Veterans need jobs more than thanks
“Veterans are not feeling necessarily valued after their service when it comes to employment.” Susan Vitale, iCIMS
Skip the “thank you for your service.” Let’s talk about what veterans really need.
Veterans Day is Friday, and strangers who learn that I served seven years on active duty in the U.S. Army will inevitably thank mefor my service. While some people believe that veterans deserve lifelong gratitude for their role protecting our country, more than a few of us find it annoying; an empty platitude that civilians use to absolve themselves from asking what exactly we sacrificed, or what we truly need now.
What post-9/11 veterans need are good jobs, with good benefits. They need employers who don’t thoughtlessly cut-and-paste job prerequisites that favor someone who spent four years partying at a state university over a vet who was waking up at 6 a.m. and wearing a uniform during 60-hour workweeks, except for when they were in combat.
That’s what vets said they need in a poll by iCIMS Hiring Insights, a labor market research firm.
More than 3.6 million Americans have completed military service since 2001, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. These men and women have an unemployment rate of 5.8 percent, about a point higher than the rest of the country.
Most Americans may hail them as heroes, but nearly threequarters of post-9/11 vets believe their military experience hurts them because hiring managers don’t understand or appreciate what they did in the military. Another 37 percent believe hiring managers devalue their military experience, and 36 percent believe job postings often require more specialized experience than they have for jobs they
know they can do.
“The entry into the workforce following military service is really not a great experience for these vets,” said Susan Vitale, chief marketing officer and workplace expert at iCIMS. “There is a disconnect, and veterans are not feeling necessarily valued after their service when it comes to employment.”
Consider for a moment howmanyjobs require a bachelor’s degree as a minimum requirement. In many cases, employers will accept almost any degree if the job they are filling does not require a specific certification. Employers think the bachelor’s degree will give them candidates with critical thinking skills.
That’s bad news for the 25-year-old veteran, whojoined the service when he or she was 18 and doesn’t have a degree. That employer’s focus on a bachelor’s degree means it will miss the fact that the vet managed a $1 million program budget and supervised 15 troops as a noncommissioned officer, probably in a high-stress situation that required sound judgment.
Isn’t that better than a college degree and two years of experience in an entry-level management job? I think so, but the veteran I just described was me in 1990. I’ve since earned a degree, and I can attest that what I learned in the military is far more valuable than what I learned in college.
“Manyemployers, when they are crafting a job description, and describing whowould be perfect in whatever role it might be, don’t necessarily place enough stock in the right things,” Vitale confirmed. “Other things that might really make a difference, they don’t place enough value on.”
The military and the vets themselves share some of the blame. There are few corporations that will invest that much authority in a young person, but the military does it because most troops retire in their early 40s.
Vets also acknowledge they are not very good at explaining howtheir skills apply to a civilian business. Twenty-eight percent say they don’t know howto sell themselves to a civilian hiring manager, and 47 percent say they understate or leave out their military experience for fear it might hurt their chances.
While I was with the Associated Press, I routinely embedded with U.S. troops in Iraq and spent about two years on the front lines with truly remarkable young people. I amstill friends with many of the soldiers I wrote about between 2003 and 2008, and adjusting to civilian life has not been easy for them.
Manyof them went to work for defense contractors or government, both of which are very good with vets. Others have found success with major corporations with paramilitary, hierarchical structures. Others became teachers and police officers, and one became a sommelier.
All of us have lost too many comrades to suicide, though, and there are some whostill painfully struggle to find their place in civil society.
Agood job with a supportive employer makes all of the difference. And there are state and federal programs that provide tax credits to employers willing to make the extra effort to employ vets whoare disabled or have suffered from chronic unemployment.
All employers should know the military trains people to focus on a mission, solve problems, adapt to change and work as a team, to include stepping up as a leader when needed. These are also the qualities that employers say they need.
The next time your company advertises an opening, make sure the job posting lists the skills that are truly desired and drop the pro-forma prerequisites that could screen out a capable veteran.
Then take the time to understand what a veteran can offer. Talk through what they did and how they did it.
There is an enormous amount of untapped potential out there. Don’t let it go to waste.