Hiring Military Veterans Can Help Ease Tech Talent Crunch
This largely untapped talent pool has both tech experience and the soft skills employers value.
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Not exactly a channel company, but TrainOurTroops has been working with the channel for many years. If they look familiar, it’s probably because you’ve seen them at the last several Channel Partners Conference & Expos. Thanks to their long-time sponsor, Granite, as well as Cisco, Datagate, Lifecycle Insights, NinjaOne and RAC Financial.
TrainOurTroops’ mission is to provide U.S. veterans and their spouses with skill sets that enable them to start a brand-new career or simply make themselves more valuable in the careers they have already chosen.
Pictured here are (left to right): Rico (in the shades) and Glen Brynteson (in the blue shirt) of TrainOurTroops and Cisco’s Michelle Ragusa-McBain and Tony Clough.
Speaking of Cisco, their Talent Bridge for Veterans is a free job-matching platform connecting veterans with Cisco’s channel partner ecosystem. A military skills translation tool helps employers find qualified candidates. The platform is open to veterans, military spouses, transitioning service members, reservists and National Guard members who meet specific education or work experience criteria.
AWS partners with government and veterans’ organizations to help veterans find employment. They have created a number of programs focused on providing employment resources, educational access and wellness programs to help veterans transition to civilian employment after leaving the military.
Amazon committed to hiring 25,000 military veterans and spouses, many of whom joined AWS. In addition, the AWS military commitment included providing 10,000 active-duty service members, military veterans and spouses with training through the AWS Educate program. That training provides them with a path to AWS certification.
Amazon also partners with TrainOurTroops on a series of global military recruiting events including webinars, training and virtual hiring fairs.
Microsoft offers full-time, 17-week training program to help military veterans learn critical skills for the tech industry. The certification program is provided free of cost to the veteran through the Microsoft Software and Systems Academy (MSSA). It prepares students for careers in cloud application development or server and cloud administration. Program graduates are given the opportunity to interview for a full-time job with Microsoft or one of its hiring partners.
More than 90% of students graduate from MSSA and to date, more than 750 Microsoft hiring partners have hired MSSA graduates.
Salesforce offers the Trailhead Military program through its Salesforce Military. Available to military veterans and their spouses, Trailhead offers free training, certification and career opportunities with Salesforce partners.
The virtual, self-paced program is designed to help veterans launch a career in tech. Certification is available in six curated paths: administrator, architect, consultant, designer, developer and marketer.
Bill Hewlett (right) was an officer in the Army Signal Corps during World War II. David Packard (left) spent three years as deputy secretary of defense during the Nixon administration. In honor of their founders’ service to the military, HPE runs several programs for veterans. Every business unit has a veteran recruiter who works to match veterans and their spouses with the right opportunity at HPE. The company has a Veteran Employee Resource Network (VERN) and the company’s benefit package includes VetAdvisor Services for veterans and their families.
Bill Hewlett (right) was an officer in the Army Signal Corps during World War II. David Packard (left) spent three years as deputy secretary of defense during the Nixon administration. In honor of their founders’ service to the military, HPE runs several programs for veterans. Every business unit has a veteran recruiter who works to match veterans and their spouses with the right opportunity at HPE. The company has a Veteran Employee Resource Network (VERN) and the company’s benefit package includes VetAdvisor Services for veterans and their families.
For the tech industry, hiring military veterans should be a no-brainer. Competition for tech talent is fierce. Most veterans have worked with technology in some capacity during their military career. In addition, they have soft skills that employers value.
The military instills the values of obedience, loyalty and honesty in their personnel. Teamwork and collaboration are paramount in military operations. Veterans can be counted on to be reliable, adept at performing well under pressure, focused on problem-solving and able to meet deadlines.
In October 2021, the veteran unemployment rate was 4.2%, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. The comparable non-veteran unemployment rate for that month was 4.6%. Still, veterans represent an essentially untapped talent pool. More than 200,000 men and women leave the military and reenter civilian life each year. Their technology experience and soft skills make them particularly well-suited to careers in tech.
And that fact hasn’t gone unnoticed in the industry. Click through the gallery above to learn about some of the companies in the channel who have focused efforts on hiring military veterans. Hopefully you’ll be inspired to do something similar.
Want to contact the author directly about this story? Have ideas for a follow-up article? Email Buffy Naylor or connect with her on LinkedIn. |
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