Today is Veterans Day and I am certainly thankful to all of the vets who throughout our history have fought hard and suffered so that we as Americans are able to continue our free and prosperous way of life. I am of course particularly thankful for the vets in my life, and the list is fairly long so I won’t go thanking them all here by name. You know who you are – thank you.
What bums me out is thinking of all of the veterans who have honorably left the military after serving proudly, only to find themselves seemingly unemployable. I don’t think that anyone necessarily deserves opportunity based only on their class, creed or color, but it does seem like there should be more awareness among the employment community when it comes to veterans.
I’m not suggesting an ill proportionate amount of respect or worship, but a simple acknowledgment of what veterans have accomplished by serving honorably, regardless of their position in their particular branch (Army, Air Force, Marines, Coast Guard or Reserve forces). They have all been through rigorous training of some sort, and most have completed a fair amount of technical training in many different areas of radio, computer, satellite, network or mechanical subjects. The skills they learn simply in the process of learning all of that are valuable to many organizations as you can be assured that if veterans have one universal skill, it is adaptability (IMHO).
To all of the unemployed veterans out there looking for work, know that there is a small army of employment professionals who sing your praises and work towards identifying opportunities for you to transfer your skills into. I wish you the very best, always.
How about you? What are your thoughts on employment issues specific to veterans? Are you a vet currently looking, or do you know of one? And what about resources for these folks to help them get where they’re going professionally? I’d love your input.
Reaching Hire 