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New veterans might have tough time finding work
Honor Guards from each branch of the military at Arlington National Cemetery.
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Col. Mark Gardner says part of networking involved reading up on what's happening in the business world. He starts his day with the Wall Street Journal and USA Today.
Over the next 12 months, 34,000 U.S. soldiers are scheduled to return home from Afghanistan, and many of them presumably will be looking to get back into the civilian work force.
But they’re likely to have some competition from Iraq and Afghanistan veterans who’ve already returned.
A new report out from the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago says veterans of those wars have a higher unemployment rate than those who never served and even higher than older veterans.
Take, for example, 35-year-old Stephen D’Alessio, who spent almost eight years in the Marines as a combat photographer. When he got out, he headed off to college and earned a degree in history from Columbia.
But since then, he hasn’t been able to find full-time, permanent work. His most recent gig -- a temporary job with FEMA -- is about to wrap up.
“After getting a degree at an Ivy League institution, and having served my country honorably, I just thought there’d be something better out there,” D’Alessio says. “And I just kept trying at it. But two years later, when I’m delivering flowers in a hooptie van, it gets disappointing.”
It’s not that his phone isn’t ringing -- it is. But it’s what happens during the interview process that frustrates D’Alessio.
“Being a Marine Corps veteran, I think has a certain stigma," he says. "Whether people realize it or not, what they’re thinking is: ‘Well, gee, I don’t know if I want to hire this guy, because I’m kind of scared of him.’”
The Chicago Fed report finds long deployments in Iraq and Afghanistan have hurt the job prospects for new veterans, whether because of worries over post traumatic stress, or concerns their skills won’t translate to the civilian workforce.
And those perceptions might also be holding back officers who’ve spent most of their lives in the military, like Col. Mark Gardner. In June he'll become just “Mark” after having served his maximum 30 years in the Army.
“The realization that I had to move on, to do something in the commercial world, was a little daunting, actually,” he says.
Gardner started the job hunt two years ago with a resume that read like a dictionary of Army terms. His background in the Army’s logistics put him on par with an upper-level manager, but those aren’t the jobs generally posted on the web.
So when someone suggested he network to drum up leads, “I said, ‘Well, how in the heck do I network? I don’t know anything about networking.’”
Gardner tried to bone up wherever he could. When a big company had a hiring fair geared toward veterans, he’d show up. But he often found hiring managers equated him with the image of veterans they had burned in their minds -- the image of a kid on the front lines with a gun.
Eventually, he found a good job in logistics management.
But this preconceived idea of what a veteran ‘is,’ or how one ‘acts,’ that’s hard to overcome, says Kurt Ronn. He’s president of HRWorks, a nationwide recruitment firm whose business is heavily involved in military transition hiring.
“This stereotype of this unthinking, sort of robotic person -- I’m not exactly sure where it comes from. But it’s still out there, because we still hear it,” says Ronn. “This is one of the most intelligent workforces that you can have.”
Ronn says HR managers who are on the fence should just hire a veteran -- even just one. See what it’s like.
And Marine veteran Stephen D’Alessio would be glad if someone took that chance on him.
“I’m married now. I’d like to have some stability for my wife. I’d like to start a family. I’m kind of waiting for that permanent gig where somebody hires me and I can do that,” he says. “That’s really my one wish.”
As a Marine veteran of the Iraq War who is about to graduate with a BS in Management and a minor in H.R, I can relate very well with Col. Gardner. I am in an odd position that I created myself though. Since leaving the Marines in 2006, I am on the six year plan to graduate from college. I found myself in 2009/2010 involuntarily recalled back to active duty. So now, I will be 30 years old and seeking an entry level position somewhere. The problem is, I worked my way through a promotion at work from being a machine operator to being the estimator and conducting inside sales. Like Rella said, I know I don't qualify for the positions I feel I should be, but I am over experienced for many entry level manager positions. I found this to be the case even when applying for internships. I hear all the time that companies want to hire vets, but they only want those they can put in the lowest rung of the company and not in corporate (based off what I have seen). So, I am stuck between applying for a non entry level position or throwing away my degree and finding an hourly wage job that has the ability to move up that way. I feel as if many those of us who served and have families are in an extremely difficult position, especially if you have been with one company ever since your discharge and have earned a few pay raises along the way.
I am the Marine featured in this piece. I appreciated the opportunity to reach a large audience to try and explain what it's like to be a veteran looking for work -- and more particularly a Marine Corps veteran. I feel that oft times the news does much to ameliorate our situation by highlighting one aspect of our plight, which is medical care for symptoms relating to the war. I think this is a clear case of good initiative, bad judgement. We are not abused puppies. But Jim has done good work here and hit a note that is seldom played – that is, interviewing veterans who aren’t afraid to call the public ignorant. And admittedly, the colonel and I had some ignorance coming back to the “real world” as well. As a USMC veteran, we joke that the acronym stands for Uncle Sam’s Misguided Children. Most Marines entering service have overcome some form of adversity at home. That’s what I think makes the Corps such a great brother/sisterhood and an incubator for model citizens. This is because we found a family and overcame these things together. Quite ridiculously, I have had interviewers ask if I’m a team player. I took on a history degree because I studied something I love. I never had anyone in my family counsel me on what to study because I’m the first one to graduate high school, let alone college in my family. This is a common trope among Marines and I find it uplifting to know I am not alone in this. And if there’s a real world application to my studies, I believe my research skills, coupled with the rigorous nature of the Ivy League schooling would make me a candidate almost anywhere. Also, it was not mentioned that I double majored in biochemistry. I have to say, out of the total population of military veterans released back to the public, we are for the most part trained and fostered to be model citizens. Many of us during our service volunteered in hospitals, old folks' homes and homes for the invalid -- I would ask anyone to close their eyes and think of what your image of a Marine or a soldier is. Write those images down and see what you've come up with. I'm willing to bet there is nothing there about a high sense of responsibility, immense loyalty to one's own career and organization or about the community service I mentioned. If you've come up with flags, guns and camouflage, you have some work to do. We don’t ask to be treated as special, we only ask employers to recognize our work experience. We weren’t in boy scouts camp; we were serving our country -- your country. And it’s not so much that we put ourselves in harm’s way to do that – it’s more so that we put our lives aside for 4, 8 and many times 20 years to do that. Please allow us back to society.
As an HR professional, 70% of the veterans whose applications I review do not meet the minimum qualifications. Probably 60% of the veterans who apply for positions with my employer fail to read and follow the instructions on our application.
Of all the supervisors and managers that I have had over the course of 30 years in the workforce, 3 of the 5 worst people for whom I've worked have been retired military members. One was convicted of misappropriating federal funds and I ended up being investigated by the Secret Service because I banked where the funds were laundered. Another told me to 'just get over it' 3 days after I returned to work following my father's death. The third loved to assume a dictatorial attitude when talking to me.
Our Veterans and transitioning active duty service members are the "next greatest generation" and many are driven to continue serving others in the same way they served our country, driven by a moral compass and sense of civility they make for great employees, and great leaders. Many programs are being developed to help bridge the gap between their service and civilian life, one of these, Semper Fi Odyssey, started by former Marine Major General Thomas S. Jones, works with U.S. Marines to transition them into civilian life, teaching them resume and networking skills for example, and this program is looking to expand to other branches of the service. Information on this program can be found at http://www.outdoorodyssey.org/leadership-programming/veteran-programming...
Thankyou APM/Marketplace, and Jim Burress for telling this story. From an employer standpoint, and as a Veteran, I can attest to the merits of hiring from the ranks of the military, they know how to work in teams, adapt, get things done, and bring many other skills to the workplace from having lived through working in a high stress environment that are difficult to teach in traditional education and MBA schools.
The concerns around PTSD are real, however the military, and the health profession seems to be doing a better job at attacking the issue and trying to get it right for our Veterans, which we probably have many Veterans of the Vietnam War, and prior conflicts to thank for helping break the stigma and stereotypes that used to prevent bringing the issue into the light of day so that it could be dealt with more effectively.
These really are remarkable and courageous men and women who many employers may be surprised to find truly embody the spirit of entrepreneurship that we seek in hiring. While the military follows strict discipline and has it's rules, and regulations, more often than not service members recognize this only takes them so far, but this structure helps them create the moral compass that helps guide their decisions where rules and guidelines don't exist yet progress has to be made, and out of the box thinking and action applies.
Tim Steitz
Pittsburgh, PA USA
Many thanks to Mr. Burress for keeping the issue of veteran unemployment on our radar. And many thanks to Mr. Ronn, and others, who help our veterans find post-military employment.
While Mr. Ronn is probably in a better position than I to understand the public’s perception of veterans, I hazard a guess that some stereotypes of veterans arise from an ever widening civilian-military gap (i.e., fewer citizens serve in the military nowadays and fewer civilians actually know well anyone who has served, at all).
I have been on active duty for sixteen years now and I can honestly say that, generally, the young men and women who replenish our military’s ranks seem to get more intellectually capacious, creative, and magnanimous as time goes on – no mean feat for a nation that’s been mobilized since 2001!
Veterans who sustained physical wounds often overcome formidable physical and psychic challenges on the road to recovery. Those who served in combat and may have sustained spiritual or emotional injuries frequently exhibit similar moral courage in their journeys toward health and wellness.
As our nation is honored in having such individuals serve, any subsequent employer would be honored to count such people as members of their teams, too. It is well past time to lay preconceived notions and stereotypes aside. Employers would do our veterans -- and themselves -- well by hiring those who once wore military uniforms.
