Veterans Series: Community is key to attracting veterans: Conversation with Chad Sowash.

This post is part of a series that already includes conversations with:

Fred Wellman: If you don't find a job, create one!

Chris Norton: Veterans are social and connected

Lance Sapera: The service is a long version of University

Caleb Fullhart: An army recruiter changed my life forever

Arron Daniels: I Can Knock It Out of the Park!

Rhonda Stickley: Embracing the Learn and Grow Veterans' ethos to understand leadership

Brenda Bell: Veterans will help your company succeed

Max Dubroff: Ten recommendations to veterans.

By Marylene Delbourg-Delphis

Chad Sowash retired from the Military after 20 combined years of service. He started in the online recruitment industry in 1998 working in sales at Online Career Center before it was rebranded as Monster.com in January of ‘99. After leaving Monster Chad took a leadership role as a Vice President at DirectEmployers Association for ten years. During his that time he led the collaboration between Corporate America and State Workforce in the creation of the National Labor Exchange.   

Chad enjoyed a short stint with RecruitMilitary as their Chief Experience Officer and exited shortly after the company’s acquisition. Chad has since teamed up with a colleague to start a firm, Catch 22 Consulting, whose purpose is to provide expert resource for companies which want to build meaningful hiring programs for veterans and individuals with disabilities and ultimately help companies better understand attraction, engagement and building of communities, as opposed to merely building resume databases.

Tell me about your history, what you did in the military?

I actually started my career in the military only six days after graduating high school. I knew I wasn’t ready to jump right into college, wanted to see the world and felt the military was a great option. I soon found that being stationed in the tropical paradise of Panama was wonderful just as long as I wasn’t receiving mortar and AK47 fire, which is what happened within the first few months of my tour during Operation Just Cause.  That’s right I started the first four years my 20-year stint with Uncle Sam in active duty Army and found myself carved into a hillside on the parameter of Fort Clayton ducking, covering and returning fire.

Fast-forward four years to 1993 where I found myself transitioning back into civilian life and in search of the same type of brotherhood, camaraderie and true community that I missed from the Army. That’s where I found and joined the Army Reserves. I finished up my twenty as a reservist where I was deployed back to active duty a couple times as an Infantry Drill Sergeant on Sand Hill at Fort Benning, GA. That’s right, Round Brown, push-ups, cadence, the whole deal as a full-time Infantry Drill for 2 ½ years, HOOAH.

Why did you transition out of active duty?

Back in ‘93 I was only an E-4 and you have to remember back then we were faced with major military budget cuts from the Clinton administration, so the likelihood of promotion was very bleak. Heck we were using the original Nintendo game systems for M16 weapons qualification instead of real weapons and live rounds, talk about scary. At that point it really didn’t make any sense for me to stay in the active military, so I made my move and chose to transition back into the civilian world. Fast forward to today, that’s pretty much what we’re going to be seeing with this huge drawdown: many aren’t going to want to stay in, and others are going to be pushed out for a myriad of reasons not due to bad conduct.

How was the transition to a civilian job from being an E-4 Specialist?

It was fairly easy. On active duty, my first job was as a quartermaster and chemical equipment repair, and luckily my new employer knew to look deeper or I would have easily been overlooked. Luckily I had an “inside scoop” to land a sales gig and once I started working in the job, the skills I learned in the military translated easily. My new boss knew that military teaches you much more — leadership, working within a team – those types of things that were very important in my transition. Over the years, I’ve presented to many groups about military and veteran hiring and I always ask how many people (in the audience) ever went through standardized leadership training to keep the job that they were promoted into? Usually you can hear a pin drop after that question, because in general, there are no leadership courses organic to organizational career pathing, like in the military. Most promotions above E-3, in the Army, come with leadership course “strings attached”. This means you must complete the prescribed leadership course to retain or achieve the next promotion. Not to mention, you must keep up with all of your certifications, new schools etc. That’s right the military has standardized leadership courses that are organic to the entire environment, because the military builds leaders and most organizations promote their achievers, which unfortunately in most cases are not leaders.

Would you have gotten your first job without having the “inside scoop”?

That’s a great question and to be honest, if I actually made it to the interview I would have been confident, but I’m not sure that I would’ve made it through the resume screen. As I said, my first job after transitioning into the civilian sector was in sales, where you obviously have to work with people on a daily basis and you have to be very detail-oriented. I was lucky because my “inside scoop” was my Dad who was the Regional Sales Manager and also an Army veteran. But if I didn’t have that “inside scoop” or connection would I have gotten hired into that position? Did my resume say that I had the necessary skill sets? Would a newfangled Military Occupation Code (MOC) translator say the job was right for me? Not in a million years. But I did have the skills, learned and honed from the military and was fortunate enough to be afforded the chance to prove myself.

Did the military teach you to adjust to new circumstances?

Absolutely! Flexibility is a necessity in the military, because you never know what’s going to come at you, literally. You have a mission, but you have the autonomy within that mission to get it completed, and you have to map out all of the different contingency plans, visualize outcomes, alternate opportunities and anticipate problems. You can’t just go into a mission thinking there’s one way to achieve the goal. So when I transitioned back into civilian life the entire thought-process and mindset was perfect for business.

What else did the military teach you?

The military taught me many things, but I believe leadership and the “driver” instinct was important, which for me was a perfect match for the business development and sales world. I also knew that I wanted to work with people, which is ingrained in us on Day One in Army Basic Training where you are issued a Battle Buddy, even before your toilet paper, a bunk or even wall locker. This sets a precedent that teamwork is paramount and starts the wheel of camaraderie and community in motion. I firmly believe that specific mindset translates very well into the civilian workforce, yes we might be a tad more direct than our civilian counterparts at first, but everything can become copasetic after acclimating to our new environment.

So what are some recommendations you would give to hiring companies?

I could go on for days, but here are a few that I think every company should think about deeply.

1) Get an expert to provide a fresh set of eyes

It takes a very specialized skill-set to build a successful veteran hiring program and you cannot fathom how many gaps you’re missing. So bring in an expert who can provide a fresh set of eyes and the expertise you desperately need. Over the past 10 years I’ve seen many companies fail when trying to build a DIY veteran hiring program because they felt they knew what they were doing. They didn’t…

2) Focus heavily on community

Much like I did when transitioning out of the active duty, other veterans will look for the same military-like community. Can your organization provide it? Are you using community to retain your current veteran population? Do you even know who your current veterans are? If so, how are you engaging them and using them as a business asset?

3) Ask the right questions

Civilianized questions won’t work well with prior service, especially newly transitioning military.  It’s incredibly important for organizations to understand who we (Veterans) are so they may ask the right questions allowing them to truly tap into the most relevant responses.

4) Focus on outcomes, not just compliance

The OFCCP is pushing very hard on federal contractors to have a better understanding of military talent and how it relates to their open positions. I have watched the same organizations drop the “veteran hiring ball” many times over the years because they are focused on checking the box and not actual hiring outcomes. Organizations may someday get veteran hiring right IF they focus on building sustainable veteran hiring pipelines that are graded against outcomes, not audits. Compliance should be an advisor at the table and NOT the driver.   

Veterans Series: If you don't find a job, create one! Conversation with Fred Wellman

This post is part of a series that already includes conversations with:

Chris Norton: Veterans are social and connected

Lance Sapera: The service is a long version of University

Caleb Fullhart: An army recruiter changed my life forever

Arron Daniels: I Can Knock It Out of the Park!

Rhonda Stickley: Embracing the Learn and Grow Veterans' ethos to understand leadership

Brenda Bell: Veterans will help your company succeed

Max Dubroff: Ten recommendations to veterans.

By Marylene Delbourg-Delphis

Fred Wellman is the founder-CEO of ScoutComms, a social enterprise communications, advocacy and philanthropic strategy firm supporting veterans, military families and organizations committed to their well-being.

How did you get into the military? What did you do and for how long?

I “rebelled” as a teenager and instead of going to the University of Missouri like the rest of my family I got crazy and went to the United States Military Academy at West Point. I graduated in 1987 and was commissioned as an Aviation officer and eventually found myself as a Scout helicopter pilot in various units around the world and in Operation Desert Storm. I served 13 years before leaving the Regular Army for the Reserves only to be mobilized on 9/11 and return again to the active force. I deployed with the 101^st Airborne Division for opening year of Operation Iraqi Freedom and while in Iraq found myself supporting the local population and eventually in the news. The division commander was then Major General David Petraeus and he decided to make me the division public affairs officer when we returned. I later served as his spokesman in Iraq as well as then Lt. Gen. Martin Dempsey who is now the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs. I attended grad school at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government and was assigned to the Pentagon. After my third Iraq tour in 2008 I decided to retire after 22 total years of service.

If you don’t find a job, create one! Right?    

Yes! After leaving the military, I joined a small firm but soon found out that it wasn’t a good fit. Then I interviewed for jobs, but no one was hiring me in November of 2010; so I struck out on my own.  I saw there was a niche for someone who understood the military, defense and veterans’ worlds at larger PR firms. So, I started my own firm essentially as a professional sub-contractor to larger PR firms. Gradually we just grew on our own merits and kept picking up unique opportunities and partners. Our big break came when The Home Depot Foundation decided to focus on veterans housing issues and brought us on to their team for the launch and program three years ago and since then more and more of our work has focused exclusively on veteran’s issues. For the last year or so, a significant part of our work has focused on veteran family issues, on military caregivers for our wounded and disabled veterans, and on supporting the Get Skills to Work program bringing veterans to work in the advanced manufacturing industry. We also got involved in supporting the Institute for Veterans and Military Families at Syracuse University, which does a lot of the thinking on these issues and focuses on entrepreneurship and job training. So really, that’s our thing.

ScoutComms, my company, which is based in Virginia, has now been around for three years and at the beginning of this year we turned it into a social enterprise ‘Benefit Corporation’. So we now have a structure as a benefit corporation with social mission focused on veterans and military families.

We’re really a weird little company. It’s foundation are communications-based initiatives; advocacy, being experts in our field; helping craft philanthropic strategies and reach veterans and military families. It’s just sort of a unique niche, and we’ve gotten pretty good at it. A lot of people first hire us as PR, but also look to us as a military expert, if you will, even though I hate that term – “expert.” Then, when we grew, since all we did was veterans and military families, we thought we would go out and meet non-profits for them, we’d vet them for the client, we would look for opportunities for them to apply their mission to new ways, sniffing out fakes or poorly run non-profits. I think we’ve done it all, as far as being people who understand the veteran’s space and help our clients navigate this unusual sector.

As a PR firm, what do you exactly do?

We are specialists in focusing on the military and veteran’s media and target audiences. Take The Home Depot for example. On the corporate side we’ve quite a bit and won awards for our work with them. Our biggest project was the Mission: Transition campaign last year. We partnered with the MSLGroup on that one and we were brought in by The Home Depot to serve as the military focused extension to the campaign. We handled the military focused media, government media, and outreach to the military transition programs to reach potential attendees. We did a lot of outreach to the Army, for example the Army’s Soldier for Life campaign and the Army’s community relations program to get as many soldiers as possible to attend the workshops with postings in every Army transition office around the world. We also leveraged our extensive relationships with the veteran’s service organizations and non-profits to get the word to their members and reach more of the veteran population. In the end every workshop at over 100 locations were filled and the campaign won several awards including two Silver Anvils from PRSA.

Tell me more about the Get Skills to Work program

We have been very fortunate to be part of supporting GE’s leadership of the Get Skills to Work program. Just over a year and a half ago, GE recognized they faced a skills gap of employees in the manufacturing industry. To address it they decided to focus on bringing veterans into the industry, but they wanted to go beyond just a hiring program – they had that already. So they partnered with the Manufacturing Institute, which is a part of the National Manufacturing Association here in Washington and several other companies and non-profits.  Now they’ve built a coalition of now over five hundred companies, ranging in size from twelve-man operations here in Fredericksburg, VA to GE, Alcoa, Boeing, Lockheed Martin, the founding partners. And they’ve also built a coalition of over fifty schools, where veterans can go Get Skills to Work training, at community colleges and technical schools, to get advanced manufacturing certifications and qualifications. We’re talking CNC Machine Operator, Machinist, Welder, Logistics Analyst’s there’s some eleven specific career fields, and then these guy and girls find jobs in the manufacturing industry. The program is growing every day and is really just getting its legs and making a difference in the community.

What are your top recommendations to organizations?

I apply the “kitchen sink” approach to working with the veterans and military family communities. In other words the challenges for these communities is that they don’t have just one solution so we need to throw everything and the kitchen sink to solve the problems. I tell organizations to look for areas that aren’t being addressed. For example, while young veteran unemployment is finally coming down to manageable levels we continue to see our military spouses struggle to find work and it impacts the military community. I believe organizations should seek opportunities for impact giving instead of throwing out “cardboard checks” where possible. In other words, find quality non-profits that are making a difference in the communities and ensure your money is making as big an impact as possible. I believe giving should align with a companies core principals and priorities. If your company is oriented on the health and wellness of its employees then seek out organizations like Team Red, White & Blue which use physical fitness activities to bring veterans and their communities together. Don’t believe the hype about veteran’s challenges fitting in companies and especially all of us having PTSD or other problems. The overwhelming majority of veterans in poll after poll are well adjusted and better for their service. There are clearly those in our community struggling but don’t assume all veterans are in that place.

Veterans Series: Ten recommendations to veterans. A conversation with Max Dubroff

This post is part of a series that already includes conversations with:

Chris Norton: Veterans are social and connected

Lance Sapera: The service is a long version of University

Caleb Fullhart: An army recruiter changed my life forever

Arron Daniels: I Can Knock It Out of the Park!

Rhonda Stickley: Embracing the Learn and Grow Veterans' ethos to understand leadership

Brenda Bell : Veterans will help your company succeed

By Marylene Delbourg-Delphis

Max Dubroff is the"HR MAXimizer" of Buy for Le$$, a leading grocery provider of fresh, diverse, unique and economical food products in Oklahoma which he joined in 2009 after over 20 years in the military. He graduated from the US Air Force Academy and selected the Security Police career field, which he says was "a fantastic decision.  I learned tremendous amounts about leadership and had many opportunities to have positive impacts on the mission and people.  For one-fourth of my career, I was entrusted with command of two squadrons, the most rewarding role in my life."  If I had to summarize Max's approach, I would say that he never left his life entirely up to chance and instead deliberately created his own luck with amazing focus and determination.

What did you do to transition from the Military to a civilian position?

I got educated.  I earned a degree in human resource management 17 years prior to retirement, because I thought I might like that field; it was a key differentiator and helped me earn more.

I was mentally prepared.  Although I was never impacted by a RIF (Reduction-in-Force), I realized that everyone needs to be prepared at all times. My professional readings included books and magazines that helped me get an understanding of the culture outside the military, particularly in business. I went to transition assistance twice, once prior to retirement in Germany and then while on terminal leave in Oklahoma. Both were a little out of touch with what companies really want, but they helped me figure out my own path.

I networked.  I found a great mentor in the HR field who specializes in networking. I joined Toastmasters; I went to Rotary meetings; I joined the local HR professionals organization... None of it got me a job.  But, I was learning more about the community. I got certified.  I studied for professional certification and earned it.  Military certifications do not mean much to civilian employers. I looked everywhere.  I had to get over the idea of working for the #1 company in the area and look at industries I had not considered.  I accepted every interview opportunity and saw it as a chance to hone my skills; that is how I found my job ... I wasn't looking at them, but I was ready for when I met them. I accepted a challenging position in a company that was strong and growing, that I knew I could have a great impact on.  I didn't get paid as much as I wanted, but I knew I would earn more as I proved my value.

What are your top ten recommendations to veterans?

 1. You're not the only ones who work hard.  Small and medium businesses (i.e. the majority of businesses that exist) have a level of 'do more with less' that exceeds what most veterans can fathom.  Sure, there are some nice, laid-back companies out there; but, many of them are getting passed by the smart, hard-working ones.

 2. It is competitive.  Don't presume that 'qualified' is enough ... There are plenty of people who are qualified.  Know yourself and have a focus on what you want. Note that as a hiring manager, I am turned off by someone who says, "I'll do anything" because it won't be a good marriage."

 3. Look for entry points to organizations you want.  It might not be the dream job at first, but it will give you the opportunity to prove your value and progress to that dream job after a long time. The military culture typically thinks in shorter 'tours' than civilian businesses, so be ready to persist.

 4. Be realistic.  Picture yourself in the military, having numerous years of experience ... and then they announce that they are bringing in a person who has extensive experience in leading businesses ... to be your commander!  How absurd, right?  Well, the same logic applies to you.  Don't expect to enter the business world at (or near) the top after having no experience in their industry [see #2 above].

 5. Learn the civilian jargon.  I met a retired E-8 who wrote on his resume that he was the chief operations officer for his organizations.  He had no idea what that meant and his rationalization exposed his weaknesses.  Yes, we hope they will accommodate us and try to figure out what our jargon means; but, they are looking at piles of resumes and you want yours to stand out.

 6. A good resume takes lots of work; but a good resume won't get you a job.  You need a great resume to even get noticed, and that will take tons of work.  Buy or borrow some books and get advice from others.  Trim it down and make it focused on the key points.  Leave white space and make it readable.

 7. Interview a lot.  Every interview is different and you will learn about yourself and be better prepared for the most important interview when the opportunity comes.

 8. Do not pay for assistance right away.  Resume writing services are most helpful if you have been working on your resume for months and can't see the next rendition.  There are also agencies that will help prep, network and place you for a mere $3k-$4k. I haven't seen a good one yet, but I am sure they are out there.  Make sure you do your homework and check their results carefully before you open your wallet.

 9. Volunteer.  It's a great way to network and develop some experience.  During my employment, I have continued to volunteer, which has resulted in more great leadership opportunities, including a position as a board chair and nomination to be a commissioner.

 10. Be real and positive.  The interview is not just about them deciding if they like you; it is also about you deciding if you like them!  Use this as the opportunity to prevent getting into a bad relationship.  Look at non-selection as a chance to re-evaluate what you are and what you want.  If you come into the interview exhausted and beaten by repeated rejection, I will not be interested.

Veterans Series: Veterans will help your company succeed: Conversation with Brenda Bell

By Sophie Delphis

This post is part of a series that already includes conversations with:

Rhonda Stickley: Embracing the Learn and Grow Veterans' ethos to understand leadership

Lance Sapera: The service is a long version of University

Chris Norton: Veterans are social and connected

Caleb Fullhart: An army recruiter changed my life forever

Arron Daniels: I Can Knock It Out of the Park!

My mother (Marylene Delbourg-Delphis) hired Brenda Bell in the late eighties to work for her company at the time, ACIUS, the maker of 4^th Dimension. Back then, Brenda was barely out of her teens, with two children, a limited college education, little job experience and a place in the Army Reserve (Military Police —670 MP Company California Army National Guard), but my mother was interested in this young woman in spite of her less-than-perfect corporate package. During and after her time at ACIUS, Brenda was called in to First Gulf War, earned two college degrees and worked her way through a series of high tech jobs that eventually landed her in her current position at IBM. I grew up hearing her interesting and inspiring story, and I was excited to learn that my mother was interviewing her as part of her ongoing series on hiring veterans. 

Brenda was very young, and not necessarily an obvious hire... In fact, both women laugh at the memory of my mother teaching Brenda how to put on make-up, how to talk to a diverse group of people, etc.

Brenda Bell: I was twenty years old. You took a chance on me, and you taught me a lot. It really helped, because you deal with a lot of people. And I’m comfortable to be dealing with lots of different people on a day-to-day basis.

Brenda was the first veteran my mother hired. Since then, she has been able to experience first-hand how flexible and versatile veterans can be when given a chance.

She did not see it as a problem that Brenda was in the Reserve, nor that she ended up taking some time off because of the first Gulf War – ultimately accommodating an employee was worth a bit of restructuring. And Brenda’s choice to enter the military made sense.

Brenda Bell: I had gone to college, and I wasn’t successful. I didn’t have parent financial support, so I had a lot of student loans. The military paid off all of my loans, and they provided me educational benefits: for staying in the Reserve after I got out of the military, they paid for further college. That’s really why I went into the military: I had a lot of student loan debt, and I didn’t have a lot of job skills, and it was a good way for me to start paying back my college debt and then gain some skills and allow me to go back to school.

After initially earning her two-year Associate’s Degree in Management, she returned to school after the military to earn two Bachelor’s Degrees in Organizational Management and Computer Science.

Brenda Bell: After I left ACIUS, I went to work for Sybase. And, you know, just being immersed in that environment, working with development tools, I really had to understand software development and design, so having this degree in organizational management wasn’t enough. I had to continue to grow. And that’s another thing you learn in the military, because they keep having you take leadership courses to grow and learn, so that helped me to be willing to go out and get that second degree, to learn more.

So I went back to school, part-time in the evenings, out here in New England, and I got a second degree and continued to work for some software companies and a couple of start-ups. One of the start-ups I was working for was going out of business and sold their code to Rational, which was then acquired by IBM and so I was able to branch out to other divisions within IBM.

Brenda's background in the military has proved immensely useful.

Brenda Bell: The relationships I formed in the military and my understanding of military structure help me pretty much everyday. In my particular environment, I sell to federal customers on a daily basis, so being able to understand what their needs and their challenges are is very helpful. Being able to speak the same language that they speak puts you in a better rapport with them. And also the relationships: I don’t think anybody can discount the value of the relationships that you build in the military, and that a lot of military veterans, once they go out, are willing to help other veterans. So you can use those relationships, too, to help improve your career and help your company to succeed.

This does not mean that veterans have an easy time transferring to civilian careers, however. This is particularly true in the current economic climate, in which employment is tough for young veterans, and tough for young adults in general.

Brenda Bell: My son just came back from a couple of tours, and he was going back to work, and I think one of the hard things, not just from my own experience, but from seeing his experience, is that they don’t know how to translate military skills to civilian skills. He had a very hard time with his resume: he was in the infantry and he was a team leader, but I had to help him translate “What does a team leader do?” into civilian terms.

Brenda is a fantastic example of a single mother who had to get through some rough patches in her life but eventually made it work. She is now a client executive in the Federal Business unit for the Americas at IBM. She lives in New England with her husband and has come a long way from the unfocused, insecure kid she was when she started working at ACIUS. My mother took an interest in seeing this ex-employee develop, and “will always be proud of the role that [she] played in [Brenda’s] career.”