Last year in Fort Belvoir, Virginia minutes away from the nation’s capital, a job fair was held to hire America’s Veterans. This is a two-fold dynamic. On the one hand, it is a good thing that special emphasis is being placed on hiring Veterans. However, on the other hand, why would someone who has served his/her country have to go through the often unrewarded hassle of a job fair?
Job fairs are only valuable when the organizations have direct-hire authority and actually intend to fill positions most immediately and not use the data as part of their outreach efforts on paper. I have been to a lot of job fairs as a hiring vendor. For research purposes I have also used myself and members of my staff to act as job seekers. The outcome as a hiring vendor reaped great results because I went there to hire and not buttress a report about hiring efforts. I needed to hire a record number of Social Workers for the Government. I had asked for and been given direct-hire authority of which I used every morsel of that authority to hire 300 Social Workers with a Master of Social Work (MSW) degree and a Licensed Graduate Social Work license (LGSW). I hired qualified Social Workers on the spot.
It is as fresh in my mind as it was when it happened back in 1997-98. I went to job fairs at The Catholic University of American that hosted other District of Columbia Universities (Howard, George Washington, Georgetown, American, Trinity, and the University of Maryland).   I traveled along the East Coast to the University of Maryland at Baltimore, Johns Hopkins, Pennsylvania, New York University, and Temple. The Universities I could not get to in person were informed via other means. In essence, our recruitment efforts spans the country into Puerto Rico.
It was nearing graduation time in the USA, the best time to recruit to fill positions with new energy and enthusiasm and pair them with seasoned personnel to make the learning curve seamless.  For many Veterans, there is no learning curve because they have received some of the best training possible via the military. They have the unique skills of discipline, leadership and the ability to work cohesively in a team, all proven ingredients for success. Veterans may have a slight adjustment to transitioning from the Military to the Civilian world, but that pales in comparison to the skills they bring to the table.
We hired more than 300 Social Workers in the 3 month period given and even beat that deliverable by 15 days. Veterans have given their all to protect and defend America’s shores. They need jobs, housing and health care. They need to be taken care of. It is time to put all Americans back to work. It is time to show our appreciation to Veterans and connect them with jobs now.
We’ll check back with Ft. Belvoir in a couple of months and see if we can get any statistics on how well the Hiring Our Heroes job fair did for our deserving Veterans.
P. S. Always Remember to Share What You Know.
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