60 seconds goes fast. That's all the time some people had to impress employers and hopefully land a job.
One-by-one they stood up and tried to sell their skills to potential employers. Each person had 60 seconds to win over employers.
"I want them to know that I'm very confident in being able to solve any problems that I might come across," says Sharon Garber.
Many spoke softly but came with a big resume and they were glad when it was over.
"Now I feel like I can breathe," says Yvonne Morris.
They're students who were laid off from ITT earlier this year and they've worked hard for another chance.
"Hopefully something good will come out of this," says Joseph Graves.
WDBJ7 has followed them on this tough journey. For the past three months, this group went to school full time at Virginia Western Community College to learn new skills and technology through the Workforce Development Board.
They completed the year-long program in just three months.
"We did this program 29 credit hours in three months which is very intense but that shows that we are trainable," says Graves.
After the minute-long pitch by each student, they spoke individually with employers. One woman from a Salem company said she really liked the reverse job fair.
"I thought this was a wonderful and unique approach for a job fair," says Jeannie Brown from Mersen USA, "It gave me an opportunity to select the candidates that I wanted to spend some more time with."
The ultimate goal is a job and they hope all this talk will end with a steady paycheck.
