Weekly webex to help answer your questions.

In recent weeks I have had veterans reach out to me via email and social media, primarily LinkedIn, asking for assistance with employment, either at CVS Health or for general advice. In order to try and help as many of you as I can Kandi Tillman and I piloted Transition Tips Tuesday last week. It was something we put together last minute. Over 70 people registered for the event and almost 50 people attended.

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What is Transition Tips Tuesday?

Every Tuesday at 12pm ET we will feature a 1-hour discussion session where we will share a few tips based on our experience helping veterans and military spouses and then we will open it up to answer questions. While many of the questions in the first event focused on CVS Health the intent is to help veterans more broadly and in the future we will be inviting recruiters from other companies to share their tips. Kandi and I recognize that there are lots of people who can help members of the military community and our intent is to help you connect with as many as possible during these Tuesday discussions.

Who can attend?

While we will address many issues specific to service members and veterans in transition, we will answer questions for anyone from the military community that attends.

How do I attend?

Each event has its own registration. The following information will be updated as new events are added. Anyone who registers will be sent a reminder email the day of the event.

7 April 2020 (12-1pmET): Thanks to those who joined!

14 April 2020 (12-1pmET): https://cvs.webex.com/cvs/onstage/g.php?MTID=e2c0343bf9c4b454f70da96e275c61728

21 April 2020 (12-1pmET): https://cvs.webex.com/cvs/onstage/g.php?MTID=e9f4264c0c4a506410f668632ed7112c4

28 April 2020 (12-1pmET): https://cvs.webex.com/cvs/onstage/g.php?MTID=e044668a498e244dcb11cea2ed0c2db99

Here are some of the questions we discussed March 31st

Will CVS become part of the DoD Skillbridge Program?

• CVS Health currently is using SkillBridge/Army Career Skills Program to connect with transitioning service members at Fort Bragg, Norfolk Naval Base and Schofield Barracks.

Will CVS partner with Hiring our Heroes Corporate Fellowship Program?

• We are already a partner and use this partnership to expand to other bases where we currently do not have an agreement with the military to provide our own SkillBridge program.

I am very seriously looking into the Skillbridge program but would like to work in a specific geographical location where there isn’t anything showing up for the program. What is the first step to get a company to “sponsor” me from that area?

• HOH has a remote option. Check out their website for more information.

What advice do you have for service members who are rapidly being discharged. Many go before a med-board and then are out of the military within 4 months or so. Any tips on how to quickly find their Why? 

• Find a mentor on Veterati.

Some of the other resources we discussed:

Transition Programs

• Centurion Military Alliance
• The Commit Foundation
• Corporate America Supports You
• Hire Heroes USA

Mentorship Programs

• Veterati – great to find people for a 1 hour discussion
• American Corporate Partners – This is a 1 year program that can help you connect with someone at a company where you have an interest in working or when you have a specific career field in mind.

SkillBridge Programs

• Check out the DoD SkillBridge website for companies providing training programs. These programs focus on career paths where the company has many openings.
• Hire Our Heroes is also a path to connect with SkillBridge programs. These tend to be lower volume opportunities.
• Other organizations helping connect veterans with these opportunities include HireMilitary and Shift.org

Onward to Opportunity – This is a program run by the Institute for Veterans and Military Families which provides training programs in HR, Customer Service, Project Management and other areas where you can earn credentials to help you be more competitive for a job.