Hiding service from employer due to affirmative action?

SGT James Graham While you posted your "request for guidance" > 5 months ago I am STILL going to be very harsh!

If you feel you made a "mistake" in serving your country then if you lie to them or not is of not concern! I would not consider you a veteran!!! If you are ashamed of your service or your country please move to another country. If this company has a job in another country move their and don't come back! Be a "Man without a country!"

However, if you feel that in your eight years you did some good, and you must have in 8-years, else why would you have wanted to stay so long? Besides you made SGT!

The purpose of a ready reserve is to be ready to serve when their nation calls. You took advantage of the training that the military provided that set you up for the job you want. So, if your service was a mistake then deny it. But, if you have any shred of honor, which they are looking for in this "armed security position" them proudly tell them!!! If you lack honor (a.k.a. a spine that will be required for your "new job") then I am not sure people, least of all me, cares.

The decision is yours. Your choice is a little like Peter's choice a story as told in Luke 24:54-62 -
(https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Luke+22%3A54-62&version=ESV)

FYI, I applied all the time using my DD-214. Only once it did me any good as from 1996 when I retired to 2016 when I got hire by my new company it appeared to do me little good! But, I NEVER regretted my service. I regretted retiring too early!!!

My wife's father served in WWII (US Navy - Retired Submariner), my father (US Air Force - Service Connected Disabled 100% Retired) in Korea, my wife is US Navy (ret) and I am USN (Ret). Our fathers passed respectively in 1982 and 1999. My son attended The Citadel until he was injured.

I don't know what medals you have and don't care!!! You could have the MoH and you'd be dishonoring the men who earn it and I be calling into question who made the decision to afford you such an honor. If you give a damn at all about your nation and your own family's honor - TELL the TRUTH and DON'T be ASHAMED! But if you are ashamed of your family, your nation and yourself - just lie!

Here is a theme song (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yh-JoW_8qw0) from a movie you might try watching for perspective! Listen to the words carefully. Again, if you having any level of honor - DO THE RIGHT THING!!!

Suppose you were working for a company you decided you didn’t like, so you quit and applied for a job at another company. My question to you is:
Would you omit working for the company you “made a mistake working for”?
And if it shows up on the new company’s investigation & they asked you about it, are you going to tell them “that other company sucked & I made a mistake working for them”?
Because if you do, good luck finding a career with any hopes of advancement. Any company you apply for will regard you as too radioactive.
Cut the BS attitude. The only words out of your mouth should be positive, yes, even about your military service.
Geesh.

The first thing I would do is verify with them that you are indeed the person they are meaning to interview for the job since I know from experience that James is a very common name as is Graham. They COULD be looking for a Graham James, or even a different James Graham who also applied for the same position and disclosed his status as a Veteran. Since you didn’t disclose your service by your own admission it seems strange that they are asking for paperwork that shows your service & discharge status, don’t you think? Also if they are meaning to hire you even after it was found out you didn’t disclose your service as long as you are willing to provide the DD214’s at the interview I would be very careful because they are either checking your character to see if you will admit to serving and tell them why you didn’t disclose it or they are looking for people who have served but have a problem with the Military, Government or Country as a whole for whatever reason.

My mom was fired when her employer found out she lied on her application. They told her I'd she would have just been honest up front it would have been no big deal.

Of course, they'll find out about your military service, if they have any fundamental background screening whatsoever. The fact that you admitted publicly here that you tried to hide it, and that you hated it (for whatever reasons), will be duly evident to their HR department. Why in the world would you come onto a military forum asking for advice when you were not proud of your service? I would think you were probably a F/U and had something to hide. Is that so? Or did you get squared away due to some epiphany or life event?

SGT James Graham - Looks like you already resolved the situation you're asking about, but I wanted to give you my two cents for future reference, because this is going to come up in your life again. I think you're looking at this the wrong way.

First, you say you want a job because you merit one, not because of a label. Good on you, that's a great attitude to have. Employers want to give jobs to people who merit them, because when someone gets a job who doesn't merit it, they're throwing away money and dealing with problems they wouldn't otherwise have. The problem is that if you're not applying for a job at a mom and pop operation, then you're not being interviewed directly by the company owner, and the only way for them to get good employees is by assigning managers to find them, and by giving those managers guidelines within which to operate and the simplest way to make sure that people fall into those guidelines is to evaluate them on paper and check education, training, work history, references, etc. Statistically, certain jobs like to hire former military because if you can get through it honorably, that says a lot about basic things like your ability to show up on time, do your job, pass a drug test, successfully complete training, and apply that training in a high-stress environment.

This is where my second point comes in. You sound very bitter about your time in the National Guard, and that's fine. I've served in the Guard and the Reserves in two branches of the military for over 20 years, both in full-time and regular M-day positions. I've had outstanding leaders, good leaders, mediocre leaders, and a few leaders that were flat-out incompetent and even toxic and abusive, or careless to the point of getting people killed (yes, there were investigations and consequences for those people). From my time in Afghanistan I deal with PTSD, and anybody who knows me can tell you I carry a lot of emotional scars and am very distrustful of leadership at times, and on more than one occasion the only thing that kept me in was that I had a mortgage payment and a family to feed. I absolutely know why soldiers kill themselves, and I know what it means to feel like years of your life have been thrown away by a military organization. If you're this angry about your time in the Army, I have no doubt you have good reason for that.

That said, you're letting your anger cloud your judgement. Your time in the Army may have involved a lot of wasted time. It may have involved a lot of pointless boredom and suffering. It may have involved you losing large amounts of money you were entitled to. It may have involved incompetent, toxic, or abusive leaders. But like I said, it also displays your ability to show up on time, pass a drug test, successfully complete training, and apply that training in a high-stress environment. Even if you hated every last minute of it, if you honorably separated, then you committed to and completed something that less than 10 percent of the adults in the United States will ever do, and that says a lot about your character. If you let your anger make you lose sight of that, then the people that wronged you win again, because they won the fight to shut down your mind. You're giving them space in your brain rent-free, and they will rule you for the rest of your life.

I'm not telling you that you're right or wrong to be angry. What I am telling you is that you went through some very difficult times and survived. If you take the right mental approach to those hard times, then you learn and develop because of those hard times, and it ceases to be wasted time. Acknowledge the bad stuff that happened, but also acknowledge the strength and character you developed, because you were stronger than the forces that tried to drag you down. If you can't be proud of what you did or the organization you were a part of, be proud that you survived and kept your honor. Put your service on your resume proudly.

Affirmative action doesn't mean they're required to hire you. It means that if two candidates are equally qualified we are going to hire you over the other one because you've been previously disadvantaged. The point is you have to be equally qualified.

If you tell them you made a mistake it’s better than them thinking you are hiding info. Especially since they will be doing a thorough search of background.

Regardless of your feelings for or against your service, this is one you HAVE to comply with, as it is past job history, as well as security related. Anything less, and it will look as if you are deliberately hiding your service, leaving your prospective employer to read subtext that may or may not be there. The fact that you have multiple separation papers may also cause issues if you aren't completely open and up front with them (most of them will understand two or three, as Active, Reserve, and NG all require their own paperwork). Good luck on yor application!

Were you drafted? Was this a choise you made. Stand behind your choises and own them. You chose to serve now to stand back and omit your service this place should not hire you for grounds your trying to hide employment information from your past.