Make Your Transition Easier: Seek Out Military Friendly Companies!

LTC Jay Hicks — Tue, 15 Nov 2016 10:41:59 -0500

Companies believe there are many benefits to recruiting and hiring you – the veteran. The most commonly cited quality is a sense of responsibility and ability to see efforts through to completion. Does this sound like you?

In fact, an overwhelming 97% of companies surveyed believe the veteran’s strong sense of responsibility is their number one factor in hiring former military service members. Based on your military experience, there are many companies that know you are well suited for commercial work such as project management, IT and logistics. Further, they are eager and willing to hire you.

However, some companies have misperceptions about the risks and challenges associated with hiring employees with military experience. For example, the survey demonstrated a concern for former military employees needing extra time to adapt to new workplace cultures.

The good news - despite concerns, there are numerous military friendly companies that want to hire you. Big corporations such as Google, Chase, Amazon, and FedEx target veterans, while providing resources and veteran transition support assistance. The United States Automobile Association (USAA) hires veterans of all ranks and is one of the most veteran friendly companies in America today.

Many IT companies such as AT&T and Verizon are on the “Top 100 Military Friendly Companies” list. Intel is on this list with over 8% of their employees being veterans. Logistics companies are constantly seeking former military personnel. In 2013, 25% of all new hires at Union Pacific Railroad were veterans, many of them logistical workers. Defense contracting companies such as L-3, General Dynamics, Booze Allen Hamilton, BAE, CACI, etc., are always looking for military personnel. In fact, almost 25% of all Lockheed Martin employees are veterans. By knowing the environment and yourself, you can make quality decisions on potential future employers.

You will want to research companies and speak the commercial vernacular to demonstrate your knowledge of the job requirements. Understanding the job you are applying for and how the job relates to the company’s business operation will provide the opportunity for you to demonstrate knowledge and intellect, validating you are a fantastic candidate.

Your challenge is to perform introspection, consider your desires, the various industries and the associated marketplaces. You must properly align your experiences, skills and interests to determine the opportunities you desire to pursue for your next career. Properly translating this information into a transition strategy will be exciting and critical for your successful jump to the commercial market.

Always remember: your skills and your abilities from the military are transferable and desired, you just need to be able to translate them to actual career fields and positions!

Response by SPC Margaret Higgins made Nov 15 at 2016 10:50 AM

SPC Margaret Higgins — Tue, 15 Nov 2016 10:50:00 -0500

LTC Jay Hicks:
Thank you for this great post!
I will share it to: my Facebook Homepage; and then to my Group for Suicidal Active Duty and for Suicidal Veterans:
https//:http://www.facebook.com/groupforsuicidalactivedutyandforsuicidalveterans
and to my Group for Veterans with Mental Health Issues...or Not.
Thanks again, Sir.
-Margaret

Facebook

Response by SFC William Stephens A. Jr., 3 MSM, JSCM made Nov 15 at 2016 11:23 AM

SFC William Stephens A. Jr., 3 MSM, JSCM — Tue, 15 Nov 2016 11:23:44 -0500

Truly Sir, what are the Big companies really looking for service member in their uniform or the perfect resume with less then 3 pages everyone is trying to get too. That's not going to happen when you first transition from the military and I will you I work for a major agency and it took me awhile to get on board here and I've been building my resume since 2006 and I am no there yet. always having someone looking over it to better it and to make that change one more time. I started out with the worst resume ever and I think I'm getting there slowly. You name all these fortune 500 companies not every veterans going to have the resume or skillset to walk into one of these companies or be in the locations where the demand is. A lot of good ones up there but not my dice or cup of tea because I don't bring that skill set, I've been to this kind of job fair a WRAMC when I was a wounded warrior and these companies are looking for certain individuals. Someone to represent or to be a spokesperson or puppet for their company, I just happened to land a great gig at DSS and have great people train me for the skillset and not for the cover or for the fame. A lot these companies are made to collect your resumes to make themselves look good but half of the resumes are not even reviewed, It all about NETWORKING and setting up for the net step in your future, because someone will be there to help guide you if that company wants you and they want you to go in the right direction, I thought when I first got here and now I'm fighting sometimes but now I have a new boss and things are going to changes because he understand me and that I am ready for the next level to move on and that I am not afraid to hide what I feel. I can feel changes coming,

Back to our veterans who are trying to land these good jobs in these companies, I saw a virtual job fair the other day and about 10 companies were represented and not one was located by me and not one interest me at all. I did pop in and view the different sites and each company had there own link to send a resume but for a job fair for veterans it should of been a lot easier since there was a chat set up and there should of been a immediate resume review on the spot for veterans and military. SO these companies can say everything they want to try to bring you in but remember your resume needs to be tailored a certain way, thats why I been pushing this in the senior NCOES and for all the CSM and SGM to get on the ball start talking about this because we are just setting our military up for failure in the future if we let this go.

STEPHENS'

Response by SFC George Smith made Nov 15 at 2016 11:38 AM

SFC George Smith — Tue, 15 Nov 2016 11:38:15 -0500

this is a good article...

Response by CPL Scott Haas made Nov 15 at 2016 6:15 PM

CPL Scott Haas — Tue, 15 Nov 2016 18:15:48 -0500

First, great article in highlighting what you veteran community should be preparing for. I agree 100% that you will want to research companies to identify best fit and career growth. However, I would note that you should look beyond the big companies and look to other potential fits. We are not listed in the “Top 100 Military Friendly Companies” list and we have 24% of our workforce who are veterans. We operate in the critical facilities environment and have openings throughout the U.S., I am with McKinstry FMS, a division of Brookfield Global Integrated Solutions.