CRANE, Ind. – Nearly one thousand participants from across the country attended Naval Surface Warfare Center, Crane Division’s (NSWC Crane) first-ever virtual career fair on October 22. NSWC Crane was seeking qualified applicants in business and technical positions and the public was welcome to participate.
The annual career fair started in 2018 and was structured this year to take place virtually to ensure public safety. Christopher Goodwin works in Recruiting and Student Outreach for NSWC Crane and was integral in organizing the virtual event.
Goodwin says there were benefits to hosting the career fair virtually this year.
“While we have had large numbers of job-seekers at our in-person events in the past, conducting the fair using a virtual platform allowed us the ability to reach a much wider audience than previous in-person events,” says Goodwin. “The platform we chose enabled us to list positions in a way that job-seekers could easily identify which organizations at Crane fit their education, experience, and backgrounds. The ultimate success of the fair can be attributed to the over 150-volunteers who devoted the afternoon to advancing NSWC Crane’s workforce.”
Goodwin says there were unique opportunities for job seekers.
“Attendees had the ability to research the different departments and divisions at NSWC Crane, as well as five government contract partners and NAVFAC,” says Goodwin. “Once they researched, they could then select which area to speak to an expert. Attendees uploaded their resumes into a database, which are now searchable by our organization if the need arises later for candidates meeting their qualifications. This could all be accomplished from remote locations and did not necessitate driving to Southern Indiana and potentially taking time off from work or classes.”
Command’s strategic intent for the next decade includes growth of a rigorous and expert workforce. Goodwin says that going virtual helped to access talent.
“Through social media and our affiliation with professional organizations, we had the ability to reach candidates that would otherwise not have had access to speak with NSWC Crane employees regarding our mission and focus areas,” says Goodwin. “This allowed us to grow our recruiting pool to areas we typically cannot visit due to financial and time constraints.”
Goodwin says the event was organized to be informative, feature-rich, and easy to use for participants.
“We had access to ten virtual booths and forty chat rooms,” says Goodwin. “Each department identified a Point of Contact to build their booth and create chat rooms for divisions within them. Some of the Corporate Operations and Business function areas were grouped together outside of their normal organization in order to make things easier to understand from a job-seekers perspective.”
About NSWC Crane
NSWC Crane is a naval laboratory and a field activity of Naval Sea Systems Command (NAVSEA) with mission areas in Expeditionary Warfare, Strategic Missions and Electronic Warfare. The warfare center is responsible for multi-domain, multi- spectral, full life cycle support of technologies and systems enhancing capability to today's Warfighter.
Join Our Team! NAVSEA employs a diverse, highly trained, educated, and skilled workforce - from students and entry level employees to experienced professionals and individuals with disabilities. We support today's sophisticated Navy and Marine Corps ships, aircraft, weapon systems and computer systems. We are continuously looking for engineers, scientists, IT and cyber specialists, as well as trade and other support professionals to ensure the U.S. Navy can protect and defend America. Please contact NSWC Crane Human Resources at crane_recruiting@navy.mil.