It's one of the most disheartening statistics in the job market's
slow recovery.
As the nation's unemployment rate dipped below 8 percent in
September, joblessness for post-Sept. 11 veterans was nearly 10
percent.
And younger female soldiers now in civilian life? Nearly 1 in 5
are unemployed, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
"There are a lot of companies that say they want veterans, but
that conflicts with the unemployment numbers," said Hakan Jackson,
who was a biomedical equipment technician in the Air Force from 2000
to 2012. Jackson, 31, believes it'll be easier to find a job after
completing MBA studies at Boston University.
There is some good news for the 1 million veterans expected to
leave the armed forces over the next four years: Corporate America
is increasingly professing a desire to hire veterans, saying they
value qualities that former soldiers bring to the workplace.
Earlier this year, Internet search giant Google Inc. named Harry
Wingo - a Yale law school graduate who spent six years as a Navy
SEAL - its veteran community programs manager to ramp up efforts to
hire more former soldiers.
In October, Chicago-based Boeing Co. and three other industrial
companies formed a coalition to train veterans in 10 states for
advanced manufacturing positions that often go unfilled because job
candidates lack the skills. Last year, New York-based JPMorgan Chase
& Co. helped found the 100,000 Jobs Mission, which has a goal of
hiring that many service members worldwide by 2020.
University of Chicago MBA student Bryson DeTrent, 29, who was in
the National Guard for 12 years and has helped lead special
operations in 16 countries, including Afghanistan, thinks there are
four key reasons why vets, particularly women, haven't found jobs:
* It's too easy to collect unemployment.
* Many women are planning to start families or make up for time
lost.
* Many companies are nervous about hiring National Guard and
reservists because the military could pull them from work.
* Younger vets become dependent on the military's structured
environment and have difficulty adjusting to the civilian work
environment.
Erik Sewell, who is also studying for an MBA from the University
of Chicago, said many military professionals often don't market
themselves effectively or convey adequately how transferable their
skills, including vehicle maintenance and computer database
management, are to the civilian world.
"Many make the mistake of thinking that since those duties were
performed in a war zone or training for a war zone, they should just
forget everything they did, and start over from scratch in the
civilian world," the West Point graduate said.
Sewell, who recently turned 28, said more companies need to
follow in Home Depot's steps. He said the retailer has an online
translator that is part of its job application process. He said he
typed in "field artillery officer" and up popped several examples of
how that experience could be applied at Home Depot.
"It would be great to see more companies utilize tools like this,
and more veterans taking the time to learn how to communicate their
skills more effectively," Sewell said.
Steve Calk, chief executive of Chicago-based Federal Savings
Bank, said about 10 percent of the bank's employees are veterans
like himself. To help smooth the transition, Calk said, the bank
assigns those hires with military mentors.
The biggest challenge many veterans face is that they don't think
they're qualified for jobs that are posted by the bank, Calk said.
"They have a true desire to be trained and are more committed to
success and better at working as a team," said Calk, who is working
with the city and Harold Washington College to develop a curriculum
for returning veterans and other citizens to enter and become
qualified for entry-level positions in banking.
For female veterans, the transition into the civilian workforce
is even more difficult. For one thing, female veterans tend to not
even identify themselves as veterans, said Amy Amizich, women
veterans' program coordinator for the state of Illinois. Some didn't
serve in combat or spent only a year or two in the service and don't
think they rate the title, Amizich said. Others, she added, simply
want to distance themselves from traumatic experiences related to
military service.
"That's something we struggle with," Amizich said. "That makes it
very hard for us to provide them with resources and assistance."
Tips for Veterans
Demilitarize your resume. Avoid acronyms that are alien to
civilians. Have someone not in the military review it. Find a way to
explain how your military experience would apply to a corporate
environment.
During interviews, be sure to state you're a veteran; they'll be
more likely to remember you, particularly if you're a woman.
While networking, if someone tells you they'd like to help you,
take them up on it by sending them an email.
Consider working for a franchise. "What's really great is that
the military is all about following orders. It's all about executing
a plan that's already been thought out," said Meg Schmitz, a Morton
Grove, Ill., FranChoice Inc. consultant who matches veterans to
franchises. "The reason they could do really well in franchising is
that franchising is all about following an established recipe."
Last year, the International Franchise Association announced a
campaign to get veterans jobs and franchisee ownership; 75,000 spots
for veterans and military spouses and another 5,000 for injured vets
by 2014. So far through the effort, 15,000 have been placed,
including 4,200 new franchisees. CiCi's Pizza, Popeyes, Jiffy Lube
and Papa John's are among those waiving franchise fees for vets.
Apply for jobs at companies open to vets. Among the nearly three
dozen companies that exhibited at the MBA Veterans Network event in
Chicago were Google, Wells Fargo, Accenture, Citi, JPMorgan Chase,
Bank of America, Clorox, Target, PNC, Deloitte, General Electric,
Johnson & Johnson and PricewaterhouseCoopers.
