Throughout my career search for the right fit I have come to realize several realities in transitioning.

  • No matter how much this Sailor wants to disagree with an Army guy, Michael Quinn is right more often than not on his posts. The guy really cares and wants others not to repeat his mistakes or things he sees that the veteran community is doing wrong.
  • As Michael states time and time again, you need to fill a specific role in a company and articulate your skills in a way they can understand. Truth is, even if they do understand, they are usually looking for a young undergrad who they can pay less because they are entry level. There is no one to articulate how short sighted this view is or how as my dear friend Christian Anschuetz puts it “It takes veteran soft skills to do the hard jobs.”
  • There is way too much white noise around buzz words like “transition, veteran affiliation, veteran support” and my personal favorite “veteran friendly employer”. What in the heck does that even mean anymore? It sure doesn’t mean they will create a brand new job for you because you are a veteran. It gets to the point that no one knows who or where to go to for actual good information. I have found a few Facebook sites that are decent but for the most part neither employers nor veterans really know how to connect in meaningful ways that can best support each other.
  • Veteran career fairs are the furthest thing from what any veteran or employer wants to do unless you need free mousepads, water bottles or to showcase company branding. Lots of corporate “we support veterans” flag waiving, but I have yet to hear a success story where a veteran landed their dream job in the six figure range doing exactly what they dreamed of doing when they got out of the military. Someone please prove me wrong.

THE SOLUTION: Incentivize and reward companies that go the extra mile and make the effort to recruit, onboard and engage veterans into their organizations. I give you the Department of Labor Medallion Program. This is the ONLY Federal accreditation program that recognizes companies annually for excellence in hiring veterans. You can learn more by going to https://www.hirevets.gov/


My Dream Job: I spent an exhaustive amount of time trying to identify a role that I did fit without pidgeon holing myself into once facet of what I could actually do. So I looked at what I was passionate about and made a list:

  • Helping people especially veterans
  • Working towards a goal to see companies and teams succeed
  • Developing business strategies
  • Building meaningful and authentic relationships with people
  • Recruiting talent

The list goes on but at the end of it I realized that I had to pick a specific career path or start my own company which TERRIFIED ME. So I got a chance to do some consulting with an amazing company called Bridge My Return that does exactly what I love doing, helping companies bridge the gap by educating them and setting goals on how to employ veterans. They approach this goal through a technology platform that puts everything else to shame. In short, BMR is the next big thing. You can visit them at www.bridgemyreturn.com.

With a very supportive wife who owns her own business, an extremely close and loyal group of superfriends..(ahem..Nicci Bosco) and incredible mentors like Jim Vaselopulos, I decided to launch V. E. Solutions. It stands for Veteran Engagement solutions. At V.E. Solutions we help companies employ veterans and devise a plan to earn DOL Medallion Medal accreditation through a program management approach to success.

There are so many companies that want to help veterans with candidate preparation. The best way I can support them is to address the issue from the corporate side to make change. Together with DOL, I know we will make a difference in a big way. The website is under construction but be sure to visit us at www.veteranengagement.com in a few weeks and keep an eye out for one heck of a launch party.