Beltrami County Hosts First Responder Career Fair & Hiring Event

Beltrami County Workforce Impact hosted a First Responder Career Fair and Hiring Event on Tuesday. The event allowed the community to connect with local agencies and employees with careers in law enforcement, emergency medical response, and firefighting.

Through things like the career fair, Beltrami County Workforce Impact aims to raise awareness of job opportunities in first responder roles.

“First responders play a very critical role in our community, and we think that it kind of goes full circle,” said Workforce Impact Business Account Representative Amy Mistic. “We want to support our job seekers that are looking for work, and we also want to support these great agencies that take care of our community as a whole here.”

Representatives from various agencies shared information about their day-to-day experiences and how to seek a job in their field.

“Well, public safety agencies are here to promote and educate the population about our jobs and help them possibly apply for future or current openings we have within our organizations,” explained Bemidji Fire Chief Justin Sherwood.

Mistic mentioned that there are other aspects to the job besides working in the field.

“They have lots of behind-the-scenes work,” said Mistic. “You don’t always have to be on the front lines. And we’re also here as CareerForce to help with everything from applications to your resume.”

Sherwood wants the hiring process for first responders to be proactive in reaching out to the community for potential employment opportunities.

“One of the things I also hope to bring to the table today at a workforce center or even in the future is to have my organization better represent the community that we serve,” he emphasized. “Right now, a majority of the people on our organization are white males, and we do have just a couple of female members. I would like to see Bemidji Fire in the future to have people of Native American background, people of color, and more females apply.”

Sherwood also stated that seeking more diversity in new hires will help ensure there are enough firefighters.

“I think if we work really, really hard and promote like we’ve talked about and educate the entire demographic about our organization, we can help solve this epidemic of lack of employees. And then we’ll have more than enough applicants to choose from.”

Anyone interested in becoming a first responder or looking for more information can contact the following individuals:

Angele Hartell
(320) 232-2016
[email protected]

Amy Mistic
(218) 441-2236
[email protected]