The S3 Combat Recruiting Support Team Is Focused On Military Veterans Looking To Find Civilian Work

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One of the biggest hurdles military veterans face upon transitioning to civilian life is finding a meaningful career. While invaluable and often highly technical, a veteran’s experience may be overlooked by civilian hiring managers unfamiliar with the military jargon that may mask the key skills and experiences they’re looking for.

We’re working hard to help military veterans make the transition from serving their country to finding rewarding work and changing their station in life her at Strategic Staffing Solutions. In fact, we have a specialized “Combat Recruiting Support Team,” a 21-person sourcing team made up almost entirely of military veterans that are uniquely suited to doing just that. Think of it as veterans helping veterans.

Although there are websites out there designed to help veterans translate their military skills into an attractive civilian resume, it helps to have someone on their side. With their vast military experience, our Combat Recruiting Support Team members can help our recruiters and hiring managers interpret the acronyms, titles, and other technical terms, and they’re trained to see those skills from a civilian’s perspective. They can translate a candidate’s military experience into the skills that a hiring manager may be looking for.

In addition, military veterans have developed those soft skills that all businesses want, those intangible qualities that are inherent to a veteran’s experience: Teamwork (to include diversity and inclusion), loyalty, integrity, respect, courtesy, organizational and leadership skills, the ability to work under pressure, and perhaps most important, veterans have the ability to triumph over adversity. Veterans know those qualities exist in other veterans based simply on their shared experience.

As our veteran hiring program matures, we’re committed to placing more. That’s why we have joined the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation’s “Hiring 500,000 Heroes” program and earned recognition as a “Military Friendly Employer” by GI Jobs magazine and as Military Spouse Friendly Employer by Military Spouse magazine and the Department of Defense Military Spouse Employment Partnership.

If you’re a transitioning veteran or a veteran looking for a new opportunity to use the skills you’ve developed during your time in the military, or a military spouse, we’d love to talk to you—visit our website at strategicstaff.com/veterans!

7 Tips for the Veteran Job Seeker

Transitioning from military to civilian life can have its challenges, but you’re not alone. Many veterans are coming back home and they need employment (or, they’re looking for a second civilian career), and we hope these tips are useful. Whether it’s your strong work ethic, commitment to excellence, ability to mediate or attention to detail, your commitment to service is an asset. Now, it’s just about making sure employers understand that you’re the right person for them. Without further fuss, here are seven tips for the veteran who’s looking to get a civilian job.

american-flagexpBe specific – Do not assume who you are talking to will know what you did or how many troops you led just on sharing your rank and title. Relate them to the business world, which includes talking in numbers, percentages, and dollar amounts.

Avoid jargon – Tell a story to illustrate your experiences and accomplishments to someone who is not familiar with the military. Be sure to include how you handled and overcame challenges, as well as how you are a problem-solver. A good tip is to ask a trusted non-military friend who will give you honest feedback if they understand what’s in your resume.

Tell people – Don’t just look for “a job,” look for the job you want. Do some research, and then be focused on your task. That way people know how to help you. Networking is important in the business world and building that network will be invaluable to your civilian career.

Don’t ignore the essential skills – Were you a solid leader of a team? Always the guy who had the technical answer to fix things? Or are you the negotiator, bridging people together? Whatever those soft skills happen to be for you, don’t ignore them. They’re crucial for companies today.

Take an inventory – Make a list of the things you did regularly – daily, weekly, monthly, as well as things and tasks you were responsible for. It might surprise you all you did, and it’ll help you describe what you did to civilian employers.

Do your research – Be sure to be prepared when you go into that interview. You wouldn’t go into a mission unprepared, and getting a job is a mission, in a way. Know what the company does, try to find out its strengths and weaknesses, and how maybe you could really help the team. Always be listening to what the person you are interviewing with is saying, and think about and then offer solutions.

Translate your experience – There are various ways that a military career can translate into a civilian one. There are multiple tools out there, but check out this skills translator that includes the ability for you to entre your branch of service, military pay grade, and military occupation code to help focus your search and give you some clarity. https://employmentportal.herokuapp.com/skills-translator

We hope these tips help you. If you’re interested in more or looking for a career, get in touch with us at veterans.strategicstaff.com.