Several hundred people attended the City of Brantford’s second annual “Come Grow With Us” Job Fair at the Wayne Gretzky Sports Centre on Saturday, November 4, 2023.
“We’re really excited to be able to showcase our various departments at the City of Brantford. There’s really an opportunity here to meet the hiring managers of the different departments and to get to learn more about the City itself,” said Anita Szaloky, Director of Human Resources for the City of Brantford. “A lot of people identify us with snow clearing or with water management, but we have so many different departments like housing and homelessness, information technology services, accounting and so on. We really carry a wide breadth of opportunities.”
Both hiring managers and staff from a total of 19 City departments were in attendance to answer questions about the various positions open within the municipality.
Departments in attendance included:
- Aquatics & Fitness
- Arena Operations
- Brantford Fire
- Brantford Police
- Business Support & Sustainability
- Clerks
- Communications, Community Engagement & Customer Service
- Community Recreation
- Economic Development, Tourism & Culture
- Engineering Services
- Finance
- Fleet & Transit Services
- Housing & Homelessness
- Human Resources
- IT Services
- Operational Services
- Paramedic Services
- Parks Services
- Sanderson Centre for the Performing Arts
Szaloky also said that there were plenty of benefits to working within the City.
“The benefit of working within the City of Brantford is the opportunity to grow within your career and to give back to the community because everything we do affects the residents and the visitors,” she said. “There’s also excellent pay, benefits and a great pension plan.”
While job Seekers were encouraged to apply online rather than handing in their resumes on site, many made their way through the various information booths to ask questions, grab swag and put a face to the name.
Chloe Fulsom, a Brantford resident, was one of the many job seekers in attendance looking to check out new opportunities.
“Right now, I work seasonally, so I’m definitely interested in having a more stable job that I could have throughout the year,” said Fulsom. “It would also be nice to be able to have a chance to contribute to the community I grew up in.”
Another resident, Yohan Roche, said that it was a great chance for him to network with the departments that align with his studies.
“It’s been a great networking opportunity and I’ve already discovered a lot of different things I haven’t seen in my own research online,” he said. “For me, I’ve studied a lot of government and political science in school, so things like the housing department and customer service within the mayor’s office have been my main focus coming into this. It’s been cool to be able to pick their brains and to find more information about those departments.”
Kimberly De Jong’s reporting is funded by the Canadian government through its Local Journalism Initiative.The funding allows her to report rural and agricultural stories from Blandford-Blenheim and Brant County. Reach her at kimberly.dejong@brantbeacon.ca.