Ingalls Shipbuilding President Irwin F. Edenzon announced Friday at the Ingalls career day that the company will hire thousands of employees within the next two years.

"We're hiring," Edenzon said. "We're going to hire about 1,200 people here in the next few months and about 4,000 over the next two years. There are jobs here."

The need for so many new jobs at Ingalls comes from new shipbuilding contracts that Ingalls received. The company also has bid on a contract for another five destroyers. In addition to new contracts, Ingalls has backlog work that will keep workers busy for the next few years.

"As long as the nation believes we need a strong Navy, we'll have a strong shipyard," Edenzon said.

Over 1,200 students from high schools in Mississippi and Alabama attended Friday's career day at Ingalls.

This is the fifth year for the career day. From engineering to pipefitting to management, employees at each exhibit explained careers to students.

Edenzon said when someone enters the industry, Ingalls trains them on site. However, their jobs are not limited to just craft work. Edenzon said they are also looking for accountants, lawyers, engineers and many other careers.

Assistant Principal of Gautier High School Applied Technical Center Melissa Deangelo said students focus on the program they are in, but not always on what's next.

"That's our goal, is to show them the 'then what?'" Deangelo said.

Alex Yim, design engineer and manager at Ingalls, told students that people who begin in the craft can work their way to the top of the company.

"I wanted to let them know that you don't exactly have to go to college to get into engineering or to move up," Yim said at the engineering exhibit.

Terbo Hernandez of Gautier High School asked Yim about the engineering careers at Ingalls.

"Engineering was interesting to me," Hernandez said. "They told me it was something I could get into if I make good grades."