MWR Job Fair Educates Civilians, Assists Applicants by Laura Jungreis
Military spouses and other civilians flocked to the Life Learning Center on Wednesday to attend the Family and Morale, Welfare and Recreation Job Fair. The fair, held across the street from the Graham Resiliency Training Center, showcased open positions within MWR and helped applicants through the sometimes-confusing online application process. “This is the first fair that we’ve done with just MWR,” said Brendolyn Keith, an employment readiness program assistant who helped plan the event. “The key is to help spouses and any other individual understand how to apply for the positions on the website.” The main display room was filled with tables decorated with colorful posters that advertised the various job opportunities. Representatives from different departments, such as Child, Youth and School Services, were available to chat with jobseekers about the open positions. After assessing the opportunities,
MWR staff assisted jobseekers with online applications in the computer lab
applicants could then continue through the building to a computer lab. There, staff was available to walk them through the application process step by step. “Spouses always want jobs on post so this is a good opportunity for them,” Keith said. “They appreciate it. It’s obvious that they are very happy about the service that they are receiving.” One CYSS employee at the fair, Suzanne Anderson, said the fair is great opportunity for people to learn more about the positions available. “They can find
out first-hand from people who are in the positions, who have been through the positions,” Anderson said. “They really can answer the questions as opposed to just reading the job descriptions online, and having officials here to assist in the applications process now that they’ve gone online is a wonderful thing because it’s kind of complicated.” Anderson encourages spouses and civilians to learn about the positions because having an MWR job has led her to success. In 2007, she and her husband PCSed to Fort Sill from Germany. She started with CYSS as a flex caregiver. “I started just like everyone else,” Anderson said. “At the time I had no college background or any Suzanna Anderson talked to jobseekers about open positions with CYSS
education background outside of a high school diploma. While being a childcare provider, I
began online classes through University of Phoenix. Doing that and going to school full time was pretty demanding. I got through it and I’m moving my way up.” Today, Anderson is a Supervisory Program Specialist at Tincher Child Development Center. “They saw potential in me and that I wanted to move up,” Anderson said. “And I still do. I am still constantly seeking growth and wanting to move up higher in the organization. It’s taken time and I’m a patient person but I love learning.” Mike Bordon, Chief of MWR Business Operations Division, talked to jobseekers about other entry-level positions such as a bartender, waiter and recreation aid. “We’re trying to let everybody know that just to get your foot in the door sometimes you’ve got to start somewhere,” Bordon said. “People don’t realize what USA Jobs are about. A lot of people from the civilian world don’t realize they can come out here and work in our departments. We’re trying to
recruit because we do struggle. One of our struggles is the website, the USA.gov website. It’s not user friendly and if you don’t have computer experience or you don’t have a computer, you’re not going to be able to apply for a job. So we’ve put this job fair together to have someone located around the corner that can actually assist someone that doesn’t have the knowledge or the computer to get hired.” Bordon received six applications as a result from the fair and called the day a success. Keith said she is confident MWR will plan more job fairs in the future. “I know we will, we have to,” Keith said. “We got a great turnout today.”