An updated list of all exhibitors can be found at www.tinyurl.com/recruitmilitary2017.
We spoke with RecruitMilitary spokeswoman Reena O’Brien about the challenges facing veterans looking for gainful employment and what employers should know about the benefits in hiring a veteran.
Q: What are the biggest challenges facing veterans looking to enter or re-enter the job market?
A: "Veterans find difficulty in gauging where they fit in the civilian workforce, especially for those — which are the majority — that do not want to move into their civilian counterpart position. Examples would be military police for civilian police officer, armored vehicle driver for semi driver, company administrator for civilian administrator, etc."
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Q: Why does a separate job fair work well for veterans as well as for companies?
A: "Separate job fairs provide veterans the opportunity to meet with veteran-centric recruiters who understand where veterans can best fit within their companies. Companies find it beneficial as they can source soft and technical skills that many civilians do not possess."
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Q: What should employers know about the benefits of hiring veterans?
A: "Employers should know that veterans are 40 percent more productive than their civilian counterparts and have a 30 percent less chance of attrition from a company within their 1st year of employment. Veterans are also reliable, disciplined, work well in teams and are extremely resilient. Veterans are a great talent pool for diversity and many veterans service can be leveraged as tax credits for the companies that hire them."
Q: What other resources are there for military veterans to obtain employment?
A: "Veterans can utilize resume support tools, skills translator platforms, free LinkedIn profile training, veteran-centric job boards, blogs regarding veteran-centric information and more at www.recruitmilitary.com/resources."
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Q: Some veterans have mentioned discrimination against their being hired. What's the fear behind that?
A: "RecruitMilitary works with more than 5,000 companies and 75 percent of the fortunate 200 companies and we see very little discrimination. For companies that do discriminate, they typically believe a veteran's time overseas has negatively impacted their ability to be reliable employees. These deployments have actually done the opposite and given veterans the ability to be more resourceful, excel in austere conditions, and know the true importance of mission accomplishment."
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