Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, January 31, 1992 TAG: 9201310222
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-3 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: KIM SUNDERLAND
DATELINE: CHRISTIANSBURG LENGTH: Medium
COMPUTER AT MALL HAS JOBS SHOPPING LIST
Wanted: account manager in Olympia, Wash. Pay: $45,000 per year. Duration of Job: permanent.Need a job? There's a new way to find out what's available and it's called ALEX, short for Automated Labor Exchange. ALEX just got hooked up at the New River Valley Mall on Thursday.
"I wouldn't mind being in border patrol," said job seeker Jay Cumbow of Christiansburg, who was recently laid off as a Lowe's warehouse worker. "That way I could keep people from coming here to take all the jobs!"
Cumbow, 23, is serious about law enforcement work and after watching the installation of ALEX, he decided to try his luck.
After half an hour, he had about seven listings for available jobs, including criminal investigator, police officer, security guard, jailer and a deputy sheriff.
Because his wife is a doctoral student at Virginia Tech, Cumbow is hoping to stay in the area, but said he would "move if the right job presented itself."
The Virginia Employment Commission installed the talking job computer at the mall's customer service desk. By touching the computer screen, a person can explore local, regional, state and interstate jobs listed with the VEC and other state employment services.
The free service - part of a U.S. Labor Department multistate project - will make it easier for people to find jobs. ALEX is in a site that is accessible at night and on weekends. Virginia is the first state to install ALEX in a shopping mall.
"Automation and self-help services will be critical to meeting the increasing demands for our assistance during this era of dwindling resources," said VEC Commissioner Ralph G. Cantrell.
ALEX has a computer voice that gives directions on searching for jobs in a particular career or geographic location and printouts are available listing salary, qualifications and the number of vacancies.
The number of available jobs in his career choice stumped Scott Chaney of Blacksburg, a December graduate from Virginia Tech who was trying out the computer on the advice of his fiance.
As a finance major, 23-year-old Chaney was hoping for a position in Southwest Virginia as a financial administrator or maybe something in sales.
With marriage planned for this summer, he is pressured to find something, but kept coming up empty-handed.
"I was selling cemetery plots door-to-door, but I didn't like it," Chaney said after failing to find anything in his field. "I learned how to take rejection."
With a mall employee reminding Chaney he had a 15-minute limit on the computer, he promised to try again later.
"There's got to be something in there for me!" he said.