his year’s Associated General Contractors of Alaska networking opportunity looks much different than previous events. AGC has been hosting a networking event similar to a job fair for construction management students at the University of Alaska Anchorage for three years. The event has typically included speed-interviews, similar to speed-dating, giving potential employers a chance to meet several potential candidates.
For this spring’s event, students completed the speed-interviews virtually. Their resumes and interview videos are posted on AGC’s website, where potential employers can browse candidates from UAA. The webpage was promoted in AGC’s weekly e-newsletters to all membership, and on social media.
“We hadn’t seen any other virtual models and wanted to ensure that the students were getting as much exposure as possible, so we liked the idea of having the interview sessions recorded to live in a virtual database that could exist for as long as necessary,” says Clare Kreilkamp, AGC of Alaska’s membership director. “The benefit of having a virtual event is that the students’ interviews can be viewed by multiple people within an organization that otherwise might not be able to participate in the in-person event.”
“We’ve always tried to get a good mix of general and specialty contractor members involved from the employer side to give the students exposure to a diverse representation of the industry,” she says.
Many students who participated in the event this year have already received job offers and internship opportunities, says Kreilkamp.
“We’re really excited to have been able to support the students in this way as we all work to create new networking opportunities,” she says.
Sottosanti, with Neeser Construction Inc., sits on two committees for Associated General Contractors of Alaska: the Construction Leadership Council, or CLC, and the Education, Training and Workforce Development Committee. The two committees overlap in their mission to work with UAA Construction Management students to get jobs in the construction industry.
“So naturally, when the students came to AGC of Alaska with a request for assistance in putting on a job fair, we jumped at the opportunity and never looked back,” says Sottosanti.
“Knowing that many people were potentially getting burned out on everything being virtual nowadays, some of us started out with a little less enthusiasm than normal,” says Sottosanti. “But after a few great brainstorming sessions it began to take shape.”
With COVID-19 ongoing, the organizers of the event still wanted to continue helping candidates with their resumes and interviews.
“This turned out to be very successful and we plan to incorporate much of what we did this year into any future in-person events,” says Sottosanti.
“Interviewing is a skill and if you don’t work at it and you don’t practice it—not that you ever want to go through hundreds of interviews—but the idea of practicing it with someone is really helpful,” says Flynn. “So just putting them through the motions, this time virtually, we thought would be a positive, with the added benefit of recording through Zoom and being able to be posted. If construction executives have time or needs, they know that it’s a resource. They can look at one or two and then decide to call them.
www.agcak.org/hire-uaa-construction-management-students.html
Photos courtesy of Clare Kreilkamp/Associated General Contractors of Alaska
“An important component to the Construction Management (CM) degree is to complete internship hours. For the ones who have graduation on the horizon, getting an internship secured is important to students, contractors and AGC,” says Flynn. “Anything we can do to promote the CM program, getting students hired and helping them remain in Alaska.”