Going Above & Beyond to Support Career Transitioning Veterans

On February 12-13, 2015, the Hope For The Warriors® Career Transition & Education (CT&E) team attended a conference in Dulles, VA and hosted a resume preparation/writing event. The hiring expo was hosted by the Dulles Regional Chamber of Commerce and its GovCONnections Committee. Service members and veterans met with potential employers, and CT&E had the opportunity to consult with service members and exhibiters before, during, and after the event. CT&E provided one-on-one training and advice to service members while gaining valuable information from exhibitors.

The mission of the Dulles Regional Chamber of Commerce Hiring Expo is to help to maintain a crucial and mutually beneficial relationship between the veteran/military community, veteran owned businesses and their families to the Dulles Regional Chamber of Commerce community and its members.

The GovCONnections Advisory Board of the Dulles Chamber of Commerce – which includes CACI, General Dynamics IT, Lockheed Martin and Raytheon IIS – designed the Teaming, Training and Transitioning (T3) program to connect government contractors, commercial business employers and other supporting resources in the Dulles and surrounding areas with veterans and current military who have sacrificed so much for our country.

This expo allowed Hope For The Warriors® to bridge the gap of understanding between employers and veterans so that the two groups could better understand each other. This proactivity is all part of the transition process for returning veterans and companies looking to hire them.

In one-on-one and group sessions with service members and exhibitors, the need to successfully communicate service related skills to the civilian job market was the major topic of conversation. Many recruiters lamented that the resumes of transitioning service members were lacking civilian keywords. Service members echoed this frustration, stating that the transition teams in their respective services did not adequately equip them to write meaningful resumes. Likewise, many service members complained about not having interview skills.

To address these frustrations for transitioning veterans, CT&E is leading the way to continue the dialogue with professional partners about current and best practices regarding resume writing and interview skills, focusing on civilian expectations. 

Hope For The Warriors® staff members Jon Giuffre, Brian Schiller, and Matt Baffoe worked closely with retired service member Sebastian, whose efforts were rewarded with an interview with NJVC, an IT company in Virginia.

CT&E laid the groundwork for new relationships with exhibitors, renewed existing relationships, and recruited new service members to participate in all that Hope For The Warriors® has to offer.