Full disclosure: I've never served in any branch of the military, but I have spent the past decade in talent acquisition. This has given me the great opportunity to interview and hire veterans. It started when I began early in my recruiting career in staffing. A friend returned from two tours in Afghanistan and was looking for work. Although college educated, he didn't have experience outside of the military. This motivated him to take on any opportunity temporary for the chance to quantify how his experience would transfer into the corporate world. He also was willing to take any temp role to start building his professional resume. For each assignment we threw at him (and there were some doozy's), he showed up early and stayed late. He did more than was expected and always said thank you. Slowly but surely he started to have his various assignments extended and began to acquire letters of recommendation.
When I speak to colleagues in the world of recruiting, there's a growing discussion on the advantage of hiring veterans. Here are three quick reasons you should look into hiring someone who's served in the military.
1. Team Player
No matter the size, structure or morale on your team; know by hiring a veteran they are going to join your team ready to jump in, take stock of the situation and find their place to help out. I had a talent leader once say, "If you're looking for the anti-millennial; hire a veteran."
2. Adaptable
Change is part of life and yet so many of today's workforce struggle with that. There's something to be said for hiring someone that's been trained to constantly adapt to their surroundings. Where we metaphorically talk about the corporate world being a, "battlefield"; there's an entire workforce that has had to adapt under on an actual battlefield.
3. Calm under pressure
Tired of your newest hire freaking out when the printer's out of ink? Try hiring someone that knows how to handle the pressure of preparing for and in some cases being in combat. Things that rattle most of us in the workplace can't compare to what our veterans have been asked to do. I've found there perspective can easily calm down situations as well.
And that friend of mine? Eventually, a global company created a permanent role for him (turns out his logistics background in the Army handling $500,000.00 in equipment transfers pretty darn well).
With a half a million unemployed veterans today (according to bls.gov) there's never been a better chance to hire a veteran so what are you waiting for?
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