What is Operation Grateful Nation?

#OpGr8Nation

Operation Grateful Nation is a Beyond SOF hiring initiative that is available between now and Jan 1, 2021 with the purpose of moving as many of our candidates and under/unemployed veterans into as many jobs as possible before the Holiday Season. We are doing so by cutting our pricing by 75% and opening up our databases, resources, and most importantly our Team for current customers as well as anyone willing to hire. Our goal is to get over 100 veterans hired by Thanksgiving and over 500 by Jan 1, 2021.

We manage over 22,000 veteran profiles, most with security clearances and many are some of the most skilled and specialized Service Members in the World.

To move this initiative, we are offering $1000 program referral payouts to those who successfully share Operation Grateful Nation with companies hiring. Should there be no referral Beyond SOF will donate this portion to a veterans' charity of your choice.

We are adding in an additional bonus for companies who take part in the program. Companies taking part in Operation Grateful Nation who refer other organizations to take part, will have one candidate acceptance fee (similar to placement fee) waived per referral. This is to maximize the opportunity for hiring firms and our candidates.

Who is Beyond SOF?: Founded in 2011, Beyond SOF is a staffing and placement firm that has been placing veterans into Federal and commercial jobs. Originally, it focused on Special Operations Service Members and Veterans. Nearly 10 years later, the company has expanded its hiring to support veteran hiring into additional markets such as Cleared and Commercial IT, Federal and State Law Enforcement, Protective Security, and Federally or Commercially funded advanced technology.

How does Operation Grateful Nation work? This hiring campaign, branded under the hashtag #OpGr8Nation, is an incentive based veteran hiring program focused on rapidly providing qualified vets to open positions nationwide and globally, over the next several weeks

1. Companies sign up on our program with the attached contract.

2. Next, they send us the links to the job descriptions they would like filled and we start providing veteran resumes who meet or exceed the job requirements

3. Companies interview the candidates and hire the ones they prefer

4. The hired veterans write us a testimonial and prepare to go to work for the company

5. Both the company and the hired vet promote Operation Grateful Nation to close associates and peers so we can continue the initiative

See the Operation Grateful Nation contract here. We cut our pricing by 75% to meet smaller companies' budgets.

Current or Potential Job Candidate? What you need to know

First Impressions:

During the pandemic have you been growing or not growing (as in "depreciating")?  Take time the time to look at what your current "optics" are as compared to you during your prime "production" or "purpose" phase and 'get back there.' It was when you were at your best, and it was that way for several reasons.. One of which was very likely your 'presence'. Think about setting the alarm 15 minutes earlier each day until you are back where you were. Haircut/Saloon, Shave/Nails.. again, this isn't judging-it's where you were right-wrong-indifferent.. I say that because society has changed. For better? Worse? Either way this gives you the baseline and a starting point of where YOU were at your peak. (Total invested time in yourself? 15 min a day until ready)

Conversation:

Take a news article, literature, or op-ed and record yourself reading aloud. Play it back. How would you rate yourself? Save that audio file. Do it again and again until you like what you hear. Let someone else listen to the last one-ask them what they think.. then let them listen to the first one. That will be both the metric and true confidence differentiator. Do this exercise occasionally. This is Conversational Optics and it is as, if not more important, than visual or non-verbal as it proves "Judge not a book by its cover" (Total time invested in yourself? 15 min a month)

Social Media:

What do you look like online? Ask a parent or guardian figure to look thru your social media.. then ask them if they would hire you. Listen to them as to why or why not.. they are likely the same age as your supervisor's boss. Is your impulsive opinion on something after only reading the headline and not researching the source worth risking the first impression for how you would fit in the next organization you want to work for? (Total time invested in yourself? 15 min a quarter-90 days)

Resume:

You get what you pay for.. meaning in this case, your time and your focus.. If you put together a resume with little interest, little research or critique, it shows. Hiring managers go through over a 1,000 resumes a year, they can smell a solid candidate, just from structure before they even get into the material. Find someone who you know and is, in your eyes, more successful (best if that person is in the field you are pursuing). Look at their resume. Ask why they built it that way. Most importantly, look at your resume against theirs and ask yourself 'why' yours does not look like theirs.. Write down why you think that is. Then go to the owner/mentor of the resume you chose and present your resume, their resume, and your notes. The information exchange that happens next will change your life: Outlook, Rationale, Growth.. You will learn with not just your resume, but in Life.. it's not what to do.. It's what successful people do NOT do or avoid.. (Total time invested in yourself? 2 hours a year)

Interview: 

If you want a normal interview, do the normal (online-what the internet suggests) prep. If you want to own the outcome of the interview, set up a challenge. For introverts, just outside your comfort zone.. for extroverts a full blown roast.. Organizationally, we do this already with our pre-interview sessions so that the candidate is in a quite place, good phone signal, no appointments right after to worry about, not in their car or travelling, suit and or tie, and a review of their screening answers to the min requirements. Those are the basics. Basics get you a passing grade, intrepidity gets you a reputation..

• Phone/VoIP interview: ask a parent, parent figure, or critical peer (NOT at your current job, LOL) to interview you. Let them create the questions (element of surprise) and make sure that they still ask you to address the minimum or desired requirements. Your answers should not just include what you have done in the past that shows your qualified (Basic), but what you are doing now and work with the firm interviewing you, on your ideas as it relates to their goals, for the future. (How would I determine that?) Yes, great question.. 80% of the candidates we do pre-interviews with have not even visited the hiring company's web site.. 92% have not reviewed the company's capabilities brief, current clients, leadership on LinkedIn, to see how they fit, what they can bring to the table, or if they even like/know what direction the company is going (Intrepidity) (Total time invested in yourself? 2 hours per change of jobs)
• Video/In-Person interview: all above+. Many people initially deal with video or in-person interviews, the same way they deal with a police officer who just pulled them over..why? Because you are about to be judged on what you did/are doing. It's that simple. This is why preparation is important because THAT is the difference between a normal interview (normal being a gamble between good or bad) and owning the interview. It is no different for wait staff at a restaurant to a major Vice President position at a Fortune 50 company.. (Total time invested in yourself? 2 hours per change of jobs + how much you want it)

Preparation determines the outcome. How prepared? Simple: Do you feel prepared? If no, figure out what topic worries you and research/tackle it. If yes, ask what else have I not thought about and explore. Remember, there is no such thing as over-prepared.. just look at your insurance policies-there is one page for what is covered, 40 pages for what is NOT. (Total time to you, for you, by you? Avg 12 hours a year)

Let us know what you think of the article/blog post and if there is anything you would like to ask or add, email us at [email protected]

How to promote:

Share our postings and use the hashtag #OpGr8Nation. in those postings, tag companies or peers who are hiring

Optional ways companies can promote and receive more incentives:

Make a list of 10 organizations/peers that you have a relationship that you think might be hiring vets and providing the name and contact email and phone number to them

Format: Point of Contact(POC)- Their Company Name- POC email- POC phone number

We will then reach out and say that you recommended that we ask them if they are currently hiring

We email them a brief but complete overview and CC you to check interest..

Should they be interested in the program- we walk them through sign up, get their priority job list (which they want to hire first) and provide them a recruiter point of contact.

The retained portion of the deal is invoiced and due Net 5 days from signing. When the client pays we provide the payout to you or a charity of choice.