On April 25, around 120 Pontiac residents gathered inside the Campbell’s Bay R.A. Hall to explore the numerous opportunities offered in the region at the Pontiac Job Fair put on by the Pontiac Futures Development Corporation (SADC).

Hosted by the SADC and Emploi Quebec, the event served as an opportunity for local residents to network and find employment with local enterprises.

With 27 kiosks on display, each featuring a different business from the Pontiac, the event provided a vast variety of job diversity for those who attended.

From 1 p.m. to 7 p.m., attendees walked from one kiosk to another, asking questions to job representants and scouting the big black billboard displaying around 90 postings for jobs within the Pontiac, according to the event’s main organizer Emilie Chazelas.

From businesses like l’EntourElle in Fort-Coulonge, to the MRC Pontiac offices in Campbell’s Bay, the event was a great chance for local businesses to promote themselves to the community, Chazelas said.

“It definitely gives them exposure,” said Chazelas. “There’s jobs available. Sometimes people don’t know because the information doesn’t go around. So, having the job fair is a showcase. There’s a lot of jobs available here.”

Held every two years, the SADC job fair is a chance for Pontiac residents who work outside the region or who have transportation limitations the opportunity to search for multiple different jobs without doing as much travelling, Chazelas said.

“For some people it’s more important to have a job fair because they have transportation issues,” she said. “Some people work in the city as well and they don’t know about the opportunities we provide in the Pontiac.”

For Jodi Thompson, the event and kitchen manager at Pine Lodge in Bristol, the job fair is quite an eye-opening experience for her business, as it made her realize just how high the demand for employment is in the region, with so many people packing the building.

“There is a larger pool of people from the Pontiac to draw from for employment,” said Thompson. “We’re in a development phase. We’re in a growing phase with our business. So, this is very encouraging to us, to see this many people out attending this kind of fair.”

For Quyon resident Jacob Desgagne, the event was a good chance to distribute his resume and to build up a network by interacting with local business people.

“I’m looking to put my name out there,” said Desgagne. “And build a small base to work off of and get contacts and further myself and make a career.”

Coming fresh out of high school, Desgagne believes the job fair is important for the community because it draws so many people from all over the region and it offers employment in all types of industry.

“This draws in a lot of different workers from different areas,” he said. “So, they can really build networks and they appeal to a bunch of different people. There’s a lot of different opportunities.”

With the room packed to capacity with business people, kiosks and residents constantly flowing in and out of the room, Chazelas was thrilled with the community’s high-level of participation to the event.

“It was a good problem to have,” said Chazelas. “To keep everybody in the room. So, it was a really good problem.”

Pictured, Jacob Desgagne looks at a billboard featuring around 90 job postings.

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