Agency Confronts Hurdles in Helping Veterans Match Military Skills to Civilian Jobs

DETROIT — Malcolm Byrd got out of the Marine Corps in 2003 and found work, first in a General Motors factory and then with a nonprofit group. But four months ago, he lost his job because of government budget cuts and has been job hunting since.

What Every Job-Searching Veteran Needs to Know

Making a career change isn't easy. You need to showcase why you are qualified for the targeted job, even if your past experiences do not identically match the employer's requirements. Most employers are not familiar with military service, positions, jargon, or acronyms, so it can be even more challenging for veterans to make a strong case. What can job-seeking veterans do to help transition into civilian positions?

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Tell it like it is in your job interviews

A great deal of job search advice available online, in books, and from coaches involves how to best answer various questions that come up in interviews.

Job seekers look for the best canned answers to help them ensure a positive outcome. They want to know the best spin or the “correct” response to get to the next stage of the hiring process or an offer.

While it is important to present yourself in the best way possible… it’s a bad idea to give an answer that’s not true for you!

It’s not uncommon for someone to get the offer, and then find that the job is a disaster once they get to work. They often assume that the company wasn’t forthcoming with them about the job or the culture. However, they don’t think about how they may have portrayed themselves to the employer.

Someone pursuing a sales position may be asked about how they deal with cold-calling new prospects. Knowing that’s an important point in the selection process for a new hire, they may paint a picture of enjoying it and aggressively going after it, while knowing that it’s one of the least attractive aspects of a sales role for them.

They may get the position, but end up failing because they were in the habit of procrastinating when it came to cold-calls. They are frustrated with the company, yet the employer is frustrated as well since they were led to believe cold-calling was one of the candidates’ strengths.

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The Top Employers For Veterans

Booz Allen Hamilton is the top employer for veterans, according to new market data collected by Payscale.com. That means the Virginia-based defense and civil contractor employs the greatest number of former military service members in skilled labor positions.

Booz Allen Hamilton, commonly known as Booz Allen, provides consulting services to the U.S. government in defense, intelligence, and civil markets, and to major corporations, institutions, and not-for-profit organizations. Nearly one third of the company's 25,000 employees have military backgrounds.

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Why employers hate your cover letter

Imagine some of the dumbest, most ineffective pick-up lines you’ve heard or (gasp!) used on someone while at a local nightclub or gathering spot. Chances are the worst ones were either:

1. So over-the-top cheesy, they invoked an immediate grimace or slap
2. So boring and overused, they were barely noticed by anyone within earshot

And, in all likelihood, none of these wretched one-liners led to success for the picker-upper. Because first impressions matter. They matter a lot.

Now let’s talk about your cover letter.

As a recruiter and career strategist, I see this “horrible pick-up line syndrome” play itself out again and again at the front end of cover letters. In fact, the vast majority of cover letters I review are terrible. (There, I said it.)

They’re cheesy, generic, or completely redundant to the person’s resume. They tell me more about what you want than what you can do for me (or for the hiring manager).

Sounds grim, until you realize that you can totally turn this reality into a massive advantage—if you play things right.

Construct a conversational, memorable, and directly relevant cover letter, add a strong and conversational lead, and then send it to an actual contact within your targeted organization—and you’ve just set yourself miles ahead of the pack. Remember, most of your competition is creating cover letters with loser lead-ins that make reviewers cringe, snooze, or (in extreme cases) want to slap them.

Allow me to illustrate: Imagine you are a talented field engineer who needs to find a new job due to a family relocation to Texas. You’re targeting a large company that makes and installs wind turbines. Which cover letter intro do you think is more likely to command the reviewer’s attention?

Cover Letter A

Dear Sir or Madam,

Please consider me as a candidate for the Wind Turbine Technician position. I want to work for a thriving company in the field of alternative energy that will allow career growth. I feel I am a good match.

Cover Letter B

Dear Mr. James,

I recently relocated my family to Texas. As we neared our new home, I noticed with intrigue the many wind turbines dotting the landscape. Suddenly, it hit me: “This is the career for me.” After unloading the moving van, I promptly researched companies in this sector that may benefit most from a skilled field engineer with expert electromechanical skills. That’s when I found you.

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What Businesses/Employers Are Doing

Accenture
Accenture has developed the Skills to Succeed program, which will equip 250,000 people, including veterans, around the world by 2015 with the skills to get a job or build a business. As part of their efforts, Accenture is one of several companies underwriting NPower’s Technology Services Corp and will work with the nonprofit to expand IT training, professional skills and mentoring, internships, and job placement for service members and veterans.

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Statistics on America's Veterans

Since 9/11, almost three million Americans have been involved with the military; by 2016, an estimated over two million will have left the military and returned to civilian life.

The statistics on the return to civilian life and the civilian workforce tell a powerful story—one all Americans must try to improve upon. By June 2011, veteran unemployment was over 13.3%—four percentage points higher than the national average. Unemployment is even higher among black veterans (18.2%), veterans leaving the military after 2006 (21.3%) and veterans 18 to 30 years old (28.5%). A 2010 survey found that only 40.5% of veterans felt they were well prepared to enter the civilian job market, and again, for black veterans and 18 to 30-year-old veterans, these numbers are even lower.

However, veterans have great potential as employees. The skills veterans gain through their military service make them well suited to a variety of civilian jobs. Forty-one percent of Demobilized National Guard and Reserve members reported that their most recent civilian job matched the occupations they were trained for in the military, and 61% of veterans who served after September 2001 believe their military experience has at least some application to their most recent civilian job.

Furthermore, according to retired U.S. Army four-star general and secretary of Veterans Affairs Eric Shinseki, veterans have other valuable qualities:

• decision-making skills primed with quick, clear thinking;
• Proven leadership skills honed in the most challenging operational environments;
• The knowledge and experience needed to be sophisticated team-builders and natural team-players; and
• A work ethic that demonstrates an unwavering commitment to excellence.

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Veteran Unemployment Rate Dips, but Crisis Deepens for Ex-military

American businesses are carving out more room for veterans who served in Iraq and Afghanistan − finally driving the overall unemployment rate for that group into single digits in September. But joblessness for the U.S. women home from war continued to climb, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported Friday. 

The portion of post-9/11 veterans seeking work fell to 9.7 percent last month, compared to 10.1 percent in August and 11.7 percent in September 2011, according to BLS figures.

However, nearly one out of five women who served in the military at home or abroad during the two wars is now without a job, the new BLS statistics show. As the U.S. troop drawdown continues in Afghanistan, the unemployment rate for post-9/11 female vets surged to 19.9 percent in September, compared to 14.7 percent a year earlier and 12.1 percent in August.

"More women were deployed than ever before but an awful lot of them are single moms who face the challenge of coming home," said John E. Pickens III, executive director of VeteransPlus, a nonprofit that has offered financial counseling to more than 150,000 current and former service members. 

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Message to America's Veterans from Michelle Obama

“I want to send a very clear message to the men and women who are wearing – or who have worn – our country’s uniform and to their spouses: when you have finished your service to our nation, you’ve got 2,000 great American companies ready and waiting to bring you on board”

– Michelle Obama, August 22, 2012

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Labor Department releases September unemployment report

The job market appears to have improved for Post-9/11 veterans, as the Labor Department reports the unemployment rate for the newest generation of veterans dropped to 9.7 percent in September.

For those separated from the service since Sept. 11, 2001, the September 2012 jobless rate is lower than the 10.9 percent rate in August and comes as the government has been ramping up transition and employment programs for veterans and as the economy has been creating new jobs.

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