By: Amy Jones

Marketing Manager at Innovate Birmingham

This post was originally published on The Switch

In the past few weeks, Innovate Birmingham staff members have flocked to a bevy of job fairs and career days across Birmingham. We’ve been at The Housing Authority of the Birmingham District and the Jefferson County Department of Human Resources job fairs, and at Homewood High School’s career day event.

We are also planning our own career fair — the Hired From Home virtual recruiting event — with the Birmingham Business Alliance. It’s set for Nov. 10 and is intended to help bridge the gap between top employers and top talent in Birmingham. (If you’d like to sign up, click here!)

It’s been a whirlwind of a month. Now that people are starting to venture back into in-person events, we had to prepare to actually see people face-to-face, which takes some mental gymnastics when you’ve become acclimated to virtual meetings! We passed out so many business cards and all sorts of IB swag — phone grips, koozies, pens (with an “e”), pins (with an “i”) … so much stuff. We made new connections and revitalized old ones, and did manage to have some fun along the way.

Most importantly, though, we were reminded that it’s never too late — or too early — to consider a job in tech.

Our Marketing Manager, Amy Jones, had a job seeker come to her table at the DHR job fair and tell her he had been a lawyer for many years. Once Covid started, he decided to become a caretaker for his mother, and then he realized he didn’t want to be a lawyer anymore. It was time to make a change, and he thought Innovate Birmingham could be a possible path to a new life.

Then at the Homewood career day, HHS Career Coach Dr. Delisa Brooks referenced a Homewood High alum who made great grades during his high school career, went to college on an academic scholarship and came home one semester later saying, “This just isn’t for me. I can’t imagine doing this for four more years.” That alum found Innovate Birmingham, went through the web development program and now — at 23 years old — just bought his first house and is settled into a career that he enjoys.

With Innovate Birmingham, a career in tech is a potential career path no matter your age or your situation. As long as you’re an Alabama resident, 17 or older and have a high school diploma or GED, you’re a candidate.

Don’t think that you can’t — know that you can.

Check out what we have to offer at innovatebham.com.