Maryland Vets: Jobs Wanted

First Person: Five Tips from a Veteran Who Got A Job

‘I called in every favor, pulled every thread I could find.’

In September 2008, two things happened: The world economy collapsed, and I was looking for a job. Since I was leaving the Navy, I used a “military career transition service,” which helps you with interview preparation, resume writing and culminates in a one-day/10-interview extravaganza. From those 10 initial interviews, I received nine “call-backs,” or second interviews; I turned down seven of them. This was not a smart decision. In retrospect, my standards were too high, my self-regard a bit … overly optimistic. I also had no plan beyond this one day of interviews. I figured with 10 companies, I had to find something. I was wrong. By the time I went for the two second interviews I chose to pursue, companies were literally instituting …

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Maryland Vets: Jobs Wanted

Vets Back From War Face Shocking Reality

“If it weren’t for my daughter … I’d be one of those guys on the corner with a sign”—Maryland veteran.

When Andrew Smith III talked with his U.S. Marine Corps platoon mates in Iraq before he returned to Maryland in 2009, he recalled they agreed finding a job in a recession would be tough. But he said he never imagined it would be like this. Smith said he sleeps four hours a night to make time for his part-time job loading baggage for Delta Airlines, training classes in the afternoons and searching for a full-time job with benefits to support his wife and two kids without relying on food stamps and other assistance. But last week, during a job fair organized by the Maryland Department of Transportation for veterans in Baltimore, he was almost optimistic. “For a while, we as veterans feel like we were forgotten about,” said Smith, 29, of …

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Returning from War to Fight for Jobs

Maryland veterans talk about getting passed over for jobs—and how to change that.

Stephanie Gilbert of Pasadena served six years as an Arabic linguist and was an Army intelligence officer in Afghanistan before being honorably discharged last year. The former staff sergeant is now pursuing a degree in financial economics at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County. But when it came time for the 27-year-old veteran to seek financial services internships this summer, Gilbert was shocked when she was passed over. Twice. “I’m 27 years old and I’m applying for internships,” she said. “It’s disconcerting when a 19-year-old gets the internship instead of me. It’s like, ‘What?’”    With a resume stacked with wartime leadership experience, a 3.8 GPA and Arabic fluency, Gilbert said she assumed she would have been at the top …

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