Spring High School Career Fair

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Spring Northwest Montana High School Career Fair

Focused on long-term career opportunities, immediate hiring needs, summer employment, high school career connection, and seasonal workforce connections.

Date:  Thursday, April 16, 2026

Time: 8:45am -11am

Location: Flathead County Fairgrounds, Trade Center

Questions? - Contact Jenn Cronk, Kalispell Chamber

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Teachers/Schools

What to Expect

  • Upon arrival at the Fairgrounds, your bus (or car/van) will be greeted and directed toward your student drop-off location. 

  • Students will enter the Trade Center building from either the south or north entrances (as directed by Career Fair staff).

  • Your bus (car/van) will then be directed toward a designated parking area. Students, upon exiting the building, will be directed toward your parked bus/van/car.

  • Students will have 1 hour to visit with a wide variety of businesses and organizations representing a variety of industries and careers. Please consider asking students to set an alarm on their phones/watches to alert them as the time approaches for them to exit the building.

  • Flathead Valley Community College will also be present with several tables and program departments represented.

  • Encourage your students to review the list of participating businesses & organizations and identify their top 5 so that they make the best use of their time.

  • Encourage students to have a goal for each business/organization they meet with, such as: making a meaningful contact for follow up (getting name/email/phone/and/or business card), learn what type of careers are offered at a business/organization and type of training needed for the career that interests you most, learn about potential more immediate jobs (if of interest to the student – for after school, summer, post-graduation). 

  • Student Survey: Ask your students to complete the brief online survey of their experience while riding their bus/van/car back to your school. This survey provides valuable feedback that we will also share with you to understand the impact of this event for your students. (qr code/survey link below)

  • Food truck: note that they only ‘food truck’ planned to be operating on site during the career fair will be a coffee cart. This is primarily intended as a service to the exhibiting businesses.

  • Posse:  As in years’ past, we have asked the Flathead county Sheriff’s Posse to be onsite during the Career Fair as an assistance with attendance management and safety.

  1. SURVEY QR: (to be added)

Students

What to Expect

  • You’ll have 1 hour to meet with a wide variety of businesses and industries from the Flathead Valley.

  • As the event approaches, review the list of participating businesses and organizations on the list above. Pick the top 5 that interest you the most.

  • For your top 5, look them up online to learn more about their businesses/organizations.

  • Determine what you most want to learn from each business/organization that you meet with – is it what kind of jobs they offer? Or is it a questions about a specific job/career? Do you have questions about what type of training or schooling is required for these jobs/careers? Do you have questions about average pay range for these jobs/careers? Are you interested in learning more about potential internships? Summer jobs? After-school jobs? Or employment immediately after graduation? Are you looking to get the name and contact information for an individual/department at this business so that you can follow up after the fair?

  • Plan to use your time wisely at the fair.  Allow for time to locate the businesses/organizations that you’d like to meet with at the event – it may take a few minutes to find their booth/s.  If a booth has a lot of students at it initially, move on to your next business of interest and circle back to the busy one later.

  • Set your alarm to leave the Trade Center at the time instructed by your school.

  • Take the student survey on the way back to your high school – your feedback helps us to not only improve the fair itself, but it also helps your school to understand more about what you learned at the day’s event.

  • Didn’t get enough time at the fair/didn’t get to meet with a business? If you can return in the afternoon, the fair turns into the job fair from 2-6pm on the same day (4/16) and you can continue to meet with businesses.  Or, if you are looking for a contact at a business that attended, please feel free to reach out to our planning team and we can help with connecting you with the business. Contact: Laura Gardner, Manager, Job Service Kalispell at lgardner@mt.gov or Jenn Cronk, Workforce & Special Initiatives Director at the Kalispell Chamber at j.cronk@kalispellchamber.com