By Justin Creech
Staff Writer
Thursday, March 22, 2012

The Warrior Transition Battalion received résumé training and worked on interview skills March 14-15 during training classes hosted by USO/Hire Heroes USA at Fort Belvoir’s Soldier and Family Assistance Center.

The two-day training taught Wounded Warriors how to properly format their résumés, how to prepare for a job interview and gave them interview experience through mock interviews.

Hire Heroes USA, a not-for-profit organization, offers transition assistance, job search assistance and job placement services to U.S. military veterans, to reduce veteran unemployment.

One identified cause of the high veteran unemployment rate is from a lack of training in the civilian hiring process.

"In order to bridge those knowledge gaps, we talk about the environment they are going into," said Nathan Smith, Hire Heroes USA, executive director. Hire Heroes USA asks questions like, "What’s the economy like now? Why do veterans have challenging times getting jobs? Why do civilians have the same issues? What are those common denominators? And, what are some of the things specifically related to their time in Iraq and/or Afghanistan?"

The résumé-building skills that were reviewed showed the Soldiers how to format a résumé that will entice an employer to read the entire document.

Placing your summary of qualifications at the top of your résumé so an employer will be intrigued to review your job history is one of the skills Wounded Warriors learned.

"That’s something a lot of first-time résumé writers don’t understand," Smith said. "They put a lot of effort into their bullet points and professional experience, but don’t realize the hiring manager never gets down there because they didn’t do a good enough job selling it up top."

Having never organized a résumé, Staff Sgt. Joe Adkins, WTB, was pleased to leave the training with a constructed résumé to present to the employers that helped in the training.

"I’m completely new to this," Adkins said. "I didn’t have a résumé before today, so I was able to put together something to showcase myself to some of the representatives who were here."

The interview skills reviewed taught the Soldiers about researching the position and company for which they are interviewing. Soldiers also learned to gauge and learn the value they can add to the job, which allows the interviewees to better sell themselves.

"You should go into that interview and convince the employer that you are the solution to their problem. If you can’t do that, they are not going to hire you," Smith said. "If you’ve made it to the interview stage, you’ve already done a good job on your résumé.It’s achieved its result. But, if you can’t cross the finish line then the résumé didn’t really help."

Some veterans struggle with some of their initial interviews with civilian organizations because they are not comfortable with the structure. Veterans are familiar with promotion boards and rank structures that do not exist in the civilian world.

Servicemembers who have associated their brand with the branch of the service they are in and what they did in the service for long periods of time, have difficulty selling themselves effectively.

"I’m a Marine, I’m a Soldier — well, you aren’t that anymore," said Smith. "You are just you, and just you is good enough if you made it to the interview. But, you have to sell that to the employer."

Finding out if he still had the ability to present himself in an interview is one reason Pvt. Edwin Mays attended the training classes.

"If someone spends enough time on deployment you haven’t worked in a long time," Mays said. "It’s good to see if you still have the charisma to survive in the civilian world."

The USO, which works with the SFAC and WTB, collaborates with Hire Heroes to ensure Soldiers get the proper skills they need to transition into civilian employment.

"What the USO is doing is trying to complement existing services by bringing this organization to deliver a transition workshop for wounded, ill or injured servicemembers who are close to medically retiring," said Susan Thomas, USO Warrior and Family Care, vice president. "We work with the SFAC and the WTB to ensure what we are doing complements existing employment efforts."