More than 60 employers came out June 16 for a job fair at Fresno City Hall geared toward former Bitwise employees. Photo by Ben Hensley

The City of Fresno hosted a job fair on Friday to assist in job placement for more than 300 former Bitwise Employees in response to their sudden furloughs due to the tech company’s high-profile collapse.

Representatives of multiple City of Fresno entities were in attendance, alongside businesses ranging form transportation to tech, with many offering applications to open positions both in and out of the tech field.

“We’ve got a lot of people coming through looking for jobs and we’re trying to do our best to help them out,” said Adam Tsudama, operations manager with the Fresno Economic Opportunities Commission.

Businesses and organizations not currently offering positions were also providing resources to attendees, including the Fresno Police Department, which met with potential applicants and directed them to the proper place to submit applications and find out more about potential openings.

 

“The Fresno Police Department is a great and larger organization to work for,” said Fresno Police Sergeant Curtis Bunch. “Within the City of Fresno in the police department, we still have all these subdivisions and different opportunities for them to grow within our agency.”

Additionally, several businesses immediately hiring, including unWired Broadband and United Health Centers, were offering open positions, praising the potential that former Bitwise employees could bring to the table.

unWired Broadband Human Resources Director Patrick Seitz said that the company had planned on announcing several openings later in the year, but with the job fair and its potential to yield quality employees, unWired decided to announce those openings early.

“We’re looking for a full stack developer,” he said. “I didn’t know there were so many in town.”

Overall, 60 different businesses and organizations were in attendance at the event, with an applicant turnout in the hundreds.

“Lots of different people seem to be very energized and I think they all appreciate this event,” said Michael Toms, chief information officer of Fowler Packing. “We’re all trying to help out and see where we can align expertise with opportunity.”