Brocade is a global company with about 2,500 employees in the Bay Area. The data networking and storage giant has 135 job openings in San Jose alone. Lisa McGill is the vice president of Worldwide Human Resources and says business is growing.
"There's a huge demand in terms of the amount of traffic, data traffic, that's being managed by companies throughout the world and the need for data storage," says McGill.
Brocade is aggressively hiring, especially engineers and sales staff. It is one of a dozen companies that will take part in a Job Journal/ABC7 job fair on Tuesday.
San Jose's HIREvent will feature a wide range of more than 500 employment opportunities covering a wide range of skills from software engineers to customer service representatives.
Sandra Apodaca is looking for a job and says she'll be at the event because job fairs can open doors.
"That's an opportunity for them to see you in person and you get to leave your resume rather than do it online," says Apodaca.
Don Washington is also out of work. He says he has noticed more hiring activity in recent months.
"Things are seeming to ease up a little bit. It's still tough out there. You've got to get out there every day. You can't take any breaks," says Washington.
Companies in a position to hire say make the most of job fairs and don't forget to network.
"Whether it's Facebook, Linked-In, or you name it, leveraging your connections through your networks and building relationships with recruiters and hiring managers is really key," says McGill.
It turns out 40 percent of Brocades new hires this year have been referrals from their own employees.
HIREvent sponsored by ABC7 and the Job Journal
Tuesday, Dec 7, 2010
11 a.m. - 3 p.m.
Wyndham Hotel
1350 North First Street
San Jose, CA 95112
1-888-THE-JOBS
See who might be there? Click here
