013\/11\/12\/thumbs-11122013\/","url_meta":{"origin":8516,"position":2},"title":"Thumbs! (11\/12\/2013)","author":"SouthsideCentral","date":"November 12, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"It's been almost a month since our Thumbs! got a workout. Let's fix that problem now... You know the drill... Thumbs UP! to Laurie Moran and the staff at the Danville Pittsylvania County Chamber of Commerce for picking up another 5-Star accreditation rating from the US Chamber of Commerce. I'll\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Danville&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Danville","link":"https:\/\/www.southsidecentral.com\/wordpress\/category\/locations\/danville\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":14215,"url":"https:\/\/www.southsidecentral.com\/wordpress\/2015\/10\/14\/southside-show-biz-part-1\/","url_meta":{"origin":8516,"position":3},"title":"Southside Show-Biz &#8211; Part #1","author":"SouthsideCentral","date":"October 14, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"Every year, the Danville Pittsylvania County Chamber of Commerce holds their Southside Show-Biz trade show. The public gets a chance to see exhibits from lots of regional businesses and learn about what they sell and do. We're going to start a PhotoCentral set of articles from this year's event. Let's\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;BusinessCentral&quot;","block_context":{"text":"BusinessCentral","link":"https:\/\/www.southsidecentral.com\/wordpress\/category\/businesscentral\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/i.imgur.com\/CsS5inh.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/i.imgur.com\/CsS5inh.jpg?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/i.imgur.com\/CsS5inh.jpg?resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/i.imgur.com\/CsS5inh.jpg?resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":8294,"url":"https:\/\/www.southsidecentral.com\/wordpress\/2014\/02\/20\/live-at-the-how-to-be-a-candidate-workshop\/","url_meta":{"origin":8516,"position":4},"title":"LIVE! at the &#8220;How to be a candidate&#8221; workshop","author":"SouthsideCentral","date":"February 20, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"The Danville Pittsylvania County Chamber of Commerce helps the region again. We're LIVE! at the Institute. 6:10 PM - Getting here as quick as we could. New Danville City Council candidates Justin Ferrell, James Buckner and Dawn Witter are among the attendees. H.F. Haymore finishes his talk and Karl Stauber\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Danville&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Danville","link":"https:\/\/www.southsidecentral.com\/wordpress\/category\/locations\/danville\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":5606,"url":"https:\/\/www.southsidecentral.com\/wordpress\/2009\/10\/15\/southside-show-biz-expo-today\/","url_meta":{"origin":8516,"position":5},"title":"Southside Show-Biz Expo &#8211; TODAY!","author":"SouthsideCentral","date":"October 15, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Head to Danville's Institute today from 11 AM to 4 PM and have a great time learning about local businesses! The Danville-Pittsylvania Chamber of Commerce is hosting the Southside Show-Biz Expo today (Thursday) at the Institute. Over 75 business will have booths that showcase what they do for the community\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Danville&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Danville","link":"https:\/\/www.southsidecentral.com\/wordpress\/category\/locations\/danville\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.southsidecentral.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8516","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.southsidecentral.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.southsidecentral.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.southsidecentral.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.southsidecentral.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8516"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.southsidecentral.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8516\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8518,"href":"https:\/\/www.southsidecentral.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8516\/revisions\/8518"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.southsidecentral.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8516"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.southsidecentral.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8516"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.southsidecentral.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8516"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}