TAMPA, Fla. — Florida has the third-largest population of veterans with more than 1.5 million living in Florida and roughly 98,000 in the Tampa Bay area, according to the Florida Department of Veterans Affairs.
Nationally, the Department of Labor reports for March 2021, 4.6-percent of veterans did not have a job. But RecruitMilitary says there is hope.
Shawn Simmons spent nine years and four months in the U.S. Navy before separating from the military in June 2020. He spent a lot of time virtually knocking on doors and says it wasn’t easy especially in a pandemic.
“A lot of ‘No’s,’” he said.
Simmons says moving from the military into the civilian world isn’t easy and it’s unfamiliar, but all the no's taught him how to better pitch himself.
"The requirements are different. You don't know how to translate those skills a lot of times in your resume. And so, a resume is a new concept. And there's all these different things that are unfamiliar to you that you have to you know, adapt to very quickly,” he added.
Simmons adapted to the virtual job hunt and used his social network on LinkedIn and RecruitMilitary’s virtual veteran career fairs.
The organization says since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic it's hosted 82 virtual veteran career fairs with 3,500 exhibitors who offer employment or help veterans with their resumes or interview skills.
They say more than 79,000 military-trained candidates have taken part.
“Every time we [military families] have to move, we have to start over. So, we have to leave employment, and then we have to start again,” Jennifer Hadac, Vice President of Employment Services with RecruitMilitary said.
As of March 2021, unemployment among veterans was at 4.6 percent. The statistic has dropped since April of 2020 when the Department of Labor reported 11.9 percent of veterans did not have employment.
"That doesn't sound like a lot, but when you kind of put it into numbers, it's really unfortunate. And then you add on the family members that are affected by the veteran’s unemployment status, and you get into the millions of people affected just within the military community,” Hadac said.
Simmons says participating in the virtual career fairs is user-friendly.
You have to register, upload a resume and other documents and you can browse employment opportunities or employers will find you. During the career fair, you can enter chats with potential employers, too.
Organizers also say to treat it as an in-person job fair and dress professionally because a future employer can at any point ask you for a video interview.
You can watch a video on best practices here.
Hadac says it’s hard for the organization to quantify how many they’ve placed, but they know these virtual events help.
Simmons says it took a little more than four months of searching to get the “yes.” He is now the social media manager for RecruitMilitary.
“Doing that in a pandemic was tough, but it is doable,” he said.
On April 27 RecruitMilitary and DAV will host a career fair for the Eastern Region which encompasses Florida to Maine.
They plan to resume in-person career events in June and one is scheduled in Orlando, but will continue hosting virtual events.
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