Virtual IT job fair draws attention

A virtual information technology job fair, jointly sponsored by the CIO Council and the Office of Personnel Management, starts today, and it has already attracted the attention of thousands of job seekers nationwide.

Monster.com, the largest employment Web site in the country, began running a banner ad for the job fair on its home page April 15, and within two days, the ad had received almost 20,000 hits, according to Pat Popovich, deputy chief information officer at the State Department, who is organizing the online event for the CIO Council.

"We are rolling," Popovich exulted about public response to the banner ad, which will also run at various times on HotJobs.com, Dice.com and WashingtonJobs.com.

Twenty-six federal agencies — including the Defense Department and the National Gallery of Art — are participating in the job fair, which runs through April 26 on OPM's USAJobs Web site (www.usajobs.opm.gov).

The job fair also will include a new IT competency-based job profile for use on a pilot basis, Popovich said. The profile, developed by OPM last year, tests applicants on such characteristics as interpersonal skills, problem-solving, decision-making and project management, in addition to IT skills.