While that WV career fair’s just for Bethany students, here’s another reminder about the WV career fair at Wheeling Jesuit University next week.  Good luck in your career search!

On Tuesday, March 31, all job seekers in the Northern Panhandle of West Virginia, Eastern Ohio, and Western Pennsylvania are welcome to come to the Troy Theater at Wheeling Jesuit University between 11AM and 7PM.  This Wheeling, WV job fair is being sponsored by the WORKFORCE WV Career Center and Wheeling Jesuit University.

If you’re currently between jobs or if you’re looking for a new career, come on down.  Bring a resume and dress sharp.  We’ll have plenty of Ohio and West Virginia employers in attendance and looking for candidates.

A Note to OH, PA, & WV Employers

If you are interested in reserving a booth, please contact Karri Mulhern, Workforce Manager, Regional Economic Development Partnership at 304.232.7722 or kmulhern@redp.org.  Booths are available for very reasonable costs and the number of participating businesses is limited.

What this means for you: Karri is going to be very proactive in all aspects of the site, including working with employers, gaining new employer accounts, social marketing, and even blogging right here.  So keep your eyes posted on this space as we’ll make better use of it in making announcements of all sizes. 

In the meantime, please welcome Karri and a very merry Happy Talk Like a Pirate Day to you all.  Arrgh!

The nation’s first coal-to-liquid (CTL) plant will be constructed here in the Ohio Valley in Marshall County at Benwood, WV.  It’s a joint effort between CONSOL Energy and Synthesis Energy Systems (SES).  It’s expected to mean 300-500 construction jobs for Ohio Valley residents.  After the ctl plant is built, it should mean 60 full time hires for its operation.  Here’s an excerpt from the official announcement:

CONSOL, the nation’s largest producer of bituminous coal, and SES, a global industrial gasification company, intend to develop through a joint venture, their first U. S. coal gasification and liquefaction plant in West Virginia — an $800 million investment. The boards of directors of CONSOL and SES have authorized funds for development activities, including the front-end engineering design (“FEED”) package. Each member company will contribute equally to this phase of the project. CONSOL and SES have formed Northern Appalachia Fuel LLC (NAF) as the company through which the development will occur.

“This project has the potential to transform West Virginia from a major coal-producing state to a national energy center as well,” said J. Brett Harvey, president and CEO of CONSOL Energy. “By converting some of our region’s abundant, high-Btu coal into gases and liquids, not only will we create economic value for the state, but we will help West Virginia become the linchpin of American energy security,” Harvey said.

Tim Vail, president and CEO of SES, said he is proud of the progress toward development of the plant and that they appreciate the state’s and RED’s support. “Together with our partner, CONSOL Energy, we will be taking a first step toward securing energy independence in the U.S. as we convert raw and residual coal from CONSOL’s Shoemaker mine and plant into gasoline in an environmentally responsible and cost-efficient manner.”

I’m not going to get into the issue of CTL and energy.  I don’t know enough about the subject to determine its viability and don’t want to touch the issue of green energy and spark some sort of riot.

Let’s just look at some things this announcement means:

• The Ohio Valley (and West Virginia) is going to be at the forefront of technology in a category.
• It’s going to mean some good jobs for folks both during construction and in its operation.
• The CTL plant can be used as another piece in the pie to attract more businesses to the area.
• The Ohio Valley’s economy gets diversified, something we’re in need of.

To paraphrase one commenter on a local message board, let’s focus on the positives of this announcement for a day and give credit to CONSOL, SES, RED and all the folks that helped make it happen.

Update: You can learn more about the project, process, and parties involved in this new CTL plant on RED’s Web site.

We’ve been fiddling around with a new jobs feed for twitter and (think) we finally have it working.  Now you can follow new job updates and more on twitter.  “What’s Twitter you ask?”

Twitter is the most popular of a series of new social media sites that offer “micro-blogging.”  I’m not personally a fan of that term, but that’s what the media seems to be using.  I think a better description offered by someone in my office (sorry all – I can’t remember who – Sarah maybe?) is instant messaging for your cell phone.

When you set up a free account on twitter, you can enter in text – or sms – messages limited to 140 characters into the interface for everyone on your network to see.  You choose who you follow and whom you allow to follow you.

If you already twitter or think you’d like to test it out, sign up for an account and follow us. If we have it set up correctly, it should be fairly useful.  Also let me know what other information you’d like us to tweet out.

If you have no idea what I’m talking about and don’t care, check back to our blog next week for more news on the Ohio Valley and career opportunities here.

You know twitter’s getting popular because junk accounts with pictures of alluring women are popping up like crazy.  Our twitter account is already being followed by over 20 people from outside our area, who tweet gobbldygook and all have the same picture.  Who knew we had so many twins interested in Ohio Valley career opportunities, stella102 and macey121?

Or how about you, diane 354 and laura434?

Seriously spammers – you can’t even take the time to rename the images differently with a name that matches the account name?

At the risk of embarrassing some – not all, but some – people I saw at the Ohio Valley Job Fair on Wheeling island earlier this week – it is not appropriate to wear hats or jerseys or be scantily clad.  You wouldn’t wear the same outfit to a Steelers game that you would to a funeral (unless the deceased were this guy).  So don’t wear what you would hanging out with your friends to meet with prospective employers.

But just how much should you dress up?   It differs whether you’re attending a job fair or an interview, which company or companies, and what type of position.  There is a level of subjectivity and judgment…but not that much. I’ve personally always felt more comfortable a little overdressed than underdressed.  Plus, most folks won’t ding you for dressing up too much even if they’re more casual as they’ll recognize you’ve made an effort to put your best foot forward.

You don’t always need to wear a suit (though it’s usually not a bad thing).  If you don’t have one, you can just wear a dress shirt and slacks, with or without a tie depending on the situation*.  Even if you’re not in a great financial position, you can head over to the Highlands or the Ohio Valley Mall and pick up a tie for a few bucks.

Here are some general interview dress rules that are good in 99% of situations:

Yes

• Pressed clothes
• Shirt with a collar
• Skirts at least one inch above the knee or longer
• Tie
• Tuck in your shirt
• Comb / brush / style your hair
• Shave or keep any existing facial hair neatly groomed

No

• Hats, doo rags, or any non-religious head ware
• Jerseys or shirts with writing on them
• Wrinkles or stains
• Shorts
• Outfits that are too tight or revealing
• Excessive makeup

Remember – this is your first impression and everything matters, especially how you dress.  Some employers won’t give you a shot if your shoes aren’t shined; show up in your hoody and they might have security escort you out.

* I’m not trying to come off sexist by talking about ties and male dress more than female dress codes.  I simply don’t know how women are supposed to dress (other than not too revealing) and what the appropriate terms for their clothes are because I am a guy and guys are stupid.  I try to get away with saying terms like “business casual” or “professional” and hope they know what that means.

HR directors and ladies – have any advice to give to women on how to dress???

Frankly the results, while not what we would hope for aren’t very surprising for number junkies (hat tip to Dominick Cerrone of Good Mansion Wines for sending over a breakdown).  We have a great number of people in the upper brackets of the age range.  Simply put, deaths are going to outpace births for some time barring some major fortuitous event.

But there’s good news in the longer term picture if you really look at the numbers.

From Dom:

Wheeling’s population loss is significantly leveling off.  From 2000, to 2007, annual percentage loss went from 1.6% to 0.7%, basically leveling off each year.

Seven year trends are too short for any real significance, but it is also bad business to ingore what at least may be a microtrend.  By age group, Wheeling has one last large pool of older population that is probably in itself the cause for the loss (higher death to birth).  Once time passes, a truer indicator of growth or loss can be taken.  A longer term evaluation of the City’s population also shows a  major leveling off in loss.

I’ve talked with quite a few residents of the Valley that have lived here for some time and many – not all – are feeling the best they’ve felt about the direction of the Valley for either the first time ever in their lives or the first time in a long, long time.

The other thing to keep in mind is that we’re looking at city limits.  Many people will work in one town and live in another or live in an unincorporated area.  I fall into this category as well.  My company is based in downtown Wheeling, but I live just outside city limits in Triadelphia.

I really look forward to the in depth numbers the 2010 census will provide.  I’m hoping all the anecdotal evidence of a young, creative professionals moving / returning to the Ohio Valley bears out.

Today has been interesting for a number of reasons.  I appreciate everyone that stopped by the booth and the kind words from employers and job seekers alike about how easy our site is to use.

One woman mentioned that when she heard me on WKKX originally, she thought that the site was just for young people, but she gave it a look anyway.  She felt it was just as valuable for folks in her age range (over 40) as it was for young professionals.  And that a senior work force is valuable for the Ohio Valley as well.

I couldn’t agree more on either front.  We need good quality workers, period.  It doesn’t matter what age, race, ethnicity, religion, country of origin, sexual orientation, or any other demographic marking.

Sometimes I may not do a good job of explaining that as I’m a young-ish professional (but still old to my younger employees) and am involved with young professional groups like OVConnect and Generation West Virginia.  I apologize if I’m unconsciously being biased.

The bottom line – we need you to help our region grow and grow strong.  If you have skills and can and are eager to contribute, step on up.  We don’t care what your completed Census survey will look like.

Over 1,500 Ohio Valley job seekers showed up to the last job fair in January, so be sure to get there early.

Where: Wheeling Island Hotel – Casino – Racetrack

When: Tuesday, July 8 from 11AM – 7PM

If you come by to meet with many of the largest Ohio and West Virginia employers in our area, stop by our booth and say hi!  Make sure you bring your resume.

The biggest one to me is, “I live here.  Can I use this site?  Will employers not look at my resume or application?”

TakeMeHomeOhioValley.com is definitely open to job seekers who already live in the valley.  (Bold usage for dramatic effect.)

Our Careers Web Site Goals

We built our West Virginia careers site – covering surrounding counties in Ohio and Pennsylvania, too – with three objectives, in no particular order:

• Help job seekers find employment in the Upper Ohio Valley
• Help employers find skilled talent
• Help attract outside businesses to our area by being able to show a skilled, accessible labor pool

Types of Career Seekers

Although they all interact with one another, the bottom two hinge on #1 – helping career seekers.  We have three ways to reach three different types of career seekers:

1. Retain local talent
2. Get folks from the Valley to move back
3. Entice people with no connection to the area to move here for work

Although I have recently met several folks who fall into the third category through organizations like OVConnect, that’s the tougher sell.  As people experienced with economic development and hiring talent in our region and throughout West Virginia will tell you, it’s not hard to get folks to move here once they’ve visited, but it can be difficult to get them to consider initially.

Keeping that in mind, we’re concentrating more heavily on the lower hanging fruit if you will – folks living here already or folks with a prior connection that want to move back.

Yes, We Want Local Residents

Reaching people who would like to move back is crucial as it helps expand our talent pool.  But we certainly don’t want to lose the people already calling communities like Wheeling, Wellsburg, Glen Dale, and Martins Ferry home.  So if you’re living here, please use the site and let all of your friends looking for work (already here and those that want to move here) about it.

Preference for Out-of-Towners?

Getting back to the question about whether employers will have preferences for out-of-towners. Hmmm. I think the answer is that it depends on the employer. Keep in mind that most of the employers listed on our site aren’t connected with TakeMeHomeOhioValley.com in any way; they’re just looking for the best candidates to fulfill their open positions.

As a business owner I can tell you from my personal / professional opinion only – not speaking on anyone else’s behalf – that I just want the best fit. While there can be benefits and drawbacks to hiring someone from outside the area, I’m more concerned with getting my organization to excel. And the only way I can do that is by getting the right people on the bus.