All tagged The Hired Veteran
The United States Marine Corps is respected worldwide as an expeditionary fighting force, the likes of which the world has never seen, but also (and perhaps more importantly) the Corps is one of the foremost authorities in professionalism, leadership, and personal development techniques. Many young men and women (including myself back in 2011), stepped on the yellow footprints of a Marine Corps Recruit Depot and began a lifelong change of perspective.
I know what all three people who read this are asking? Is the blog back, are there plans for new posts, what has been going on for the past couple years while the blog has languished in un-updated horror? Well, some of those are yes, some are maybe, some are I am not sure.
Again, this is not to say you cannot be proud, you cannot wear your service like a badge of honor, but the moment that service creates a feeling of superiority between you and the rest of the population it becomes a problem.
There are ~350 million people in the United States. There are ~1.3m service members and ~20m veterans. It is not the job of civilians to assimilate to you or to understand your unique background; it is up to you to help them understand where you came from and assimilate into civilian society.
If you are one of probably four people that read this blog you may notice something. The “Hire Me” link is missing from the main page. Which means exactly what you think it means. I finally found a job! I took a position with an e-commerce marketing and brand management firm and I am just over 30 days in.
On Tuesday of next week I will be speaking on a panel put on by Pride Global called “Veterans in the Workforce” (click link to register). I will be speaking from the perspective of the veteran job seeker and I am honored to be able to provide my views on what that has been like.
While driving from Vermont back home to Boulder last week I stopped to take a nap in a truck stop in Indiana. I walked my two dogs, who were making the journey with me, and settled into the front seat for a quick siesta. An hour later my alarm went off (it was midday), and I turned the key to get back on the road only to hear simply a “click”.
There is no shortage of advice for military veterans who are transitioning from the armed forces into the civilian world about the need to develop a network in the cities and professions they’re moving into. From helping to get their first job to meeting people with specialized skills or who have information about opportunities, the benefits of having a well-developed network are easy to grasp, yet many of the transitioning veterans I talk with struggle to get this process started.
Over the next few weeks, I’ll offer some insight into how veterans can write better resumes to increase their chances of getting interviews in the business world. We’ll dig into how long your resumes should be and how you should format them, but the main focus will be on what information you should include in them.
A few weeks ago I had two seemingly unrelated experiences that made me reconsider what it means to lead and inspire people. The first was helping with the ROTC program at my university and the second was attending a rock concert.
