Bechtel -- the firm that will build the first chip fabrication plant in the town of Clay for Micron Technology, Inc. (Nasdaq: MU) -- held a hiring hiring event on Wednesday afternoon.
More than 500 had pre-registered to attend, Melissa Newman, communications specialist with Bechtel, told WRVO Public Media. The company held the event at the Embassy Suites by Hilton Syracuse at 6646 Old Collamer Rd. South, near Carrier Circle, in the town of DeWitt.
The Bechtel Corporation is an engineering, construction, and project management firm headquartered in Reston, Virginia. The firm is known for its work in building the Hoover Dam between the Nevada and Arizona border and the Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) in San Francisco.
It was an event in which someone with the right experience could walk in and leave with a job, an element that Newman described as "pretty unique."
"I know the job market can be stressful for some people trying to navigate it and this is a really cool opportunity where we have people register ahead of time. They come. They're able to chat with the hiring manager directly and potentially leave with a job and start working with us within a couple of weeks," she added.
WRVO Public Media spoke with Newman during the hiring event's first hour. "And you can see by looking around, it definitely feels like hundreds of people have attended," noting a long line of job candidates that had formed inside the hotel.
Those attending were greeted with a parking lot that had few spaces to spare. Newman said that Bechtel was "thrilled" with the interest in the hiring event with more than 500 people pre-registering.
Bechtel is looking for candidates to fill roles under the engineering, procurement, and construction (EPC) umbrellas, Newman said. Those terms are very broad, she noted, especially as the construction industry continues to innovate.
"So, Bechtel as a company is really helping lead what is considered the EPC transformation, so that's really looking at different ways where things could be automated that were previously done manually, integrating AI into different things, and so I really encourage people to check out our website," Newman said.
She went on to say that people may be surprised by the different types of opportunities that are out there that are not your traditional construction jobs. For example, Bechtel has robotic dogs that will be joining the company on site in Clay soon, and they're going to be helping out the company's engineers with scanning and surveying on some Bechtel projects.
As for when new hires will start working with Bechtel, Newman said it probably varies by function. For some people, it's as soon as their background check clears, so it really kind of varies, but it can happen "pretty quickly."
Boise, Idaho-based Micron broke ground on construction back in January and crews have been on site ever since clearing away trees and preparing for vertical construction. Newman says Bechtel is still preparing for its role in the construction effort.
"We're currently in the process of transitioning the site over from Gilbane to Bechtel, so as part of that we have a small footprint right now. We have some folks that are working on the site daily, accepting deliveries. We have our first trailer set up, but as of right now, it is still under Gilbane's purview and so we're looking forward to transitioning it over to us and really getting ramped up," she said.
