Shara Grant hopes to make those long hours spent online to earn her master’s degree with a high-paying tech gig.

“Right now, I’m unemployed besides my side business in technology,” Grant said after applying with NTConcepts during a job fair held by the government contractor Tuesday at Vicksburg Convention Center.

Grant started a side business in system management and project analysis 15 years ago. Along the way, she picked up her degree from American Intercontinental University online, writing 80 papers on prototypical project-management situations.

“It was eight classes, papers due regularly,” Grant said. “I finished in 18 months.”

What the Virginia-based firm offered specialists like Grant is at least a high five-figure annual salary and a long list of medical and other benefits

“I’m basically looking to further my career and get a steady paycheck,” Grant said.

Managers with the company expect to fill seven to 10 openings in Vicksburg this month as part of the company’s work as a subcontractor to Colorado-based Vectrus, project manager Louis Tominack said.

“We’re looking for database administrators, system engineers, people that do active directory,” Tominack said. “Like working on government cellphones, making sure they comply with security and ensure the person using them can get their email.”

Kevin Thompson is looking to lock down one of the 10 prime spots in the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ current profile of IT work.

“I’ve done the network, PC support, everything,” he said, adding his work helping maintain some 11,000 Blackberry smartphones in the Corps. “Me, I’m on the Blackberry team. We activate them, support them. When it comes to us, it means someone else is having problems with it.”

Once hired, the company’s specialists are expected to be filtered into tech support services underway as part of Vectrus’ $517 million contract with the Corps’ Engineer Research and Development Center. It covers an array of IT work across nine Corps divisions. The company was awarded the contract last August and runs up to five years if all options are exercised.