Your career transition/job search is your top priority. That’s good. It should be.
It can be challenging when others don’t share this urgency.
But here’s the reality of the transition world we often face …
- Employers’ focus is broad and deep, spanning across “Product”, “Process”, and “People” (and often many other areas) “People” is only a portion of employers’ radar screen. Of this, most attention is on “Current Employees” (and >90% of employees are not military veterans, depending on the company, industry, etc.).
- The “New Talent” arena, in which transition exists, is a very small part of employers’ overall scope. Within this arena there are multiple facets requiring employer attention, and >90% of candidates are not veterans (again - depending on the company, industry, etc.) .
Human nature is to "go with what you know" … thus, it is hardly surprising when busy people with broad responsibilities continue to conduct business according to their usual patterns. This may mean (among others):
- Your somewhat atypical background, application, interview, candidacy, etc. may not rise to their ‘top-priority’ list.
- Low awareness of great veteran hiring programs does not quickly improve.
- Their organizations miss the opportunity to have great military veteran talent join them.
SO WHAT TO DO?
- Learn as much as you can, as early as you can about transition, search, yourself, your goals, etc..
- Leverage every resource possible.
- Connect the dots for non-veterans you encounter along the way.
- Remember, you don’t know what you don’t know. The employers’ world keeps moving and other factors may influence hiring decisions.
- Make yourself stand out – be the candidate that understands the big picture. Demonstrate your ability to be part of the employers’ solutions, not just another small data-point on a very large, busy radar screen.
- Stay positive.
- Keep moving forward.