Hiring Heroes Career Fair helps vets find jobs

By Guv CallahanNovember 13, 2014

Hiring Heroes Career Fair helps vets find jobs
Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness Jessica L. Garfola Wright gives remarks during the Hiring Heroes Career Fair in Spates Community Center on the Fort Myer portion of Joint Base Myer-Henderson Hall, Nov. 6, 2014. Participating emp... (Photo Credit: U.S. Army) VIEW ORIGINAL

The Department of Defense hosted a Hiring Heroes Career Fair Nov. 6 for transitioning service members, wounded warriors, veterans and family members Joint Base Myer-Henderson Hall.

According to Karen Hannah, human resources specialist and Hiring Heroes program manager at DoD, 386 job seekers visited the fair, held in the Spates Community Center on the Fort Myer portion of the joint base.

The event drew a total of 73 employers from various areas, including 22 DoD agencies, 17 other federal agencies and 34 private sector companies. These included Department of Homeland Security, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Northrup Grumman, the Prince William County Police Department and many more.

Many organizations also provided on-the-spot or pre-scheduled job interviews to candidates. In total, employers conducted 72 interviews, Hannah said in an email to the Pentagram following the career fair.

DoD's Hiring Heroes program has been organizing career fairs since 2005, but this was the first to be held on JBM-HH.

"It's only fitting that we host today's Hiring Heroes Career Fair, as it gives us another great opportunity to provide support with the prospect of job opportunities for our transitioning service members, wounded warriors, veterans and families," said JBM-HH Commander Col. Mike Henderson.

Joint Force Headquarters-National Capital Region and Military District of Washington Commanding General, Commander Maj. Gen. Jeffrey S. Buchanan, stressed that service members are professionals with a unique set of skills and values.

"Hiring a veteran makes sound business sense - you are hiring a proven professional with the ability to lead, guide and direct and understand the true meaning of teamwork with experience that cannot be matched by any other profession," he said.

And employers took notice. According to the results of the job fair, employers extended 40 job offers throughout the day.

In her brief keynote remarks, Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness Jessica L. Garfola Wright, said veterans and retired service members would bring a wealth of experience to their new professions.

"They are calm, cool and collected under stress," she said. "They make decisions that a normal [person] doesn't normally have to make."

Wright, a veteran herself, said transitioning could be difficult for service members and urged employers to consider the caliber of applicants they'd be receiving.

"These individuals are America's finest," she said. "We're asking them to go into the American public and be prosperous citizens, which is a new world for them. I know."

For more information on JBM-HH's employment and transition services, visit www.jbmhh.army.mil/WEB/JBMHH/Services/ArmyCareerAlumni.html.