Get Your Students Hired
Many veterans return home without having an industry-specific professional networking plan; what are some ways to guide the veteran student population to become network active?
Gil, it looks like your campuses do a great job at helping the veteran understand the IT industry. Has your campus partnered with specific corporations who are willing to interview and hire your graduates? I believe a key piece of putting our veterans to work is the creation of hiring pipelines that link specific degrees with corporations who understands the graduate who has that specific degree and knows what they can bring to corporate America. Does your school take your placement to that level? Do you think there is something additional that could be done to help the veteran get to work?
Adam, it sounds like your school has put a lot of resources into play to help the veteran highlight their abilities and experience. Does your placement office have a way to overtly "get the veteran's foot in the door" of key corporations? From my own transition a few years ago, I struggled to find the right companies to approach and often many of the jobs were unadvertised. How do you advise your students to find these unadvertised positions?
Our campuses deliver Vocational / Technical training primarily, specific to the computer and networking industry. We use role playing and workshops that are run through our career services center on each of our campuses to help veteran students understand specifics of the technology industry at large, and also to focus on vendor specific scnarios based on a chosen track, or course of study.
These will typically include mock intervieiwing training, resume writing, job search skills, etc...
We also provide a resource package to all students, tailored by program of study, that will highlight community resources that they need to be aware of and interacting with such as local user groups, trade organizations, internet sites, and conferences that will be valueable networking and skill building opportunties.
We have a dedicated carrer services office within each of our campuses that has a representative specifically designated to work with veterans. This person is a veteran themselves, and as a result is able to connect with our veteran students, speak their language, and understand their concerns and issues in ways that a non-veteran is unable to do.
These reprsentatives run a series of workshops and mini-classes for our veteran students designed to provide them with a series of " how -to " solutions:
1. resume writing
2. social networking 101 ( the basics of the social network landscape )
3. social networking 102 ( business focused )
4. how to job hunt on the internet
5. what is your local support network
6. interviewing 101 ( the basics of how to survive an interview )
7. interviewing 102 ( how do I survive a technical interview )