National Hire a Veteran Day is July 25

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Every year, nearly 200,000 military members either retire or leave the military, according to the Department of Labor. Veterans have unique skills that benefit any workplace, but finding work is often a challenge for them.

July 25 is National Hire a Veteran Day, a day to encourage businesses and corporations to take a look at veterans for open positions. Blake Quinlan, owner of a local employment recruitment firm, explained challenges the veterans face, why veterans make excellent workers and the best ways to attract veterans to particular fields.

“One of the best ways to do that is putting into your job postings or your ads you’re putting up as an employer, ‘Veterans welcome to apply.’ You can put that in the body or even in the job title just to create additional awareness around that. There are free resources for employers to be able to target veterans and to get them back into the workforce and utilize their skills,” Quinlan said.

There is not a direct correlation from the military world to the civilian world for a lot of the positions, according to Quinlan. “I was talking to a veteran today who was an engineer in the military, and he got into sales once he got out, and his mindset was that ‘I know I can do anything.’ There are so many opportunities out there,” Quinlan said.

Discipline is a great skill veterans bring into the workforce. In the military, they don’t have an option about whether to perform a task or not; their mindset tends to center around the idea that this is something that they are going to do. “Having worked with several veterans over the years, their ability to get things done is incredible. Their ability to inspire and to motivate their teams to another level is phenomenal,” Quinlan said.

“One of the things I recommend is typing the word ‘veteran jobs’ into whatever search engine you want and starting there,” Quinlan said.

Blake Quinlan, Owner, Express Employment Professionals Scottsdale

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