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Corporate recruiters came from as far away as San Diego to find new, highly educated hires Thursday at the fifth annual Postdoc Conference and Career Fair in North Bethesda.

"We know the difficulties of the market," said Amy E. McPartland, director of human capital at InfoZen of Rockville, which provides information technology services, primarily for the federal government.

McPartland said her company is looking to hire high-end software developers, mathematicians and algorithm developers. InfoZen has about 200 employees and more than 30 job openings, she said, and can hire up to 50 people at any given time.

McPartland was among the representatives of 25 employers who gathered at the Montgomery County Conference Center to fill their needs for postdoctoral fellows in technical fields such as science, technology, engineering and mathematics.

About 550 people registered for the event, up from 475 last year, said Sally Sternbach, executive director of Rockville Economic Development Inc., which organized the fair.

"Most are within a year of finishing their postdocs ... these are serious job hunters," Sternbach said.

Illumina, which makes tools for genetic analysis, hires "a lot of Ph.D.-level individuals," said Sean McHugh, a senior recruiter with the San Diego company.

Illumina was seeking people who may not have previously heard of the company, he said.

"There's a lot of talent out here," he said.

Illumina has seen year-to-year growth of 20 percent, McHugh said, because the industry was not affected by the recession and the company recently launched new products.

Jeffery L. Howard was looking for people with experience in computational science.

Howard — a senior corporate recruiter with High Performance Technologies Inc. of Reston, Va. — said his company, which provides IT services, has not made any layoffs and "there is quite a bit of activity going on" with its job openings.

Jennifer Coates, a client-facing recruiter with consulting firm Booz Allen Hamilton of McLean, Va., was looking for a people person to fill one of the company's 1,000-plus openings.

"We look for ... somebody who's really comfortable interacting on a daily basis with a variety of individuals," she said. Booz Allen is "growing exponentially" and "we just can't seem to hire fast enough."

Other recruiters didn't travel as far.

Discovery Logic, a Rockville company that provides scientific analysis and support for the National Institutes of Health, was seeking individuals with a strong background in data analysis and research, said recruiter Brock Hall.

Discovery Logic — which was recently acquired by business information company Thomson Reuters of New York — wants to double its work force of 65, Hall said.

Federal employment is an attractive option for many job-seekers, said Kristen Gilbert, strategic recruitment program manager for the National Institute of Standards and Technology of Gaithersburg, which also had a booth at Thursday's fair.

Gilbert was looking for people to help fill NIST's 26 openings, and said she expects the agency's employment outlook to remain "pretty constant" for the rest of the year and into 2011.

A lot of postdoctoral fellows are looking to start their own businesses, according to Lacey B. Graverson, a communications analyst at the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation in Kansas City, Mo.

Graverson, who had a booth at Thursday's fair, said her foundation helps entrepreneurs looking to start companies and also provides support to organizations that help entrepreneurs get started.

Entrepreneurship increased during the recession, Graverson said — a trend she expects to continue during the recovery.

"People are losing their jobs and they figure, ‘Why go look for another job where I can be laid off again, when I can take my great ideas and start my own company?'" she said.

Among the job-seekers was Jennifer Jemc, who said it was her first career fair "since I was an undergrad."

Jemc, a postdoctoral fellow at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, was seeking information on research scientist positions and networking to boost her chances. She also has been exploring her interests in research and teaching.

"With the competitiveness of the academic world, I don't think one can specifically focus on that these days," she said. "I think it's good to keep your options open."