Veterans face hurdle in job search

Associated Press

CINCINNATI

A major concern for Daniel Gentry upon leaving the Army always has been a challenge for veterans — how to convince prospective employers that combat duties such as checking for land mines or repairing bombed roads lead to skills useful in civilian jobs.

Veterans say military teamwork can translate to collaboration skills in business and that command positions develop leadership abilities also valuable to companies.

“I was worried that employers might not get it,” said Gentry, an Army engineer in Iraq before leaving the military in 2010.

Over the next five years, a projected 1.5 million service members will leave the military looking to start new careers, Department of Labor officials estimate, and President Barack Obama and others have called on businesses to hire veterans. But the 10 percent national unemployment rate in November for those serving in active duty at any time since 2001 highlights the difficulty. The comparable rate for nonveterans was 7.2 percent.

Federal officials, realizing veterans need more preparation for finding jobs, launched last month a revamped version of a military assistance program started in the 1990s.

The redesigned program developed by representatives from Defense, Labor, Veterans Affairs and other departments now requires that those leaving the military attend a five-day core course including a workshop on making military skills more understandable and attractive to employers. They also will get more personalized guidance to identify career goals and how to reach them. Additional offerings include tailored sessions for those planning to attend college, seek technical or skills training or start businesses.

Gentry acknowledged going on unsuccessful interviews before landing his marketing job with Procter & Gamble Co. in Cincinnati and said it’s difficult to balance technical titles “with what you actually did.”

“I got a level of respect for serving in the military,” Gentry, 29, said. “But I could tell with a couple of employers that it [military experience] wasn’t translating.”

He said he focused on military-honed abilities such as leadership, planning and team-building, but wasn’t showing how those skills could help their organizations. But P&G, which provides career seminars and assigns mentors to help veterans with interview skills and relating their military experience to civilian jobs, determined Gentry’s experiences made him a good fit for the consumer-products company.

“We look in general for people who have demonstrated skills in areas like problem-solving, leadership and collaboration,” said Steve Wittman, who leads P&G’s military recruiting program.

He stresses that instead of listing military jobs, veterans need to relate what they accomplished with those jobs.

Veteran Nathan Johnson continues searching for a career after leaving the Army in 2010. He’s also working while pursuing an alternative-energy degree at a Zanesville college. He says many job applications aren’t veteran-friendly, with no room for listing pertinent military experience. And he said that contact information for supervisors is “almost impossible to track down after leaving the service.”

The 25-year-old combat engineer, who spent much of his tours in Iraq clearing roads of explosive devices, said that though his duties required discipline and the ability to make critical life-and-death decisions, “It’s been tough to get to the interview step where I can show employers that.”