“The Invaluable Values that Veterans Convey into the Job Place” By Brianne Houck While military service can be, undoubtedly, demanding and require an inordinate amount of sacrifice; there certainly are benefits to serving in one of the branches of the United States Armed Forces - one of them being the universally-applicable attributes that are acquired. These attributes, which will be explicated further, are very desirable in a potential employee, as one can already imagine. For that reason (and others), many employers want to hire Veterans to be part of their workforce. Consequently, the Veteran unemployment rate in the United States perpetually decreased through 2019 amongst more than a decade prior in comparison (U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2020). In fact, per the U.S. Department of Labor (2020), 2019 had the lowest Veteran unemployment rate (3.1%) since the year 2000. Furthermore, despite 2020 being a year of precariousness and transition in the job market; many employers continue to have an affinity for hiring Veterans. So what are those valuable characteristics that Veterans will “bring to the table” in a civilian organization to assuredly bolster its performance?
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WWW.HomelandMagazine.com / October 2021
Below is a glimpse of just several of the reasons. First and foremost, Veterans are inarguably disciplined, as they had to be as a basic requirement for military service. From the first day of boot camp, service members are taught to not move (along with almost everything else perhaps with the exception of breathing) without command; to organize and maintain their barracks room in a particular manner; and to always appear in a pristine uniform with attention right down to every minute detail in how that uniform should appear (to maintain just that: the uniformity of the unit in appearance). And, this is just the beginning. Boot camp and the formative portion of military service really serve as an indoctrination for laying the foundation for what will be needed for the future, and part of the basis of that is discipline. This translates to a civilian job in that a former service member is going to pay very close attention to the details in what they need to do to get the job done and be meticulous, yet efficient about it. Furthermore, no one knows the criticality of punctuality quite like a Veteran. As many former service members can attest: To be early is to be on-time and to be on-time is to be late, as per military standards. To a civilian, the scrupulous attention to detail and high standards can almost seem pedantic; however, they impart the discipline that will be needed for that service member, which then, henceforth, follows them even after departure from military service.
