MilitaryStars Blog

One Day. Two Hiring Events. Endless Career Possibilities.

Tomorrow's our first doubleheader - thank you so much to everyone coming to Baltimore or San Antonio, and to the employers coming too!  By the Chesapeake and by the River Walk, we have opportunities lined up in fields from firefighting to finance, technical writing, Lean Six Sigma, security, insurance... a seriously nice variety of companies and agencies have been excited about these events for quite a while.  We are too; it's our first time in San Antonio and our last Baltimore event this year - wherever you're headed, all you need is 20 copies of your resume and a great attitude!  Thank you all for giving us the chance to help you succeed and best of luck.

A Class Above: San Diego Student Veterans

We'll be in San Diego in about a month as part of our "West Coast Tour" - I often hear people from San Diego ask when we'll be in LA, and vice versa, so we're making it easy by hitting both spots within a few weeks, then coming to Phoenix.  From SD comes this in-depth look at veterans excelling as San Diego State University students.  SDSU's enrollment director: "If I could have 50 percent of our student body be veterans, I would."  Nice!  The school's student-run veterans' organization, offering everything from support to social functions, is such a hit that other schools are asking how to start one of their own.  The article (International Herald-Tribune) notes that 32 states have proposed new veteran education benefits this year, with 11 already passed, and mentions a few I looked into here and here. 

Civilian Career Info Search Engine!

See what you think of our new Search feature!  Definitely another cool aspect of running our blog through Typepad... it really takes all the aggravation out of putting my thoughts out there (write, click) and even website design (copy, paste, click - nice!).  You can search our blog for any topic you like, and as always can still do so through the Archive links on the lower left sidebar.  Even slicker, you can search through Civilian Career Info, a search engine we put together featuring the best of the Orion family of companies - no matter where you want your civilian career to take you, you will find a wealth of information and free resources without dead ends, ranting, or people trying to sell you something.  Hope you find it useful... have a great week!

Service Disabled Veteran Entrepreneurs

Another very good one from Forbes - I have to give them credit for stepping up their coverage of positive transition news; their name pops up more and more in my daily searching.  Syracuse University recently held a "boot camp" (military involved, gotta call it that, right?) for service disabled veterans interested in starting their own business.  And by "interested", they are not fooling: the application alone required "three letters of recommendations, their last three military performance reports, several essays and descriptions of any awards or involvement in outside organizations."  The final phase of the program involved the participants pitching their ideas to venture capitalists.  The veterans profiled, from their dangerous past to their dreams of the future, are a true inspiration.    

Careers in IT: New Training W/ Veterans in Mind

Your military training puts many of you in front of the most state-of-the-art technology in the world - our team reminds employers of this fact all the time, and the recent slate of Army, Navy, & Air Force commercials do a great job too (Airman on base computer becomes civilian on office computer, etc).  Here's another potential advantage if you want to break into the IT field: trade association CompTIA's new Creating Futures program, offering cutting-edge training and education to military veterans!       

Careers in Healthcare: Veteran Doc Profile

Don't let anyone tell you you can't be a doctor: check out this profile of one who had just been promoted to Lieutenant Colonel in the Army when he opted for medicine.  Also a fine study in deciding exactly when the time is right to begin a civilian career.  He describes precisely how the military prepared him for a career of everyday pressure (as have others in careers as far on the other end of the spectrum as MMA fighting). 

State by State Military Family Aid

This article comes from a Grand Rapids, Michigan NBC affiliate, while casting a wider eye toward what other states across the country are doing to help active-duty, Guard and reserve troops and their families.  I wrote about the cell-phone cancellation option a while back, with a bit of shock that this wasn't just common sense.  Many wonderful programs here, though, to make many everyday hassles less so for military families - to actually make them the least of their worries, as they should be.  If you don't see your state listed on here, maybe you know of another helpful program.  I'll try to bring them to you as always - have a great week! 

Army, Civilian Friends Rebuilding Louisiana

This story has elements of everything I try to champion here, and is told through experiences you don't see or hear nearly enough about.  Three women - one a fiftysomething (!) Army SFC, and two twentysomething civilians - describe their friendship as they work together rebuilding southern Louisiana with the Army Corps of Engineers.  You can feel the respect the younger women have for their boss and her military experience, and how proud in turn she is of them.  As they all note, they could be having a miserable time doing the work they're doing, but instead have made amazing friendships while helping where help is needed most.

Sears Holdings Corp. Helps Military Housing

Sears Holdings Corporation is the parent company of Kmart and Sears, and they regularly attend MilitaryStars events.  Sometimes there are other decisions that show, in an equally powerful way, just how serious an employer is about supporting the military.  Check out Forbes' look at Sears Holdings Corporation and Rebuilding Together's Heros at Home Program, which recently renovated a service disabled veteran's home in Maryland.  We're honored to have employers like this on our side!   

Earning Your MBA on Active Duty

Great profiles here of more active-duty servicemembers preparing to transition through the Ivy League, along with other schools that are targeting military men & women for their MBA programs.  More first-year MBA students at Yale come from the military than any other single employer, and the school offers needed incentives, from deferred enrollment to scholarships, for these students.  Mentioned in the link, here is the Graduate Management Admission Council (GMAC)'s list of Military-Friendly Business Schools (all kinds - glad to see Carolina on there!).