News United States Air Force
 Faster, smarter: virtual hiring fair recruits STEM talentPublished April 28, 2020
                        
                        By Marisa Alia-Novobilski
                        
                        
                        Air Force Materiel Command
                **WRIGHT-PATTERSON AIR FORCE BASE, Ohio (AFNS) --**
                In conjunction with the**Air Force’s Personnel Center**, the **Air Force Materiel Command** held a virtual hiring fair April 23, to fill open science, technology, engineering and mathematics positions across the command.
More than 1,000 candidates applied to participate in the hiring event, which sought applicants for 700 positions at AFMC centers and installations across the U.S. Hiring officials were available to conduct on-the-spot interviews and had the ability to leverage direct hire authorities to extend job offers to candidates on the same day.
“While our efforts over the past several weeks have been focused on balancing mission with taking care of our Airmen during the **COVID-19** pandemic, it’s also important we keep our talent acquisition wheels in motion,” said Bill Snodgrass, AFMC Manpower, Personnel and Services director.
This was the third virtual hiring event held by AFMC over the past year, part of an ongoing effort to leverage in-person and online recruiting events to reach a large number of candidates for open opportunities.
“Talent acquisition is evolving, and even before social distancing driven by the current national emergency, AFMC was looking to leverage the benefits of online civilian hiring fairs to improve the speed, effectiveness and presence of our recruiting practices,” said Keri Poole, a human resources specialist at AFMC and event coordinator.
Interested applicants were required to pre-apply to attend the virtual event, allowing officials to review resumes and qualifications prior to issuing invites to promising candidates. Of the 620 applicants selected, 75% participated in the six-hour event, with more than 115 AFMC subject matter experts and hiring officials online to interact with the attendees.
Upon accessing the online platform, participants transitioned between virtual booths to discuss job opportunities with various representatives. Almost 1,600 “chats” between job applicants and various AFMC members occurred throughout the day. While some interviews were conducted during the event, the primary goal was to line up high-caliber talent for interviews to be conducted during the next two weeks.
“The virtual platform’s ability to cast a wide net while gathering resumes and talking to diverse talent across the nation was beneficial. However, the real indicator of our success will be how many job offers result from the event and how many are accepted,” Snodgrass said. “The SMEs and hiring officials were fully engaged online, ensuring our candidates understood our needs as a command and the benefits available to them as civilian Airmen. We’re optimistic that we will have new members join the AFMC team as a result.”
Though positions were available at center locations across the AFMC footprint, the majority of job openings were at the **Air Force Sustainment Center** and **Air Force Life Cycle Management Center** locations across the U.S. Electronics and systems engineering positions comprised the bulk of the positions available, though talent was sought for openings in the areas of general and mechanical engineer, computer science, operational research analysis and more.
“AFMC is a great place to work, and we need to continue to recruit and attract STEM talent as a fifth-generation Air Force needs fifth-generation talent,” Snodgrass said. “I am grateful to the hard work of our AFMC hiring teams who worked closely together with the Air Force’s Personnel Center to make this event successful and anticipate holding additional virtual hiring events in the future.”
To learn more about civilian opportunities at AFMC and across the Air Force, visit the Air Force Civilian **website**.FS 



USAF 



AF 



Air Force 



Air Force’s Personnel Center 



AFPC 



Air Force Materiel Command 



AFMC 



virtual hiring fair 



manpower 



talent acquisition 



human resources 



civilian 



Air Force Sustainment Center 



Air Force Life Cycle Management Center 



science 



technology 



engineering 



mathematics 



stem Related Links
        Air Force Civilian Careers
            
            AFMC-wide virtual hiring fair attracts new talent
                                April 23, 2019
                                The Air Force Materiel Command hosted its first Virtual Hiring Event April 10 to fill more than 400 immediate vacancies across the enterprise footprint. Approximately 30 job offers were made during the event with hiring managers also identifying 60 additional members for subsequent interviews. An
            
            Mobile app supports new hire process
                                Feb. 14, 2020
                                A new mobile application feature aims to make the on-boarding process and first days of work easier for civilian new hires across the Air Force Materiel Command. The “Newcomers” feature on the AFMC instance of the Air Force Connect mobile application provides new employees with step-by-step