Are You a Veteran or Military Spouse Looking for a Job? Read this Now!

Written by admin on April 24, 2012 – 5:11 pm -

Career fairs are a great way for veterans and military spouses to be proactive in finding employment. Not only does it show potential employers that you are serious and dedicated, but it also allows employers to see all of your great personality attributes that they sometimes can miss from a resume.

Here are some local career fairs that may be coming to a city near you:

April 25: The Veterans Memorial Building in Tulare, California will host the Veteran’s Opportunity Day Wednesday morning, with a career fair starting at 9am.

April 27: The eighth Heroes 4 Hire Career and Benefits Fair will be held from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Friday at the Rentschler Field Ballroom in East Hartford, Connecticut.

May 19: Newton, Massachusetts is hosting a job fair and a celebrity basketball game May 19 to benefit veterans. The job fair will begin at 12:30 p.m. at Newton South High School, followed by the basketball game at 1:30 p.m.

May 19: Holt Cat, the Caterpillar Equipment and Engine dealer for South, Central, North and North East Texas has recently announced an upcoming job fair to be held in Irving, Texas. The job fair will be held Saturday May 19, 2012, from 8:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. at HOLT’s facility at 2000 E. Airport Freeway in Irving.

As a sponsoring organization, the Endowment is also proud to announce that the Chamber of Commerce’s Hiring our Heroes program will be hosting 25 other career fairs in cities across the country over the next month. To learn more, visit their website, http://www.uschamber.com/hiringourheroes/events


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This Week: National Attention Focuses on Veteran Employment Efforts

Written by admin on March 30, 2012 – 5:14 pm -

There has been some much-needed attention to the issue of veteran unemployment this week from MSNBC News, the Call of Duty Endowment, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, and government entities.

On Tuesday, Advisory Council member Lisa Rosser was featured in an MSNBC article and video interview titled “Veterans find work at ‘Hiring our Heroes’ job fairs.” In addition to consulting a Call of Duty Endowment representative, the article highlights the U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s Hiring our Heroes job fairs, which the Endowment announced a partnership with last Fall.

In advocating for the hiring of a veteran as a good business investment, Rosser explains that “the military person has the skill sets you need…Eighty-one percent of the jobs fit what you have in your organization, and the other skills that we bring are managerial and operational and training and leadership experience. What employer doesn’t need those types of skills in their workplace?”

In addition to these efforts, Secretary of Labor Hilda L. Solis joined members of the Senate Veterans Jobs Caucus this week for an event to kick off their ‘I Hire Veterans,’ which is an “initiative to encourage members of the Senate and the public to show their commitment to hiring veterans by displaying a simple logo in their offices and businesses.”

It is encouraging to see some many different sectors working together to accomplish a goal which we all believe to be of the utmost importance- our veterans are smart and valuable employees who deserve support and opportunities for success in a civilian workplace.


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NBC News Shows Support for Veteran Employment

Written by admin on March 27, 2012 – 5:51 pm -

NBC News has recently taken a larger role in bringing national and local media attention to the issue of high veteran unemployment rates with its Hiring our Heroes news segment. Adding to these efforts, they have partnered with the U.S. Chamber of Commerce to host a few Hiring our Heroes career fairs.

Both national NBC and MSNBC reporters such as Ann Curry , Tom Brokaw, and Chuck Todd have spent time uncovering this issue in recent video spotlights and interviews. To give a local perspective, MSNBC even invited Representatives Scott Rigell and Bobby Scott, and Senator Jim Webb to discuss some known obstacles and possible solutions to veterans’ unemployment in Virginia.

In honor of the U.S. Chamber’s one year anniversary of the Hiring our Heroes career fair program, job fairs from Fort hood to Chicago will be co-hosted Wednesday, March 28th by NBC News. NBC’s Today Show will even be broadcasting a fair live at New York’s USS Intrepid Sea, Air, and Space Museum.

For more information, visit the Chamber’s website: http://www.uschamber.com/hiringourheroes

For those veterans and military spouses that cannot attend the fairs in Chicago, Fort Hood, or New York, NBC’s Today Show and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce will also be partnering with Monster/Military.com to host a virtual career fair. For more information and/or to register, visit their website: http://www.veteransvirtualcareerfair.com/


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U.S. Chamber of Commerce to Host 400 Career Fairs this Year

Written by admin on February 17, 2012 – 4:12 pm -

Last year the U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s 100 Hiring our Heroes career fairs were very effective in offering veterans helpful resume and interviewing tips, as well as opening doors for connecting with employers and on the spot job placements. Today the Chamber announced that in partnering with Capital One, they are now able to offer 400 career fairs this year, throughout the county.

Since its start in March of 2011, the Hiring our Heroes fairs have hosted “more than 90,000 veterans and military spouses and given them the opportunity to meet with over 4,600 different employers. As a result, the Chamber has helped more than 8,000 veterans and military spouses find employment.”

Check out the Chamber’s Hiring our Heroes website to learn more about the exciting new opportunities for veterans to find employment.


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Veteran Post-9/11: How we can Honor their Sacrifice over the Last Ten Years

Written by admin on September 9, 2011 – 2:03 pm -

In the nearly 10 years since the attacks on September 11th, 2001, thousands of young Americans have served our country in Iraq and Afghanistan.   Unfortunately many post-9/11 veterans have difficulty finding meaningful employment in the private sector upon graduation or return to the civilian workforce. The President addressed this issue in his speech to a joint session of Congress Thursday night, saying, “We ask these men and women to leave their careers, leave their families, and risk their lives to fight for our country. The last thing they should have to do is fight for a job when they come home.”

Too often, those of us in the civilian world and the civilian workforce forget that service to our country means sacrifice for veterans.  Veterans and their families put their lives on hold.  They sacrifice their time, energy and talent for our country.  Far too often that sacrifice, instead of being rewarded, creates more difficulty as veterans return to the workforce.

For example, many post-9/11 veterans have not finished college because of multiple deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan.  Others are unable to build a traditional resume because repeated call-ups prevent them from keeping the same job for a long.

In some states the unemployment rate for post 9/11 vets is as much as three times the state average.  In Michigan, the worst state for post-911 veterans, the unemployment rate is 29.4%.  The news media is starting to catch wind of this serious challenge, and a Congressional Report and a national speech from the President have called attention to the problem.  But what is actually being done?

Luckily several organizations, led by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce , and in partnership with Student Veterans of America (SVA) and Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America (IAVA), are have created several initiatives to enhance the ability of post 9-11 veterans to find jobs.  The joint program entitled “Operation Employment: Empowering America’s Newest Veterans” includes programs include a job and internship program launched at over 350 colleges and universities, tailored hiring fairs for student veterans at SVA’s National Conference in December 2011 and their Annual Leadership Summit in 2012, and as plan to build a campus recruitment program for Veterans across the country.  For all the information on these great programs click here.

As we commemorate the 10th anniversary of 9/11. CODE would like to remind all of us of the sacrifices of our post 9/11 veterans and the challenges they still face.


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President Obama, Organizations, Companies, ‘New Greatest Generation’ All Step Up to Get Vets Back to Work

Written by admin on August 19, 2011 – 3:22 pm -

During the National Veterans Small Business Conference and Expo this week, VAntage Point notes, that although many business owners and employees want to hire vets, many do not know where to look for them, nor know what kind of incentives could be in store for them. One great place to start looking for employable and wanting veterans is the veteran-specific job fairs currently taking place all over our country.  One such job fair in Great Falls, Montana, saw a great turnout.

Around 750 veterans, reservists, guard members and military spouses attended a job fair in Great Falls, Montana this past Saturday. The event, organized in part by Employer Support of the Guard and Reserve, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the Montana Chamber of Commerce, and the Montana Job Service featured 70 booths showcasing opportunities with employers as well as educational opportunities.

According to reporting from the Great Falls Tribune, some employers even conducted interviews and hired veterans on the spot.  One such company, Smith Services, identified five or six potential employees for work in North Dakota’s oil industry. For hiring our veterans, companies like these may be able to receive valuable tax incentives. For more detailed information, check out this site.

For many industries, like Smith Services, veterans and non-military employees alike receive specialized training from their employers.  Military veterans are especially suited to such endeavors given the variety of training and tasks they perform during their service.  Once trained, veterans bring their resourcefulness, dedication and leadership to any job or field.  Veterans have the added bonus of being able to think on their toes and quickly adapt in many different situations.

We know for a fact that our veterans make valuable employees in the civilian world. Thursday, TIME wrote that “if we really want to initiate action on veteran unemployment, we need to change the discussion from a charitable approach to a utilitarian one.” It is important for our nation’s companies to not only see hiring veterans as the ‘right thing to do,’ but also as ‘the smart thing to do.’  TIME refers to our heroes as the “NEW greatest generation.”   

It is encouraging to hear about the work veterans and organizations are doing to assist fellow veterans and the promising opportunities coming out of our nation’s recent jobs fairs. As President Obama recently discussed in his remarks to the nation, it is important for employers such as Smith Services, and organizations such as the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the Call of Duty Endowment to do all they can to help get our heroes back to work upon their return.


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