Educating Veterans for the Middle Class Job of the Next 20 Years
Since the beginning of the financial crisis in 2008 and the realization that veterans were out of work at a much higher level than their civilian counterparts, much hand wringing has occurred over what is the root cause of the problem. Non-profits advocating for veterans, government officials and to a lesser extent, the Fortune 500, have bantered about many well intentioned but half -baked solutions. Silicon Valley (well known producer of new jobs) has been mum on the subject to date with the exception of Craig Newmark of craigslist.com fame.
Most of the early discussion focused on the poor translation of military skills to plain English that civilian employers could easily understand. More effort is being put forth educating military alumni on job search subjects such as writing an effective resume, how to do a phone interview, sourcing job leads, dressing for the interview etc. However this only addresses the here and now of the veteran unemployment equation.