Legion, Chamber help veterans on job search mission

Looking for a job requires an approach similar to that of a military mission.

“It’s all about targeting, doing your intel work, getting all the materials necessary, getting everything you need to do, so when you kick in that door and go on that objective, you’re successful,” said Chuck Hodges, Hiring Our Heroes senior director of events and programs. “The same thing applies when you’re transitioning or trying to find a job: you’ve got to do your research; you’ve got to gather your intel; you’ve got to put everything in place to make sure when you walk in that door for that interview, it’s a foregone conclusion (that you’ll get that job) because of all the hard work that you’ve done.”

Nearly 400 job seekers had that objective when they entered the doors of the Pepsi Center in Denver for the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Hiring Our Heroes job fair on Feb. 29. The American Legion supports this and other Chamber of Commerce events that provide interviews, networking opportunities and résumé workshops for servicemembers, veterans and their spouses.

Loyce Laurent is a veteran of Operation Desert Storm who’s been looking for another IT job since losing his old one because he was caring for his mother, who had cancer. He noted that one of the companies he spoke with at the job fair was looking to fill a position which met his skill set specifically.

“I guess if luck has its way … what is luck, opportunity meeting preparedness, then it may work out,” Laurent said.

Hodges said events such as this one not only give servicemembers and their spouses the opportunity to see what companies in their area are hiring, but it helps veterans see just how their skills can translate to the outside world.

“Obviously the most common one is the leadership side, the leadership aspects, that we ask a heck of a lot of our young servicemembers at a young age, and put them in a lot of demanding positions, in leadership roles, that translate quite nicely over to the civilian world,” Hodges said. “You’re never going to put a veteran under more pressure or more rigor than they’ve already experienced during their time in the military, whether it be climbing the mountains of Afghanistan, the A Shau Valley of Vietnam, across the entire world, our servicemembers have led the way for their country. And now they have the ability, again, with those leadership skills to lead in companies they may join.

“… I’ll use the Army as an example, and you did one term, and you never got above the rank of E-3, but yet you were a tremendous rifleman. Think about the responsibility you had from, say, a monetary value. You were responsible for millions of dollars in equipment on just the vehicle you had maybe been driving. They don’t realize that, they don’t understand what they’ve done, they don’t understand when you say you’ve gone to the non-commissioned officers’ schools that are out there across the DoD (Department of Defense), what that means for a civilian employer. So I think a lot of times it’s just having the servicemember understand the value they have and what that value translates to in the outside world."

Steve Higgins, a branch manager for Charles Schwab, said, “I can tell you from personal experience, having been a manager for 17 years at Charles Schwab, and having worked at aerospace firms, employers benefit from the skills veterans bring to the table. Veterans come in to work with accountability, adaptability (and) you’re used to working in a team environment.”

The job market is a great one for job seekers, including veterans, said Terry Gerton, deputy assistant secretary for policy with the U.S. Department of Labor Veterans’ Employment and Training Service.

“We are in our 71st consecutive month of job growth across the country, and in the last 12 months we’ve added 2.6 million jobs. It’s tremendous. And now, we’re down from a peak where there were almost seven people for every job, seven job seekers for every job in America, down to 1.4 on average. So for veteran job seekers who have tremendous skills and competencies, this is a great time to be a job seeker. There are wonderful opportunities across the country, across industries, across pay scales. There’s tremendous growth."

That gives job seekers at such events the chance to find a job quickly — something that Ernie Lombardi, a regional associate for Hiring Our Heroes, has seen firsthand.

“I was at a very small venue in South Carolina a couple years ago, we had a local employer that came in out of nowhere and he was a cabinet maker," Lombardi said. "He rolled in covered head to foot in dust, and he walked in (and said) ‘I need to hire some guys, I’ve got work going on right now.’ And literally, within an hour he took two guys, put them in the back of his pickup truck and took them to his shop. So we see (on-the-spot job offers) happen all the time."

Overall, 341 job seekers submitted 654 résumés to 69 employers at the event, with 367 interviews conducted and seven firm job offers made, according to exit surveys returned by 62 of the employers. In addition to the job fair, a workshop taught job seekers how to present themselves on LinkedIn and how to use the site’s tools to jump-start their job search.