Since 1854 — News from Montcalm County and Ionia County, Michigan

By Cory Smith | on March 26, 2022

SIDNEY TOWNSHIP — After two years of the coronavirus pandemic causing a lack of ability to meet in person, especially in great numbers, employers and job seekers welcomed with open arms an opportunity to finally gather together in an environment connecting the two in great numbers.

Hundreds of job seekers, including area high school students exploring their options, attended a job fair at Montcalm Community College on Tuesday where 50 local employers were on hand, offering information, job opportunities and more. — DN Photo | Cory Smith

On Tuesday, Montcalm Community College hosted a job fair within the gymnasium in the Activities Building on the college’s Sidney campus, with 50 employers in attendance offering a wide variety of full-time, part-time and seasonal positions in areas such as health care, bus driving, camp counseling, corrections, mental health, food and nutrition, lifeguarding, skilled trades, machining, forklift operating, machine assembling, welding, tool and die making, saw operating and more.

For three hours, members of the community seeking employment, along with numerous high school students eager for internships, summer work and potential careers, arrived at the college-ready to explore their options. 

“I like exploring my options before I get out of high school, so I’m not rushed to get into any specific industry,” said Greenville High School sophomore Azariah Trumble, 16. “I have an idea of what I’d like to do in the future, but I just like to see what other companies are offering.

With a goal to focus on a career in either engineering, design processing or machining after high school, Trumble made his way through the handful of local manufacturers who were present at the job fair, such as DME in Greenville, a supplier of plastic insert molding machinery.

“I’m hoping to just have a better idea on what I can do in the future and what I should work towards,” he said.

That type of eagerness is exactly what companies are looking for in potential employees, as DME Global Human Resources Director Lorraine Marshall attested. 

“We absolutely cannot find enough qualified candidates right now, so that’s one of the reasons we came here today,” she said. “We’ve been trying to start a continental shift to run Friday, Saturday and Sunday, so we can run seven days a week, but as fast as we get people in, they leave, for whatever reason. We have great benefits, we offer tuition reimbursement, we work with the colleges to get people the training that they need, and we still can’t keep people.” 

For DME Operations Manager Paul Shemanski, the struggle has been attempting to find qualified candidates who will commit to the company long-term. 

“Any skilled trade nowadays is hard to come by,” he said. “And not only is it hard to find people that actually want to do the job, but we’re trying to grow, we’re trying to expand and it’s hard to do that when we struggle retaining people.”

However, Shemanski said companies such as DME are willing to put forth the effort needed to train people — even those right out of high school. 

“We’ll hire for the skilled trade and train them from the bottom up,” he said. “We’re willing to invest in people to help grow them. That in turn grows us. We’re willing to put in that time and effort.”

“Come on in, we’ll take care of you, we’ll teach you what you need to know,” Marshall added. “You can get benefits right from the start and we’ll pay you well. Everyone doesn’t have to have a college education to be successful. We want to get people when they are young, able to learn and grow with the company.” 

In representing other industries, such as the medical field, Registered Nurse Samantha Hall at Sparrow Carson Hospital said she was hoping to inspire anyone who walked up to her booth, especially those who are still in high school. 

“There’s options for everyone,” she said. “The fact that they are here at 16, 17 as high schoolers — I just see me. That’s where I started. I just want to let them know to follow their heart, to follow their dreams. You just put your head down, you go, and you do what you feel like you need to do.”

An MCC graduate herself, Hall was excited to see so many job-seekers and prospective students attend the three-hour event. 

“We have a couple of positions open and I want people who are local, who want to be there long-term,” she said. “I see a big future in this hospital, even though it is small but mighty.” 

One of those prospective students was Belding High School senior Lillian Rieckman, 17, who upon leaving the job fair had lined up a job-shadowing event with Green Acres Assisted Living in Greenville as well as an interview with the Center for Autism & Related Disorders in Stanton. 

“I was really nervous when I walked in here, but since I’ve gone to some vendors and started talking to people, I’ve started to get used to it,” she said. “ I am really excited for my interview I scheduled today because that is working with autistic kids, which is something that inspires me.”

After she graduates from high school this May, Rieckman said she’s hoping to land a job over the summer that will help her toward one of her career goals of becoming a certified nursing assistant. 

“As of right now, I work with the Mission Point health care facility in Belding in the kitchen and since I started working there in December, that’s really inspired me to want to be a CNA,” she said. “If I got this job, that would help me so much because they would help me a lot and teach me everything I need to know.” 

As the first of the three hours had passed, MCC Career Adviser Amy Zdanowski was blown away by the success of the event, with more than 100 job seekers having already walked through the door. 

“It seems to be going well, I’m very happy,” she said. “We have a lot of high schools represented, but we also have some community agencies that brought people. This event was open to the whole community, and its number one focus was jobs, honest and truly. Career exploration is very near and dear to my heart, but right now, employers need employees. This was a great way to help with that. It’s been fun to watch. There were a couple adults I spoke with and it sounded like one may have been hired today.”

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