November 11, 2009

Lending a hand to returning veterans on the job front

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Today we take our annual break in our busy schedules to honor the service of our country's roughly 2.7 million active and reserve military personnel. But this year, Veterans Day has been made even more poignant in the wake of the attack at Ft. Hood last week.

What really struck me about this horrific incident was that the 13 people killed and 29 injured were just waiting in line to receive medical processing before their redeployment. These men and women who are trained to face injury and death on the battlefield found it instead in the military equivalent of a civilian DMV line--the most mundane of places in the heart of what they thought would be the safest spot in the world: their home base.

I couldn't help but think how the incident was also some kind of metaphor for the difficulties many returning veterans are finding on the civilian job front. After putting themselves in harm's way, many vets are coming home to find a different kind of battle to find a job in a country with more than 10.2 percent unemployment. According to sobering stats from the Labor Department, total unemployment among vets reached 11.3 percent in early September. A March 2009 report pegged the average jobless number at 14.1 percent for the 18-to-24 age group that has served since the 9/11 attacks. This demographic represents the youngest soldiers, who have had the least chance to develop employment networks during their tours.

As dispiriting as these numbers sound, there is reason for hope for a brighter future, says Matt Murphy, senior vice president of sales and business development for military-to-civilian recruiting firm RecruitMilitary. In a recent blog post, Murphy wrote that there are still thousands of companies that are looking to hire veterans through his company's database, with more than 140,000 positions currently available nationwide. "Employers value veterans not only for their skill sets, but also for their personal characteristics such as leadership, initiative, self-discipline and a strong work ethic," he wrote.

One of the primary obstacles that many veterans face in during their job searches, however, is "learning how to 'translate' military skills into civilian counterparts and near-counterparts," Murphy wrote. For example, helicopter mechanics could look toward civilian auto repair jobs. Those with combat experience are "prime candidates" for law enforcement or private security jobs. "Describe your tasks in the military, and emphasize the units and numbers of personnel you led, your people skills, whatever experience you might have had in improving the performance of a unit," Murphy added.

Locally, there are a couple of upcoming job fairs in Western Washington that are specifically targeted toward finding employment for military vets. On Friday, Nov. 13, WorkSource Vancouver will host a Veterans Hiring Event from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m.
Next week, on Thurs., Nov. 19, RecruitMilitary will hold a Veteran Opportunity Expo at the ShoWare Center in Kent, from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.

For more help with job placement and career advice, vets also can turn to the Employment Security Department's Veteran Services page or the Washington State Department of Veteran Affairs.

To all returning vets in Western Washington, how difficult has it been to transition to the civilian job market? As we salute your service today, I'd like to continue the dialogue and hear more about your own personal stories.

Randy Woods writes about job-search tools, networking techniques and other tips to help you land your dream job.

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