Posted on Dec 1, 2015
SFC Adam Potter
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As a Veteran and "Former" job seeker I used a few Veteran job boards in my search for employment.
Now as a recruiter I often go out to Veteran Job sites and search resumes to seek out talent to bring to our great University.
Now the sites I "typically use" are Hiring Our Heroes and the E*Benefits web site.
#1 reason why, from the employer perspective is because they are free. However I do not see a great response rate from veterans on the sites I had mentioned. E*Benefits will only provide an email address to contact veterans and only contains about 22k resumes, and the resume database on Hiring Our Heroes contains almost 15k resumes, however you cannot determine how long the resume has been on the site. (Judging by some you can tell it has been a few years) I can run a search on RP and see over 30k job seekers on this site alone.
Other veteran sites I have encountered from the employer perspective want a pretty penny to post jobs or search their resume databases.
So the question is, what site do you use, and if you don't mind sharing, why do you use that particular site? Are you getting contacts from employers?
Posted in these groups: Imgres EmploymentJon JobsMilitary civilian 600x338 Transition
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CPT David Gowel
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Edited >1 y ago
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SGT David T.
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I use https://www.usajobs.gov/
As I am Federal employee this is the only place for me to look. The government is pretty good about hiring vets and being a DA civilian allows me the best of both worlds. I get to support the military without being in the military.
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SGT Robert Deem
SGT Robert Deem
9 y
USAJOBS is by no means veteran specific. They do, however, give a tremendous amount of weight in favor of veteran applicants, especially disabled vets. As far as I know, it is currently the only resource available for applying for federal government positions. It is extremely easy to use; you can build several resumes specific to the job(s) you are looking for and the site will notify you by email if one of those jobs become available in the geographic area you specify. I also highly recommend it.
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SrA David Steyer
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I'm all over the place. I've had some interviews but the problem isn't so much the wage. However jobs that are advertised as full time are not full time when I get to the interview, I am told something completely different like they don't know what job exists or if they have an opening when going for a specific job, and/or don't get hired. I have one coming up next week and I hope I get the job!

A lot of the jobs advertised on these sites are jobs that many veterans who just out of the military will not meet the qualifications for. I can email you snapshots of jobs that I have seen advertised on these sites, some I may have taken in error but some needed years of experience you will not get in the military. I've been seeing jobs that require specific experience in finance, insurance or legal backgrounds and respective certifications. Yes we have legal and finance jobs in the military but many of those standards are different. For someone who just got out of the military they will have to edit the hell out of their resume to get a specific job, which is fair and understandable but they may have to lie to get the job. As for that person that may have been out of the military for a minute and are well established in the civilian sector well, the fact they may be a veteran is something to value but it's just a nice side effect and their civilian experience since leaving the military in a specific industry or backgrounds may carry more weight.

I'm guessing that the vast majority of the people on these sites, and the target audience are people who are transitioning or have just gotten out. Not someone who got out of the military some time ago, somewhat established in civilian life and hit a few bumps in the road with civilian employment and are in the same boat as the person transitioning/just got out or want a new opportunity. Not to say they can't be looking for jobs on these sites but doubtful they are going to be on these sites in a large number.

I've have a bad experience with a Hiring our Heroes event. Event was advertised as an interviewing and hiring event. I get there and every employer told me what jobs they had open, where and how to apply online. Many of us are doing that already. As for E-Benefits... what a joke.

The first jobs I saw were federal jobs which is not a problem or a bad thing, however the majority were ones were you had to be a current employee of the federal agency that had the position open, and again jobs your average person is not going to qualify for... private sector was the same as other sites.

I'm going to pick on one site, but I have had similar experiences on just about every site. I checked out Hirepurpose and there were a lot of low paying jobs with Aramark, Yum! Brands, and retail jobs such as Home Depot or Sears which you can go to the place and may be able to apply on the spot. I worked fast food and retail before I joined the military I would image the process is still the same. I saw a few listings for staffing agencies like Robert Half which may not be stable or long term but better than nothing I'll admit. I did find that that in my area Hospital Corporation of America had 400+ jobs open looking for doctors, nurses etc on Hirepurpose. Well if you are a doctor, nurse, pharmacist or psychologist and/or enlisted in something specialized like radiology or lab where you need specialized licenses and certifications, well you aren't going to be on this site. I worked in the clinic (nothing specialized) for the entire time I was in the USAF. If you were any of the professions I just mentioned, you will not be on these sites. I don't know, nor heard of any these professions being out of work for more than a month top when they got out. They were recruited, made a position somewhere or found work quickly. Not trying to be that mean on Hirepurpose but I have had similar experiences on other sites meant for veterans.
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SFC Adam Potter
SFC Adam Potter
9 y
David, Thank you for your insightful reply. With your comments towards HoH and E*Benefits and I can agree their job advertising and resume database is weak from the employer perspective. A Veteran site I looked at yesterday wanted $5,000 a month to post jobs and search resumes. I would rather search LinkedIn and CareerBuilder for much less. You had mentioned a background in Health Care, we do have a hospital that does have entry level positions and I know that our Surgical Technicians can apply with military certifications.
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SrA David Steyer
SrA David Steyer
9 y
What kind of entry level positions?
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SFC Adam Potter
SFC Adam Potter
9 y
Nursing Assistants, Pshychiatric Nursing Assistants, If you have an equivalent of 1 year of CNA experience there are hemodialysis technician, phlebotomy techs. Surgical Techs and Med. Assistants need to have the certifications, however Military can cover. Those are just to name a few.
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SrA David Steyer
SrA David Steyer
9 y
Well, what I did in the military doesn't qualify me for any of those unless they were just as willing to take someone else off the street with a similar lack of experience. I was medical yes but not a medic despite what they told us in tech school. They have thankfully stopped telling people the medic mumbo jumbo in the years since I went through.

I indeed worked in the clinic but much of what I did was what the county health department off base does and regardless of location it can be very hard to impossible to get a job with the health department unless you have a masters minimum because you are just as qualified as that brand new college graduate as we don't fully get all of the experience that the health department off base gets due to the fact your average service member population is a lot healthier than your civilian population outside the gates. I'd be happy to give a specific example.

There are exceptions to what microcosm of society is healthier, experiences you had in the military, and what jobs people get when they leave the military. I will say though when I was stationed in Washington DC, their health department was busy tackling Hepatitis B and HIV, just to name a couple of huge problems while our biggest problem was, well I honestly don't remember but it was laughably small in comparison.
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