His job in the military brought New York native Joseph Rodriguez to North Carolina. The promise of a job outside the Army keeps the former infantryman here.
Since getting out of the military in 2004, Rodriguez has held a series of jobs. His last one ended in December, casting Rodriguez into the ranks of a segment of the population whose status most rankles the American public: unemployed recent combat veterans.
It’s a difficult job market for everyone, but veterans of the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq have had higher-than-average unemployment rates across the country. In some states, as many as 20 percent of post-9/11 vets are out of work.
They leave the military with a unique set of challenges and benefits. They’re relatively young and inexperienced at a time when the job market favors the seasoned. They may have physical and psychological injuries related to their service and combat deployments. They don’t always know how the skills they learned in the military can be used in the civilian workplace.
Frustrated to see people it regards as heroes marginalized, the nation has responded. Dozens of programs created by federal, state and local governments, veterans advocacy groups and interest by private businesses have cut the unemployment rate among vets of Gulf War II, a statistical category used by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics to describe those who served during either the Iraq War or the Afghanistan War. Joblessness among Gulf War II vets has fallen from 15.2 percent nationwide in January 2011 to 9.1 percent in January 2012.
“They have great skills,” said Edith Edmond, manager of the North Carolina Division of Employment Security’s JobLink Career Center in Fayetteville, N.C., which sees hundreds of ex-soldiers each week.
Edmond, who spent three years in the military herself, said veterans display exceptional teamwork, flexibility, self-discipline and leadership, and when something goes wrong on the job, “they can usually figure out a way,” Edmond said. “They just know how to make things happen.”
The one thing they don’t always know how to do, she said, is tell a potential employer what they have to offer.
“You speak a completely different language when you’re in,” Edmond said. “When you’re in the military and you see someone in their Class A uniform, you know their rank, how successful they’ve been, what field they’re in and about how many years they’ve done it. You know things about them that most people wouldn’t know after a 30-minute conversation.
“Now that you’re out of the uniform, you have to learn to enunciate those things. That requires some transitioning.”
Each Monday, JobLink workers start a new four-day class on post for Fort Bragg soldiers who have begun the process of getting out.
Workshops, part of the congressionally mandated Army Career and Alumni Program, include mock interviews, resume preparation and advice on where to search for jobs. Attendance at the classes has been on the rise, with recent sessions drawing about 200 people each. With the war over in Iraq, combat winding down in Afghanistan, and force reductions in the offing, Edmond expects the classes to continue to grow.
Through the program’s office and website, service members also have access to job listings and information about job fairs and other training and benefits.
Still, some aren’t satisfied with their resumes and seek professional help in crafting one that stands out.
Sam Valle started his Fayetteville business, South Dixie Consulting, about two years ago and now produces about 300 resumes a year, he said. About 80 percent of his clients are ex-military whose resumes are circulating but are getting no hits.
Valle said that’s usually because the resume is too general.
“They’re just doing their job every day. They’re not analyzing it,” Valle said. “They get so wrapped up in the job they don’t really know how to say what they do.”
Some military jobs – medic, military police, mechanic – may translate directly into the civilian job market. In others, soldiers focus on one task, such as supply and logistics, but may gather a litany of other skills along the way, such as personnel and inventory management, IT and quality control, all marketable in a range of civilian workplaces, Valle said.
The U.S. Department of Labor recently launched a feature on its website called “My Next Move” that similarly helps veterans find civilian equivalents for their military skills.
“It’s not that they can’t get jobs,” Valle said. “It’s that they’re not presenting themselves to the fullest extent possible.”
At the same time, some aspects of a soldier’s career may be best left off a resume, Valle said. Unless the veteran is applying for a job with a contractor that provides security for overseas diplomats, for instance, combat experience is probably irrelevant.
Joseph Rodriguez lives in Fayetteville, near his last post at Fort Bragg. He recently attended a government-sponsored job fair that drew hundreds of veterans and spouses to talk with about 80 potential employers.
While many former military gravitate toward public service jobs such as police, firefighting and corrections, Rodriguez wants to try something different. His one regret about the seven years he spent in the Army is that he didn’t serve anywhere but infantry.
“I tell young people, ‘If you’re going to go into the military, do something that you can do when you get out,’ ” said Rodriguez, 38.
Complicating the job search for Rodriguez and many of his comrades are the injuries he sustained during his service. Rodriguez deployed to Afghanistan, Bosnia and, in 2004, Iraq, where an improvised explosive device blew up in his face. He has back and knee injuries that make it difficult for him to walk or stand all day, and he’s been diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder, which he blames for memory problems he never had before.
In North Carolina, where many business owners or managers are former military, potential employers are sensitive to the difficulties of veterans, Rodriguez said. Even so, he said, when he applies for jobs, “I tell them I’m a disabled vet, but I don’t tell them what my injuries are.”
Some companies specifically want veterans.
Raleigh-based Baker Roofing, the nation’s third-largest roofing company, recently launched a three-year apprenticeship program through which it hopes to groom future managers. While the program is open to anyone, company recruiter Brendan Hale is doing his best to get soon-to-be-ex-military to apply.
“Character is a big deal for us,” Hale said. “And the discipline is a huge part of why we want to hire veterans. Being able to show up on time, doing what you say you’re going to do. And many veterans are computer-savvy. They could be future estimators. Or they may have actual general construction knowledge.
“They’ve had years of exposure to systems, and construction is a system-based industry, so a lot of those skills transfer well.”
Eventually, Baker Roofing would like to have up to 10 apprentices at a time based in Raleigh and two to four more in each of its 12 locations across the Southeast. Through the program, approved through the N.C. Department of Labor, apprentices will get paid while they earn 6,000 hours of on-the-job training, during which they may also be eligible for support through the GI Bill. Each apprentice is expected to attend a class one Saturday a month as well.
Roofing is physical, challenging work, and not everyone who tries it will stick with it through cold winter mornings and hot summer afternoons. Through the apprenticeship program, the company will find out who has the demeanor for the work and the aptitude for management in Baker’s commercial, residential, restoration or renewable energy divisions.
Brett Beaber thinks he does.
Beaber, 26, has been in the Marine Corps Reserves for eight years. In that job, he’s known as a “Red Patcher,” one of a team that attaches a payload to the hook dangling from a helicopter hovering overhead.
While he was on a yearlong deployment to Iraq in 2006, his dad sold the family’s communications cabling company, where Beaber had been working. When Beaber got back, he and his brother started a similar company of their own, but their business dried up when the economy soured. They had to close last summer.
To his surprise, Beaber said, it took him six months to find another job – the position at Baker, which he heard about through a Marine buddy.
He thinks he’ll stay. Like in the military, his co-workers are a diverse crew: some older and more experienced, some closer to his age, some from Vietnam and Mexico. Now a sergeant in the Reserves, he’s had a chance to do desk work. But he found he’d rather be outside, as he was a couple of weeks ago on a job in Raleigh, even if it’s 30 feet off the ground replacing metal sheathing on a roof that got ripped off by a tornado.
“It’s tough for anybody to find a job right now,” Beaber said. “It’s nice to find a company that’s specifically trying to find veterans. I definitely like it. The more I learn, the happier I am, and I’m learning something every day.”
