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Veterans register for the 'Hiring Our Heroes' job fair held on Nov. 4, 2011, at the South Towne Expo Center in Sandy, Utah. The fair, which included over 100 employers, was for veterans and current active duty military personnel looking for jobs and was sponsored by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.
By Eve Tahmincioglu
Aaron Perrine is proud of the years he spent serving his country in the military, and wants other vets looking to find new careers in civilian life to be as well.
“It’s not a professional handicap to have been a veteran,” stressed Perrine, who spent five years on active duty until last year, including deployment to Afghanistan where he was a Ranger platoon leader.
“You have to say, ‘I’m proud of my military service’ and find the best way to translate those experiences and figure out where you can be successful,” he said.
Perrine -- now a second year MBA student at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School and lead officer at the business school’s Veterans Club -- realizes many vets face employment hurdles when they come out of the service. He said it’s all about framing military service in a compelling way for employers, however, including everything from leadership experience to team collaboration and a strong work ethic.
“Being a vet is gold,” he said.
Indeed, a survey out this week from CareerBuilder found that “one-in-five (or 20 percent) of employers reported they are actively recruiting U.S. veterans to work for their organizations over the next 12 months; 14 percent are actively recruiting members of the National Guard.”
And the areas where they plan to hire include:
- Information Technology -- 36 percent
- Customer Service -- 28 percent
- Engineering -- 25 percent
- Sales -- 22 percent
“The survey shows that employers recognize the unique value military experience can bring, but that they don’t always understand how military skills fit into corporate America,” said Brent Rasmussen, president of CareerBuilder North America.
“Veterans will need to clearly make that connection in their resume, cover letter and job interviews as they enter this new chapter of their careers,” he added.
Despite the good news, many vets, especially of the most recent conflicts, have faced a difficult time finding employment.
The unemployment rate among vets who served in the Middle East since 9/11 was 12.1 percent in October, compared to 9 percent for the overall workforce. And the rate tends to be higher for younger vets recently returning from combat. In 2010, the jobless rate was 20.9 percent for those vets between the ages of 18 and 24, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
The job market has been dismal for everyone and that’s made it harder for vets to land jobs, said Chad Storlie, author of “Combat Leader to Corporate Leader: 20 Lessons to Advance Your Civilian Career."
“I don’t think it’s overt discrimination, but HR departments and hiring managers are being very picky today,” he explained. “They want the best person that makes them feel comfortable; that’s why vets have to show everything in their background and how that will help them be successful.”
The federal government understands the challenges vets face, and to that end the Obama administration launched a Veterans Job Bank last week to help vets find employment.
There are other resources and financial help available to vets who want further education, or training, including the Post-9/11 GI-Bill, which covers all or most tuition costs depending on the schools vets attend.
In addition, it’s helpful to choose the right place to find employment -- in cities or towns that are more vet friendly. A new study commissioned by financial firm USAA and Military.com identified the “Best Places for Military Retirement: Second Careers,” and named Oklahoma City, Okla., as the best town for vets.
The rest of the top US metros included:
- Norfolk, Va.
- Richmond, Va.
- Austin, Texas
- San Antonio, Texas
- Madison, Wis.
- Philadelphia, Pa.
- Raleigh, N.C.
- Omaha, Neb.
- Manchester, N.H.
The researcher looked at a broad range of criteria when deciding on the most vet-friendly cities:
- Employment opportunities and sectors that align with military skills sets, such as defense, engineering, medical services and aviation, as well as the overall jobs climate based on unemployment rate and number of small businesses.
- Proximity to a military base and a Veterans Affairs (VA) hospital or clinic, base amenities and state taxation on military pensions.
- General quality of life and pocketbook issues, such as affordability, housing costs, crime rate, sales taxes and climate.
“This list doesn’t mean didactically where military officers can now get a job,” stressed Ward Carroll, editor of Military.com and also a military retiree.
“Your employability is very much about what you did in the military,” Carroll said. “This list is about finding the right focus and leveraging that in terms of salary, career rewards and employability.”
Before you chose a new town, he advised:
“Start with a self-awareness program, formal or informal. Figure out who you are, what you want to do, and what’s best for you.”
The first job you find may not be the right one, he stressed, but that’s the beauty of civilian life -- “you don’t have to stay in a job longer than you want to,” Carroll added.
The other key is networking, according to vet advocates, and ex-military folks tend to have the best networks, filled with people they’ve served with while on duty.
“You’ve got to use your network,” advised Wharton’s Perrine. “If there’s a guy in your unit who got out and is running a distribution center at Amazon, for example, reach out to them.”
And, he added, vets should start doing their research before they leave the military if possible.
When Perrine was still in Afghanistan, he recalled, he emailed a guy at Wharton who walked him through the whole admissions process. He was also able to get help from the 9/11 GI-Bill and ended up having all his tuition costs covered.
Perrine has already received a full-time offer from consulting giant McKinsey & Company and will start his new job when he graduates.
“There really is no limit to what we can do,” he said, calling vets “an untapped resource.”
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Just a suggestion, instead of placing another 50 to 75,000 plus troops on unemployment, why not train and send them to the Mexican border. With 1500 miles of open area that would place a troop within every 150 feet trained to shoot anything larger than a jack rabbit that tries to enter anywhere other than legal entry points. Call it stepping up the war on drugs, so far the United States is losing...
This administration could also vigorously enforce E Verify, and our immigration laws. There are 12,429,220 "Skilled Jobs" provided to illegal aliens in our country per the immigration counters.com web site. Today those in office are all over the place giving speeches about how much they respect, and honor those who are, and have served. But politicians really only respect, and honor political power, and money! As proven by their refusal to do the above! I don't really think those who are, and have served did so to become second class citizens! But what the heck, it's only one day! We'll soon forget about what it means and go back to the juicy Cain story that has nothing to do with the mess we're in! We are a strange people.
Love your idea, though it will never happen under the Obozo administration
This is what they should do! But, of course, they never have nor will do what it takes to protect the US from the insurgency from the south.
Boy, are you foolish strippertime. The war on drugs, mostly in this case marijuana, won't stop because it's too profitable to stop. The private prison industry in this country is what keeps it illegal and thus criminal enterprises thriving, because the war on drugs serves up customers for Correction Corporation of America and the Corrections Officers Association of America. If we stopped arresting adult Americans for posessing and using marijuana at home, the arrest rate would go down insuring that private prisons would lose customers. The real human bondage here is American prison industry using Americans as pawns in their game of incarceration for profit. That should aggravate you, but you are deceived by your hatred for Mexican immigrants, who you claim are the drug problem.
freedomman-740449....."The real human bondage here is American prison industry using Americans as pawns in their game of incarceration for profit. That should aggravate you, but you are deceived by your hatred for Mexican immigrants, who you claim are the drug problem."
Yep, the "prison industry" is responsible for the "drug problem". So, I suppose the following investigative report completed in 2008 is just a bunch of baloney:
And it is not just the Coke, it encompasses ALL ILLEGAL DRUGS.
It is time to DEPORT ALL Illegal Aliens (Immigrants).
Back to the article. Good timing for Mr. Obama.....Veteran's Day, "his" Stimulus #2 Jobs bill, and "his" photo op in San Diego all mesh together. Strange that he provided about $ 300,000,000 to "retrain" prisoners to get jobs when they are released from prison and now, he is covering his mistake and on the bandwagon for something he should have done in 2009.....Jobs for Veterans. He has to do something because his two main issues causing him to be a One Term President is the Economy and Unemployment.
This is just another Obama campaign agenda item since he has covered Unions and Student Loans.
What happened to the law that guaranteed a veteran his former job once he was released from duty? As a former Vietnam Vet I see some of the veteran benefits have improved, but are still lacking in other areas such as employment rights. There would be a major downturn in homeless Vets if companies were required to re-hire Vets once they are available, or even hire a Vet with or without experience. People are not born with experience to perform certain tasks, they have to be trained and companies should take that into consideration when hiring but is rarely the case. Therein lies the record unemployment ratings. Perfectly able people are turned away because they don't have experience, but are willing to learn and companies are not willing to take a chance and hire them. Oh well, such is the way things work in the employment sector.
I think it is time for the President to use the Bully Pulpit of his office to simply lay down a challenge to the Fortune 500. They sit collectively on more than a trillion dollars in cash. The challenge would be this: hire 1,000 new workers each (half a million total) with a minimum commitment of 2 years and with a target average pay rate of around $35,000 (that is about 50% above the poverty line for a family of 4) and with a specific focus on hiring veterans and long-term unemployed. The total cost to these companies, including workers comp and other payroll expenses would be around $50 billion - that's about 5% of what they are sitting on. There is no guarantee that they would get a direct return on their investment, but they would surely get some value from it so the net cost would be something less than the $50 billion. The reason for doing it would be that it is just the right thing to do. The President is in a unique position to provide monthly progress reports - giving the nation a tally of those companies that did the right thing as well as a report on those who aren't willing to invest even 5% of their stockpile to save the nation. I am absolutely certain that a short-term infusion of 500,000 living wage jobs would stimulate the economy generally - it just might be enough to help get things back on track. This would not take any Federal dollars; it would not require the cooperation of Congress -- it would simply ask the most profitable companies in the world to put a tiny little piece of what they have stockpiled into a cause they already say they believe in.
The wars have gone on for a decade now. Should a company be forced to hire a returning vet who has been gone for over 2 years? 5 years? Businesses have to move on with our without the soldier who has been called off.
I know that if I were hired to replace a vet and worked at that business for a year or more and then they let me go to hire back the vet, I would be pretty pissed at the gov't, the employer and even the vet who walked and and told me "You're in my parking space"...And I am a vet myself. Prior service US Army, 12 Bravo, honorable discharge.
Best of luck to all of our vet's still away from home and on your return! It's a tough time for at least 99% of us Americans and that's a fact.
There is no suggestion here that hired vets should displace anyone else - this is a suggestion that the richest companies in the world (the Fortune 500) make a small contribution to the society that built them and pony up 5% of their stockpiled cash to help fix a huge problem. Hire and train 1000 workers (vets and others) who have been out of the workforce for an extended period of time. Put them to work on projects that otherwise might not fit into the 'maximize-the-quarterly-profit' paradigm, or use them to expand operations that otherwise might be put off into the future - each company's circumstance is different - I can't presume to know how each company would best use these new resources but I believe that each of them has the expertise to make something positive out of the process. This is more about creating good will than short-term profits. The President's involvement would shine a light on the need and continue to shine that light over time; participation would come from the force of crowd mentality: as an actor in the marketplace, I can't afford to let my company be seen as the one not willing to do its share.
lets see, if employment goes belly up no job, most people in service are people who were like me tryihg to get money for college, and third class i was in JROTC so i could get through college, pick one....
Veterans (and the organizations that are helping them),should look to Franchise companies,especially the newer formed franchises.New Franchisees are always looking for employees or the Vet should look at becoming a Franchisee.
Many Franchise companies offer huge discounts to Vets and as part of joining the franchise they obviously will receive comprehensive training.VA loans are available for the purchase of a business.
Home Care is the largest growth segment in Franchising and will be for the foreseeable future as the population ages.
Hope this helps.VETS deserve better.
I'm Yer Man
Happy Armistice day and cool story.
While I certainly sympathize with the post 9/11 Vets, there are also a lot of Vietnam Vets who are unemployed. True, many of them are in their early to mid-60s now, but that does not mean that they do nota have quite a few years of employment in their future. Unfortunately, most are settled in their homes and being able to totally uproot and move to another area is out of the question. Perhaps these groups that are helping Vets can also take a look at this situation.
Lew Taylor
Co F, 52nd Inf, LRRP, RVN
Eve Tahmincioglu, obviously you are not a veteran, nor are you aware of Obamanomics and the employment situation caused by the Obama administration beating the small business owner over the head keeping him from expanding business and adding jobs!
Doesn't matter what jobs Vets are trained for, if college trained people are not getting jobs because there are none, then how will trained Vets get a job? Is this question above your head?
Another government program to help someone! Why don't people understand THE GOVERNMENT IS NOT HERE TO HELP US! Our Imperial Congress is our worst enemy!
Huh? I'm dubious that you have the first clue about what makes a small business owner tick...I'm one and we don't see this burden people like you claim we have on us...let me help out here
Any business owner sitting around crying about how government policy is hurting him is a frickin socialist in my opinion...I hire and expand when it makes sense for my business and that has nothing to do with guvment policy...
I am a small business owner and don't really see big bad Obama hitting me over the head. What really causes me pain is lack of demand created by all the wind being sucked out of the economy when the big boys had to be bailed out when all their highly leveraged debt went bad and they had to come to Pappa, the Government, for help. Of course the government had to bail them out. Don't believe the BS that we should have let Wells Fargo fail, and Citi fail and Bank of America fail, and Chase fail. If those institutions had padlocks around their doors and plain folk couldn't get their money out of their ATM's, neither you nor I would have a small business to do any business with. Look at history. Since the early 1900's the government has always been the collateral source and it generally worked. Do some research to understand what I am talking about
Hey, the Repubs finally voted for something that will help the economy and improve the unemployment situation!! Not because they wanted to help the economy or veterans, of course, but they knew that politically they had to vote this way.
Isn't that the truth.
See the truth. Not just the "feel good stories." I commented on veterans today in prairiefirenews.com and what's happening to them. check it out & tell your friends if you like the page. We've got to get the word out.
If you are a black veteran you do have a good chance at employment with the Obama administration as blacks who make up about 13% of the poplulation make up about 40% of the govt workforce. There is a definite hiring priority in this arena whether good or bad.
As an Academic Dean at a large University in the Northeast, I will say that I can generally write letters of recommendation for students who are veterans. They are more mature, trustworthy, hardworking, diligent, and appreciative of the educational opportunity they have.
I rarely consent to provide letters for non-veterans, although I will do so on occasion, because however academically accomplished they may be, they are still children.
How did you make Academic Dean without critical thinking skills?
Some vets should receive priority in terms of their MOS- certainly combat roles & people assigned to dangerous arenas. But someone like a file clerk who never leaves stateside maybe shouldn't receive the same assistance.
Good point. I support our troops. God, this administration has veterans and joe blow main street at odds with each other. Obama could start the Dali Lama and Jesus Christ to fighting.
The media supports the Big Lie that unemployment is 9%. Unemployment is really between 17 and 23%. When you run out of unemployment "benefits," guess what, you're not unemployed anymore! Not according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics' "official unemployment" 9% number. To be fair the BLS has another less egregious lie, "U6," which at 16% includes those not counted and those with $7/hr part-time jobs at McD's. The bottom line is that there are around 30 million Americans who don't have jobs which will allow them to pay the rent, thanks to "globalization" and "off-shoring" and Wall Street greed shipping jobs to China and politicians for whom loyalty to Americans is not a factor.
If you're a combat veteran your skills may get you in at KBR and Titan and whatever Blackwater's calling itself these days but forget Main Street. Don't worry though, the mercenary business is worth $100 billion taxpayer dollars and it ain't goin' away.
Great. Another reason to pass on this 55 year old white guy. We all need jobs. The rest piss me off but this one at least feels fair. Thanks for your service! FYI. If you are a manager remember that older man or women in the interview has been in a economic fire- fight.
Maybe the returning vets could give us one more amazing period of service. Please. Use your knowledge and skills to give us back our Country for you see - our Gov. is corrupt. Thanks - The American People.
I read through many of the posts. I'm am throwing out comments on may (in no particular order)
(1) As for 'having a job to return to' - if your ob is in a 'technical area' and you've been OCONUS for 1-3 if not 3 years (assuming you were not performing a "like" job as AD) - your skills are out-of-date. Can't fault the employer for wanting someone with current skills/knowledge - it's an issue that needs to be addressed in a different manner. Also, realistically an employer can't hold a job open for years or repeatedly hold one open. This provision was for NG and Reserves fulfilling a short term need (natural disasters, 9-11 call ups, etc) not for repeated 1 year tours.
(2) The vets have much different strengths (leadership, decision making etc) now than before being called-up. They are better for those skills - and we need to make sure they are aware of it and value themselves and what they have learned.
(3) They are different people now - they have seen and experienced things that the average American can never comprehend. We need to concentrate on slotting them into jobs that they will be happy in (be that education of some sort or new and different field) - this we do owe them.
No, I am not a vet - my other half is (28 yrs AD).
c
The Republicans were trying to block this. Luckily Obama got it throught their thick skulls. Just wanted to point that out.
This is the type of "socialism" that the GOP typically opposes. Why wouldn't they support returning soldiers? Its Bush Jr that put in them in harms way.
This is a start. I would like to see them get some specialized training so that help out county be more competitive economically.
I hope the Democrats can pass a bill that can let vets get medical help if they need it. America has a horrible history of not taking care of its returning soldiers.
Employers are missing out on a fabulous well disciplined labor pool. I hired 2 vets over the years who served in Vietnam, and they were fabulous employees with a knack for coming up with innovative and creative solutions to the challenges that they faced in the job.
Give them a chance!
Hey I got a great idea to help vets. Stop having wars for profit that only help the profiteers to obtain more blood money and put that cash into the infrastructure and create jobs. Build not bombs.
I think this is going to be tough for the rest of us that could not serve in the services. We tryed to join and were turned away. Now we are going to be like the postal service that will NOT even consider anyone that is not a vet, no low intrest to borrow on, no schooling to get.. I guess we are second class citizens or maybe third class.
I do think the vets deserve something for serving our country, but what?? I have no good answers. A lot of vets I was friends with were "tunnel rats " and could not get the mental help they needed for a very long time, and they needed it!!