如何破解退伍老兵求职的军地沟通难题
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最近，有位年轻的海军退伍军人到美国电话电报公司（AT&T）去应聘。他在简历上称自己是“技师”。接待他的是克里斯•诺顿，他在该公司的头衔是“军事人才招募经理”。 “我开始向他提出一些较为深入的问题，得知这位应聘者曾经领导过一支由10位直升机技师组成的团队，并且管理过价值近2亿美元的装备，”诺顿说。诺顿本人也是一位参加过伊拉克战争的退伍军人，担任过16年的美国陆军军官，现在仍然是陆军后备役军人。他说：“他20岁出头就肩负起了所有这些职责，说明他具有出色的领导能力。但从他的简历上完全看不出这些。” “我们这些退伍军人不知道如何向雇主推销自己，”诺顿接着说。“我们也不知道应该如何看待自己的个人成就，因为军队里永远都是在强调团队。因此，应聘者和面试官说起话来往往是鸡同鸭讲。” 这种脱节是个大问题，而且可能会变得更加严重。在过去6个月里，有10万名军人从伊拉克回国，此外还有约9万名军人将在2014年底前撤离阿富汗。伊拉克和阿富汗战争时期的退伍军人的失业率从4月份的9%飙升到了5月份的接近13%。一年以来，年轻男性退伍军人（18至24岁）的失业率达到了惊人的29%。 难怪联邦政府会启动众多的计划来帮助回国的退伍军人寻找平民工作。美国政府的一个新举措是：到今年11月，国防部（the Department of Defense）将为所有的退伍人员提供一对一的培训，内容包括如何用非军事人员能够理解的语言来描述自己的经验。 这是个好主意。招聘网站Monster.com在去年进行的一项调查显示，77%的雇主说应聘者需要用招聘经理能够理解的语言来更好地描述他们的军事经验。非盈利调查组织新美国安全中心（Center for New American Security）最近的一份调查显示，60%的雇主把这种沟通上的差距视为扩大退伍军人招聘规模的最大障碍。 美国电话电报公司在克里斯•诺顿的监督下推出了自己的军事技能翻译器，一种可以把军事职业代码与该公司职位空缺一一对应的在线工具（Monster.com也推出了这类工具，所有雇主或猎头都可以使用）。但作为奥巴马政府退伍军人就业储备计划（Veterans Jobs Bank Program）的成员，美国电话电报公司所做的远不只如此。 比如，美国电话电报公司提供了Careers4Vets老兵就业培训计划，至少有700名近期退伍的军人已经从该公司的约200位员工那里得到了职业指导。这些员工以前也都是退伍军人。美国电话电报公司还赞助了“退伍军人人才网络”（Veterans Talent Network）计划，参加这个计划的退伍军人都可以收到有关职位空缺和招聘活动方面的简讯和短信。 |
When a young Navy veteran applied for a job at AT&T recently, he described himself on his resume as "a mechanic." Then he sat down with Chris Norton, whose title at the company is Military Talent Attraction Manager. "When I started to dig a little deeper and asked him some questions, it turned out that this candidate had led a team of 10 helicopter mechanics and was in charge of approximately $200 million worth of equipment," says Norton, himself an Iraq veteran with 16 years' experience as a U.S. Army officer who still serves in the Army Reserve. "All this responsibility placed on a person in his early 20s demonstrated great leadership ability. But you would never have known that from his resume. "We in the military are horrible at selling ourselves to employers," Norton adds. "We don't learn how to think of ourselves in terms of individual achievements, because the emphasis [in the military] is always on the team. So it's common for applicants and interviewers to be talking past each other." That disconnect is a big problem, and likely to get bigger. In addition to the 100,000 soldiers who have arrived home from Iraq in the past six months, about 90,000 more are due to return from Afghanistan by the end of 2014. In May, the unemployment rate for Iraq- and Afghanistan-era veterans jumped to almost 13%, up sharply from 9% in April. For young male vets, ages 18 to 24, the jobless rate has stood at a staggering 29% for over a year now. Small wonder, then, that the federal government is launching a plethora of programs designed to help returning vets find civilian jobs. One of Uncle Sam's new moves: By November, the Department of Defense will provide all departing military personnel with one-on-one coaching on how to describe their experience in terms that non-military types can grasp. Good idea. In a survey last year by Monster.com, 77% of employers said job seekers needed to do a better job translating their military experience into language that hiring managers recognize; and a new study by the nonprofit research group Center for New American Security reports that 60% of employers see the translation gap as the biggest obstacle to bringing more vets on board. On Chris Norton's watch, AT&T (T) has come up with its own military skills translator, an online tool for matching military occupational codes with job openings at the company. (Monster.comalso offers one that any employer or job hunter can use.) But the company, which is a member of the Obama Administration's Veterans Jobs Bank Program, has gone much further. For instance, AT&T offers Careers4Vets, a coaching program where at least 700 recent veterans have gotten career advice from about 200 AT&T employees who are veterans themselves. The company also sponsors a Veterans Talent Network where veterans can sign up for newsletters and text messages about job openings and events. |
