Veteran recruitment is one of the major legs of corporate hiring strategies for many companies, and the more sophisticated one have programs dedicated to hiring veterans. To serve them, vendor offered recruitment job fairs all over the country. A provider like RecruitMilitary - dedicated to veterans career services - has had over a hundred in person job fairs each year in for the past 14 years. Now, like everyone else in the recruiting world, they have been forced to go fully digital, hosting 23 virtual hiring events between now (Sept 16) and the end of the year. Some fairs concentrate on veterans directly, while others help with spousal transition to life outside of the military.

Although there are laws prohibiting discrimination in hiring of those who served there are also companies that may be reluctant to hire veterans. In an article written for the website career action, they cite several reasons for employer reluctance. Among them being unprepared for interviews, incomplete or too big of a resume, and an employer not wanting to be where someone “starts their life over”. This is where the military and some outside companies have transition resources to assist with the re-entry process.

Some recruiting websites suggest starting the process as much as 18 months prior to a service members separation date.  

Indeed recently released a program geared towards targeting veterans. It shows many of the benefits of hiring vets. Veterans have top skills employers are looking for such as strong work ethic, problem solving skills, ability to work with a team, organization, and good decision making skills. It also shows a higher retention rate among vets vs. civilian candidates.

According to Indeed, they have 1.6 million veteran resumes on the site, with half a million more going up every month. They have 10 million clicks on jobs which include military veteran in the post. Indeed has the an Indeed for veterans program - HireAVet. This is a 3 pronged approach to helping companies connect with vets they may best fit their needs, well contacting vets with great career opportunities after their service is complete.

1. Candidate targeting which promotes careers to veterans through sponsored jobs, targeted ads, and hiring events.
2. Employer branding helps you reach and connect with vets via ads on phones or computers, narrowing searches by area and resume criteria. Also telling each company's story to let candidates know their history of working with vets in the past and showing how they look to continue into the future.
3. Help with sourcing and screening through filtered searches of the over one and a half million military resumes on Indeed.

All these are ways to assist companies everywhere in getting people that can help them to move forward, while letting America's dedicated service members transition to the next phase of their lives with respect and dignity that veterans have earned.

The question alway remains what will actually work. How do veterans search, and how are they adapting to a new way of job search, in this strange new era. To get a real world perspective we spoke to Rick, a 20 year vet set to “maybe” retire next spring.

RNN: What ways have you looked for possible jobs.

Rick: I have googled Military or veterans jobs and certain keywords to see what has popped up. But nothing really has. I have started an account on USAJOBS.gov.‍

RNN: What is the best way for someone to target recruitment to you, Internet ad, mail, phone calls.

Rick: I guess I’d say if I was a recruiter and was looking to hire someone who was in the service I would contact the station directly and post flyers for a job fair. For me I have been  in the service since right out of high school. I don't know what to do to get in touch with recruiters. The best way would be a flyer that said "X, Y and Z jobs will be available, and those recruiters will be there". That would be huge. I wish someone would do that for us.

RNN: Do you feel that the people you serve with would be comfortable with an online job fair.

Rick: Absolutely Our jobs revolve around computers. We are all comfortable with tech. Most of our meetings are on zoom now.

RNN: What do you think a potential employer could do to speak to vets that they want to hire.

Rick: I don’t know about this because I have never had to fill out a resume. But yeah maybe they don’t see a college degree, but this candidate has 10 or 20 years of military experience which I feel sometimes trumps four years of college. Recognize the real world leadership experience. That you have managed people, because at some point in your career you will have to have lead people. You have real world HR experience.

That's something I hope employers take into consideration. If it's a job that is close to what someone was doing then the person knows what they're doing let's give em a shot.

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