As I meet and talk with businesses and job seekers every single day, and I hear the same questions over and over: Why did you start Cape Fear Jobs? and What motivated you?
 
My answer is always simple - this region needed it… and continues to need it.
 
My name is Corey Lewis and I am the Founder and President of Cape Fear Jobs here in Wilmington. Additionally, I am an Executive Search Consultant and Corporate Recruiter working across multiple arenas since 2007, operating my own boutique recruiting firm Alliance Career Group. This is my first of many Insights articles with the Greater Wilmington Business Journal, where I hope to share with you, the reader, my knowledge of the hiring process, recruiting, job searching, career coaching and the local job market as I see it unfold every day.
 
I started Cape Fear Jobs and launched it in March 2016 as a simple, local-only job board to reach the businesses and job seekers of the Cape Fear region. I added a few simple services in the beginning, but as the company has grown over the last two years, the demand for comprehensive services to help businesses hire better, smarter and faster and job seekers get ahead in their job search has only increased and continues to do so.
 
And as our second birthday approaches on March 30, we are growing into the region’s number-one jobs and job services company that includes the most cost-effective services around, and the only job board available that offers not only the low-cost 60-day job listing, but also immediate cross posting to all five of our social media pages reaching thousands of local job seekers.
 
When I worked for a local agency standing behind a desk all day being a search consultant and corporate recruiter, I saw a need locally. The job market was hurting, businesses couldn’t find employees and job seekers couldn’t find jobs. I was not able to stay with the local agency to be able to work in the community, so I made the difficult decision to leave and try and do it on my own.
 
Still today, I do much on my own with both of my companies, but Cape Fear Jobs is where my passion lies. Working in this community every day, talking with businesses to ensure them that the talent they seek is here and to keep the positivity in the minds of the job seekers that while the number of jobs here are low, they are here, and I have faith more are on the horizon.
 
So, going back to that simple answer, I started Cape Fear Jobs because this region needs Cape Fear Jobs. The communities, employers and job seekers need a voice. They need representation in this volatile market and they need the tools, knowledge and, more importantly, the transparency Cape Fear Jobs can provide.
 
I am looking forward to being a part of the Business Journal’s Insights page, sharing my knowledge and experience while giving you the only transparent view of a job market that needs more than workforce development, broken promises and rhetoric. It needs action, and I certainly plan on giving this and surrounding communities just that.
 
Corey Lewis has more than 20 years of management, business development and project management experience across the retail, construction and staffing verticals. Entering into the recruiting industry in 2007 as an Executive Recruiter, Lewis spent the next seven years honing his recruiting skills and leading a local agency in developing the manufacturing sector of the company. With the support of his wife, Corey started his own boutique firm, Alliance Career Group based in Wilmington, while designing the basis for the company that would come to be known as Cape Fear Jobs. Corey found his passion for helping a struggling jobs economy in the Cape Fear Region and in 2016, Cape Fear Jobs was born. Visit the Cape Fear Jobs website or call (910) 782-2142.