Fort Leonard Wood transition experts, in conjunction with Hiring Our Heroes, hosted a career summit Aug. 22 in Nutter Field House, where attendees had opportunities to meet employers, interview for jobs and learn best practices for a successful transition from military service to civilian employment.
According to Walt Harris, Fort Leonard Wood transition services manager, events, like this, provide opportunities for service members to better prepare for life after the military.
“It’s providing opportunities for our transitioning service members, telling them about the things they need to do to prepare for leaving the service,” Harris said. “Today’s event consists of everything, from professional profiles on LinkedIn, interview techniques, to resume building. Service members have a lot of skills to offer – leadership skills, they’re loyal to organizations, they show up on time and they’re adaptable.”
With 75 employers on hand, offering about 30,000 jobs, the career summit had just about something for everyone, Harris said.
“There’s a variety of opportunities and career fields to choose from, whatever they’d like to do,” he said. “The common trend that we see from (transitioning) service members is they don’t really know what they want to do. A lot of service members don’t want to do the same things they did in the military, but they really don’t know. So, it’s a process of going through the Transition Assistance Program, finding out exactly what they want to do, what they want to be good at – and that’s what the career summits are for, to give service members the opportunity to look at different career fields.”
Beyond being a job fair, the career summit format included panel discussions and question-and-answer sessions throughout the morning with employers and human resources experts, providing much of the knowledge service members need to be more successful in a job fair environment or job interview – and, ultimately, get hired, Harris said.
That was the main reason Sgt. 1st Class Chadwick Kinch, with Headquarters and Headquarters Company, Maneuver Support Center of Excellence, attended the event. He is still more than a year from his Army retirement, but every new piece of information helps.
“It’s great for people, like myself, because prior to coming into the military, I had never had a job,” Kinch said. “I went to college, and after I left college, I came straight in, so I have no experience whatsoever outside in the civilian world. A lot of the stuff they’re talking about is brand new to me.”
After nearly two decades in the military, the transition to civilian employment is, “kind of overwhelming,” Kinch said.
“I have days, where I’m worried about it – Am I making the right move? What do I want to do? – I still don’t know, but this is helping out with the process, and a little bit with the anxiety for what I’m walking into,” he said. “I’ve run into a lot of friends, and some do well once they get out, and some of them, not so well at all. I’ve had to help a couple here and there, and I just want to put myself in the position that I don’t have to worry about stuff like that.”
One area of concern, Kinch noted, was the different types of resume formats used in the various employment sectors, be they federal, state or private industry.
“I’ve never done a resume,” Kinch said. “(In my last position), I intentionally sat in on the hiring panels, so I could see how the process went and how the resumes looked.”
Ultimately, what Kinch said he’s learned is there are a lot of opportunities out there.
“As long as I stick to it, present myself properly, get my resume done, do what I’ve been doing throughout my 20-year career, I should be able to convert that over to the civilian world and do great things there as well,” he said.
Fort Leonard Wood’s career summits are open to all service members, veterans, retirees, Defense Department civilian employees and family members.
Call 573.596.0175 for more information on upcoming Transition Assistance Program events and opportunities.
| Date Taken: | 08.22.2024 |
| Date Posted: | 08.22.2024 15:47 |
| Story ID: | 479266 |
| Location: | FORT LEONARD WOOD, MISSOURI, US |
| Web Views: | 15 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
This work, Fort Leonard Wood hosts career summit, by Brian Hill, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
