A recent CareerBuilder survey that polled 750 U.S. veterans showed that one in five veterans who are looking for a job said it took more than six months to secure a job after returning home from active duty. One in ten said it took more than a year.
Veterans noted their biggest challenge during the job hunt was bridging the gap between military and civilian jobs and how their skill set would translate in the corporate world. They also said lack of a college degree and a low number of jobs in their area also contributed to a futile job search.
Despite this, 20 percent of employers polled said they are looking to hire veterans in the next 12 months.
“Employers value the diverse skill set that veterans can bring to their workforce and how these workers can have a positive impact on their bottom lines,” said Rosemary Haefner, Vice President of Human Resources for CareerBuilder.com. “In fact, 20 percent of employers said that they will be actively recruiting veterans over the next 12 months to fill specific roles in fields such as IT, sales, management and engineering.”
Twenty percent doesn’t seem like a large number to me. I would think that most employers who are actively recruiting would look to veterans as another natural resource for talented candidates. I would venture to say that the main reason for a hiring manager’s reluctance to tap this pool comes back full circle to what the vets say: they don’t know how to exploit what the veterans learned in the army. Companies should reassess these hiring initiatives and delegate recruiters who have been trained in hiring former military personnel to handle these actions.
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November 10th, 2008 at 5:12 pm
It’s a shame.
I am surprised there is no HR firm out there that would help them find jobs. After all they have sacrificed for our country I think they deserve to be considered.
January 5th, 2009 at 9:21 pm
I’m a United States Marine that has served over 6 years thus far, and I have my bachelor’s degree from last year. For a full year thus far, I have only been able to get a part time job at $12 an hour. Nowhere near enough to pay back student loans, car payments, and a place I can call my own. I continue to read and hope on the belief that businesses look to hire military veterans with college experience, but I have been turned down for over 200 jobs so far, or heard no response. In the Marine Corps, we do not have a definition for the word “failure”. Whether we fight wars over seas or right here at home, the determination is the same.