Hunting for work

<p>More than 100 job seekers turned out Thursday to talk with prospective employers at a rare job fair in Santa Rosa targeting jobs in high-tech and related fields.</p><p>The job fair, which featured a dozen employers, was the second organized by a former Agilent Technologies worker whose first effort was focused on helping his colleagues find work.</p><p>That first job fair last fall landed jobs for eight people, said Brian Purcell, who now works at Merrill Lynch as a financial adviser.</p><p>“Four of those jobs didn't exist before the job fair,” Purcell said. But employers were so impressed with those job seekers that they made positions for them, he said.</p><p>Job seekers said the event fills an important niche in Sonoma County, where unemployment has hovered above 10 percent for seven straight months.</p><p>Two out of three tech workers in Sonoma County have lost their jobs since 2001. Today, there are 3,000 high-tech manufacturing jobs in the county, down from 9,000 at its peak in 2001, according to the Employment Development Department.</p><p>It rare to have a local job fair that focuses on high-tech companies and related fields, several job seekers said Thursday.</p><p>“Usually if I'm going to go to a job fair I have to drive for an hour and a half,” said Dan Pengra, a former Agilent employee seeking work in project management.</p><p>Among those seeking permanent employment Thursday was Jacquie Parr, who along with her husband Dallas are former Agilent employees.</p><p>Last year the couple hosted an annual gathering of former colleagues and reconnected with Purcell. After attending the fall job fair, Dallas Parr was hired as a project manager for General Dynamics in Healdsburg.</p><p>General Dynamics, which produces aerospace control systems, returned for the second job fair Thursday at Santa Rosa's Hilton hotel. The company was looking to fill positions in such areas as engineering and project management, said Rich Schroeder, general manager.</p><p>“If we can find local candidates, it's a huge benefit,” Schroeder said. The company is willing to bring people in from out of state, but the relatively high cost of housing can hinder such efforts.</p><p>Pengra called Purcell's idea “a brilliant move” that benefits both the financial adviser, the job seekers and the employers.</p><p>When high-tech workers think about investing, Pengra said, they naturally will remember Purcell, “that really cool guy who put on a job fair.”</p>