Military life is challenging in countless ways, but the last great challenge faced by most men and women in uniform is the transition to civilian life.
That is why many of the 75 businesses that converged on Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst for the annual Hiring Our Heroes Career Day last week brought with them reassuring messages about the programs they offer, which are designed to ease the transition for those about to end their military careers.
“Transition from military life to civilian can be very challenging,” said Frederick Ward, senior military talent liaison for Wells Fargo, from the floor of the hiring fair that highlighted the afternoon portion of the Career Day. Ward served 20 years in the Marines. “We have one of the largest teams dedicated to hiring military in the country, and we have training and apprenticeship programs that can ease the transition burden.”
These programs include a Veteran Employment Transition Program where high-performing veterans participate in eight weeks of training that can get them assigned to midlevel and senior-level positions; a Corporate Fellowship Program where active-duty personnel within six months of leaving the military complete a 12-week apprenticeship; and a “Homefront Heroes Hiring Program,” which consists of hybrid and remote positions specifically targeted for hiring military spouses.
Like most of the companies at the job fair, Wells Fargo needs talent that transcends typical banking jobs.
“We have lines of business that need engineering, IT professionals, security and property management,” Ward said.
More than 200 job seekers — active-duty military, veterans and their spouses — visited the various company tables at the job fair prepared with a résumé and a concise verbal presentation of their skills and accomplishments, courtesy of workshops conducted by Hiring Our Heroes earlier in the day.
John Perez was one of the team at the Johnson & Johnson table. Perez is director of strategy and stakeholder development, U.S. government affairs. He and his colleagues were there to discuss J&J’s programs for military hiring and ease-of-transition.
“We expose our veterans to a variety of roles in the company,” Perez said, “based on their experience and their responsibilities in the military.”
J&J’s flagship programs are the Military Veteran Leadership Development Program and the Experienced Military Veteran Leadership Program — two different programs targeted to an applicant’s level of experience, after which, participants in both programs will be eligible to graduate into full-time roles.
At the Merck table, Johnnie Walker, the company’s global talent acquisition veteran hiring lead, spoke with dozens of prospective employees during the afternoon. Walker served 25 years in the Marines.
“We want to make Merck a destination point for military and veterans,” said Walker, who noted his son John, who was also manning the Merck table, was a military hire and currently serves as an operations manager at the company.
“We have hired 3,700 veterans,” Walker said. “We participate in programs like Skillbridge and we help active-duty personnel make the transition in many ways, one of which is to help them translate their military accomplishments for business consumption.”
Skillbridge, which J&J also offers, is an industry internship that gives veterans real-world experience working at a company before being hired there.
Walker noted Merck has a Veterans Leadership Group, which assists in hiring veterans and helps them get acclimated to the corporate culture when they are hired.
“We know military hires bring with them strong work experience, as well as dedication, discipline, and strong leadership skills,” Walker said.
Among the companies at the job fair were major corporations such as GE, Lockheed Martin, Prudential, RWJBarnabas Health, Southwest Airlines, Verizon and Walmart. Also on hand were security and information technology firms, law enforcement and first responder agencies.