What I learned when I attended a "veterans job fair"

Recently, I saw a Facebook ad for a veterans hiring event here in San Diego, and it caught my attention. This was promoted as a big event, not like the run-of-the-mill job fairs that pop-up for veterans routinely. This was in a big venue, and boasted a large group of vendors. I immediately wanted to check it out. I am not on the job market, exactly the opposite actually. But I wanted to use this as an opportunity to network with some hiring folks, and corporate recruiters.

What I found when I entered the arena was, well, underwhelming; and then it became even more disappointing. My goal was connect with recruiters and hiring managers from industries that I know really value military talent; like manufacturing, technology, supply chain and logistics, renewable energy, utilities, construction, etc. These are the industries that I work with on a daily basis that contact me asking for help finding top-notch candidates. So, I figured I'd head on down and make some networking connections. What I found didn't live up to my expectations, but I it also didn't live up to the advertisement either.

Now I want to preface that I know it takes a lot of hard work and coordination to put on an event like this. Before working in the recruiting world, I spent a lot of time working in the non-profit veterans services environment. There is a lot of blood, sweat, tears and most importantly passion that goes into organizing, planning and executing an event like this. But this is what I found when I entered the arena. At least 60% of the tables spread around the arena were not manned by companies with jobs. They were veteran services. All of them are important, and play a role in the well-being and holistic wellness of veterans. These are organizations (no-names) that deal with veteran's benefits, veterans with disabilities, wellness, veterans' social clubs, veterans' employment services, and other similar services. There were also colleges and some technical trade schools, eagerly ready to help the veteran utilize their GI Bill benefits. There were also the police, highway patrol, border patrol and similar departments. And, in fairness there were about six or seven tables that had open and active jobs that were being recruited for by someone in an HR capacity.

I wondered what message was being received by veteran job seekers. I tried to go back to that mental state and remember my transition period out of the Navy. It was frustrating. There's not a positive message there, but there is also not a lot of viable opportunities at events like these. It should come as no surprise that attendance from job seeking veterans was pretty paltry as well. I felt bad for both the job seekers that came expecting a wealth of opportunities, but also the few recruiters there representing companies with legitimate jobs sitting often bored behind a tablecloth and brochures.

Ultimately, it makes me so proud and grateful to be a part of Lucas Group. What we do is legitimate, impactful, quantifiable change for companies and for veteran job seekers. One key reason that we are successful, and we provide success to our clients and candidates, is that we talk about our candidates not as veterans, but as military talent, because that's what they are. It is a subtle but important distinction. Companies in a variety of industries recognize that there are a lot of skills and experiences that come with hiring military talent, and they use us to make connections and tap into our candidate network. And I love that. No, we are not in the non-profit world. Our service comes with a price for our clients, and those companies make a great business decision when they work with us. We don't do job fairs, but we do organize hiring conferences where we invite our clients to come with their open jobs, and they interview our top, qualified candidates. We screen and match them up ahead of time based off of pre-discussed criteria. It works. Every year we make several hundred matches, connecting our candidates to great, high paying, full-time careers. And the companies we work with; our clients, they get a talented, hard-working, game-changer on their team.

No disrespect whatsoever to the kind and dedicated folks that organize the community job fair, but my recent experience at one solidified for me that we're doing the best work here at Lucas Group in the Military Transition division. #LucasGroup #LifeatLucas #Lucasgroupmilitary #militarytransition

Chad Lozier, Senior Executive Search Consultant, Lucas Group Military