Thursday, May 24, 2012
A Reisterstown Patch reader thanks Patch and offers information for veterans looking for jobs.
- OPINION
-
Thursday, May 24, 2012
Dear Mr. Shapiro, Please allow me to introduce myself. As Deputy Under Secretary for Economic Opportunity at the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), I have responsibility for VA’s education (GI bill), vocational rehabilitation and employment and guaranteed home loan programs. Additionally, my office assists in coordinating many veteran employment efforts and works collectively with the Department of Labor (DOL) and other federal agencies to promote and impact nationwide veteran employment. I came across the Reisterstown Patch article entitled “Help Wanted? Hire a Vet” and I would like to personally thank you for the valuable service your newspaper is providing to this deserving group of individuals. There is a new benefit called the …
Monday, May 14, 2012
'Work, altogether right now, is hard to find.' - Andrew Smith III, 29.
Maryland veterans are speaking out, as this video shows. They fought overseas, sometimes on multiple tours in Iraq and Afghanistan, and returned home to find sparse job opportunities. Patch has been covering the issues of unemployed veterans in our series entitled “Maryland Vets: Jobs Wanted.” To see a list of businesses interested in hiring vets, go here. Editors recently interviewed about a dozen veterans at a job fair in Baltimore hosted by the Maryland Department of Transportation, where veterans spoke about the transition from military to civilian life, and the shocking realities of the 2012 economy. “It's been pretty nip and tuck—I’ve been supporting myself by taking draws out of my annuity fund and looking for jobs here and there …
Thursday, May 10, 2012
Readers tell Patch about job fairs, job postings and other resources across the region to help veterans.
This story was updated Thursday at 12:00 p.m. to reflect job opportunities for veterans in Perry Hall and Annapolis. A recent series of Patch stories reporting the difficult situations faced by veterans without jobs triggered responses from across the region offering reactions and ideas for help. Here’s a roundup of what we’ve heard from you: Howard County Department of Fire & Rescue Services: Spokeswoman Jackie Cutler wrote to Patch that the department will be specifically asking military veterans to apply to its next training class. “Several members of our department are veterans, and it’s something that we really felt the need to focus on, given the challenges they face once returning home from service," she wrote. Cutler said …
Wednesday, May 9, 2012
‘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 …
Monday, May 7, 2012
“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 …
Monday, April 30, 2012
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 …
Steve
11:08 am on Tuesday, July 10, 2012
No, but I remember President Reagan's Amnesty program. more ›