I can still tie a tie.
Yesterday, I put on a suit and some freshly polished dress shoes, and shot out the door with a stack of resumes in hand.
An hour's drive north of me was a Hiring Our Heroes job fair event on JBLM (Joint Base Lewis-McChord). This was day two of a two-day event focused on helping active duty service members, their families, and veterans find suitable employment.
Today's portion was the main event. They filled an entire aircraft hangar with representatives from dozens organizations looking to fill jobs. Any remaining space was filled with job seekers. It was packed!
For someone who is a bit introverted, stepping into that hangar was like standing at the base of a mountain and looking at the summit 14,000+ feet up and suddenly wondering did I prepare well enough? Am I wearing the right shoes? Oh no. Did I even put shoes on??
It's fine. Everything's fine.
Taking a deep breath I stepped into the maelstrom, snaking my way through tables and circling the room at least once before engaging with the first recruiter. Or maybe they engaged me? Anyways, that was enough to break the ice and get me a little more comfortable.
Well, I ended up chatting with folks across government agencies at the state, local, and federal levels, and talked with company recruiters from from tons of different industries - energy, finance, trades, tech, law enforcement, education, security, and so much more.
I even ran ran into some veteran friends like Douglas White, SHRM-CP, PHR (U.S. Bank) and Jared Wood - LSSBB, SPHR (Washington Veterans Employee Resource Group (VERG)) who are doing superb things for their organizations and the veteran community.
After three hours of walking and talking, I was exhausted. My feet hurt. My back hurt. Even my throat hurt. Pretty happy with the way it all turned out though. Made some great contacts and got some great leads.
Now after doing more in-person socializing in the past 48 hours than I have in the past 48 months (kidding mostly), I'm now spending the day – seemingly writing this really long post (sorry and thanks if you got this far!) – and sending out follow-up emails to recruiters.
#Veteran #HiringOurHeroes #operations #opentowork #jobfair #humanresources #communications
Director of Investigations-Program Manager/Sr. Investigator/Personnel Security Specialist
3moI guess it was great if you were able to get in. Unfortunately there were many people who stood in line for over 2 hours and could not get in and were told they were at capacity. Perhaps next time there could be a pre-screening for candidates and a limited number of entry tickets. I feel like there were many GREAT Candidates that were lost due to the waiting in line for 2-3 hours and to only find out they could not get into the building.