Duke Hosts Career Fair That Draws Talent for Roles

Approximately 130 candidates attend a fair hosted by Duke Human Resources in Durham

Donning Duke blue t-shirts, recruiters and other staff members take a photo at the NCWorks Career Center in Durham on the day of a University-wide job Fair. Photo courtesy of Denise A. Motley.
Donning Duke blue t-shirts, recruiters and other staff members take a photo at the NCWorks Career Center in Durham on the day of a University-wide job Fair. Photo courtesy of Denise A. Motley.

A steady stream of applicants recently attended a job fair at Duke to learn more about openings for 38 job titles, from administrative roles to lab research analysts, clinical research coordinators, plumbers, HVAC techs and more.

The job fair, hosted by Central Recruitment in Duke Human Resources, was the largest ever held at the NCWorks Career Center in Durham. Midway through the afternoon, and to help meet the demand, the Central Recruitment team extended the event an additional hour to ensure recruiters could meet with everyone.

“When folks walked in, they could not only feel the energy from us, we could feel the energy from them,” said Denise A. Motley, assistant vice president for Duke Human Resources. “Seriously, it was exciting.”

Duke Human Resources hosts a job fair in Durham on April 27.

Motley and her team of recruiters planned the job fair over three weeks to help fill vacancies for roles such as bus operators and security officers. They were joined by representatives from the Duke University Police Department, Department of Surgery, Cell Biology, and DUMAC, Inc., all of whom helped interview candidates.

While individual job fairs for specific departments and units are common at Duke, Central Recruitment expanded the fair to include all departments with openings, making the event on April 27 the first-ever University-wide job fair.

Those who came could apply for open positions, meet with recruiters and in some cases, interview with hiring managers from select departments on site.

David Sago, a senior recruiter for Duke, said the event will help Duke fill open positions and create a pool of qualified candidates for job openings in the future. And it provided an opportunity for recruiters to share about the value of working at Duke.

“The recruiters did a really good job of explaining who we are and what we do,” Sago said. “Everybody I spoke to seemed to have a lot of energy. I feel like when they walked out, they knew more about Duke, and they knew more about how to find a job at Duke.”

After a successful first event, Motley said Central Recruitment is planning to host another job fair in the fall. After that, her team will assess the possibility of future in-person opportunities to learn more about job openings at Duke.

“I enjoyed the personal touch,” Motley said. “It let them know that we’re attainable and it’s attainable to find a job at Duke.”

Finds jobs at Duke: careers.duke.edu.

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