 to American Veterans and I'm joined today by Rob Lugie. He's the International Employment Director for DAV and we're here to talk about all things employment program and why this is such a good time for job seekers. So if you are a veteran transitioning service member, military spouse, you want to tune in if you're looking for a job or if you know someone who fits that bill. Rob, thank you for joining us. My pleasure of course. Can you start by talking about some of the resources, employment resources that DAV offers in particular job fairs? You bet. So when someone goes to jobs.dav.org and they hit our landing page, you'll see a host of different resources and tabs. We have resources for not only veterans, but we have it for employers as well because we feel it's important for employers to understand how to engage with veterans. So through our website you can do a job search using a veteran centric job board that has over 400,000 jobs on it at this time. There are all jobs listed by employers who are seeking military sauce skills. All the veterans possess one when we get out. You can also create your resume, both civilian and federal. You can talk to mentors if you're in a particular industry where you need to do that. There's also entrepreneurial information for those that have an idea and want to bring it to fruition and start their own business. We also have education tab where individuals can learn about part of their benefits and education benefits, whether it's post-911 GI bill or the veteran readiness and employment program. That's just a few of the things we have on the website. That's a lot. It is. Yeah, and maybe the most exciting is job fairs, the DAV job fairs. It is, it is. We stood up the program in its current form back in June of 2014 and one of the things we realized, the leadership actually realized was we needed to have more direct contact with veterans and their spouses. Spouses are a big part of what we do. We want to ensure that they're taken care of as well. We engaged with a company that does this professionally. They do logistics and the analytics and everything, and that's recruit military. Very great company. We've had a great relationship with them over the seven and a half years that we've been with them. They do a fantastic job. Job fairs are a big part, not only in-person job fairs, but virtual job fairs. We had to pivot like everybody else in America in March of 2020. We went to the virtual platform and that still allowed separating service members, guardsmen, reservists, veterans, and their spouses to engage with employers on that particular platform. We're very excited about job fairs and they're a very, very useful tool for any former military person or a spouse to engage with veteran-friendly employers. You've said before we talked about how this is a good time for job seekers. Can you tell me kind of what you meant by that and how they can take advantage of this time? Well, what we've seen is, I call it the COVID cocoon, so we're still not out of it all the way. We're slipping out of that cocoon more and more, I think, every month as we go by. So when we started re-engaging with veterans in-person job fairs in June of last year, what we realized was there was still a lot of employers that wanted veteran talent. And then what we really saw was every other business in Main Street America having a sign saying that they're hiring. So it's not about not getting a job or being able to get a job. It's about getting meaningful employment, obtaining that opportunity for your next career. So we have found that most employers are really hungry for talent. A lot of folks, they stopped engaging with the work environment and because of COVID, they were taking care of their families and taking care of their homes and doing all those things. And then you had a lot of remote work opportunities that were popping up because that was how corporate America pivoted as well. And now we're starting to see employers re-engaging in-person job fairs more aggressively. So right now, I tell all of the service members and spouses when I attend events and do a pre-event that they have the leverage. Right now, the job seeker has the leverage you're going to get. There's a good possibility you're going to be able to get additional PTO, sign-on bonuses, all kinds of things that you wouldn't normally see in the work environment when you're applying. I have a feeling that not too far in the future, the pendulum will swing a little bit. And I think the employers will then have the leverage because there'll be more people entering the job market. And when you do that, the competition gets a little stiffer. So right now is a prime opportunity to go out there. If you're a veteran or a spouse and you're looking for your next mission or your next career, right now is the time to engage with employers either virtually in-person at the job fairs because right now you're going to benefit. You really, really are. So going back to the in-person job fairs, you go to a lot of these about weekly. Tell us what the environment is like and what people can expect from those. You know, we ensure as title sponsors of all the in-person job fairs that recruit military sponsors, that they put together, we title sponsor them. We ensure it's a professional environment. We want, but it's a relaxed environment. It's not an uptight environment. A majority of the vendors or exhibitors there, their representatives are veterans themselves. So their veteran liaison reps, veteran recruiters, things like that. So they can engage with their fellow veterans more easily than someone who didn't serve in the military. But the environment is professional. It's relaxed. The exhibitors are really wanting to engage with these individuals on a one-on-one basis, even if it's only for a minute or two. We think in-person job fairs are vital in the employment space for veterans. And I actually prefer those over the virtual environment because I think you can't, you cannot shake hands. You can't engage and look at someone's mannerisms when you're talking to them. One of the things I find in-person job fairs is veterans aren't used to applying for jobs. Most of us joined the military when we were 18 out of high school. So we never had to apply. Whether you do four or 24 years in the military, you're not accustomed to building resume, dressing for success, having your elevator pitch. All of those things that we coach you to do when you come to an in-person job fair. So I prefer in-person job fairs. They are growing. We're starting to see more and more exhibitors, attendees events. So coming out of that cocoon, that COVID cocoon, I think corporate America is doing the same thing. So in-person job fairs are a vital part of what we offer to veterans and their spouses with employment resources. You mentioned before that the employers are specifically looking for the soft skills that people come out of the military with. Can you talk a little bit more about those skills? Sure. So in the military, you know, you're taught to work independently as part of a team. You're taught integrity, discipline. The old saying in the military, if you weren't 10 minutes earlier, five minutes late, and I'll tell you every employer in America loves that, whether they are military-oriented or not, because I ask employers, I go around being in-person job fairs, and I talk to them, of course, and I'll say what's the most important thing for you. And they'll say, I want my employees to show up on time every day. I can take care of them from there, but I need them to show up on time. So those are some of the soft skills. Also being able to work under pressure and being able to make good decisions quickly to assess the needs. So we evaluate, we execute, we are goal-driven. We also look for upward mobility like we had in the military. So those are some of the soft skills that employers are looking for that you don't see in a civilian because they weren't put in a structured culture like you are in the military. And that's when we come out of the military where we go out in the big bad world and when you do that, you find out society is not quite as structured. So you have to learn how to engage in society coming out of the military. It's not always an easy transition. That's where we come into DAV. We do this in job fairs. We do this in webinars and podcasts and all kinds of different ways to tell the service members, look, you're valuable. You have talents and skill sets that everybody's looking for. You just need to learn how to present it. Right. So that's a soft skill part of it. Yeah, I just want to point out, again, we mentioned that you attend a lot of these job fairs. So DAV is at the job fair. So it kind of helps you navigate this process. That's correct. I mean, we're the first booth. As a title sponsor, we get the first booth, of course, and I get to see all of them whether they're coming or going. And I'll even pull them aside. If I see a veteran walking out with their head down and that tells me they probably didn't have a good experience, I'll grab them and I'll bring them to my booth. And I said, you hadn't been by my booth yet. And I show them tools and I provide them advice and information and that uplifts them. And by the time they leave, I give them homework. I say, this is your homework. At the end of the day, you're going to derive the benefit. My job is to help guide you through this process. So that's what I do. And it's very important that we ensure that everyone goes to our job fairs has a good experience, whether it's just networking or, you know, meeting other veterans. It's an environment that's exclusive to veterans and their spouses. It's a private event, so to speak. And we want to make sure their experience is great from the time they leave and the time they arrive until the time they leave. So for those that are just joining, I'm Elizabeth Tapampe with Disabled American Veterans and I'm joined by our Interim National Employment Director, Rob Lujie. And we're talking about all things employment program and why this is such a good time for job seekers. So we know that DAB is all about empowering veterans to lead, you know, meaningful, fulfilling lives. Tell me how employment empowers veterans and why it's such a, you know, big piece to that puzzle. A big part of anyone's need to make, to make sure they have self-esteem, to make sure that they have a goal, to make sure they're taking care of their families. It's important when you leave the military to understand that, you know, you now have to compete for that position with someone else. You also are, you know, you have to pay more bills than you did in the military because if you were living on base, most of those bills are taken care of. That's how that culture works. So you're under a lot of pressure to be able to get a job, support your family so you can move forward. And that's, that's a vital part of it. You've got to give a service member a veteran mission. You have to allow them to flourish, support their family, provide them, you know, training, upward mobility capabilities. All of those things are very, very important. So getting employment. And I always tell, I always go back and tell them, look, I do pre-event speeches to all of the attendees. Then I'll say, look, I don't want you to go find a job today. I want you to find your next career. Because if you find a career that you're interested in and you like your health will benefit, you'll be able to prosper and you'll be able to take care of your family. And those are the things in life that you want to do. And I think somebody once called that the American dream. Is there a story or two that kind of stands out in your mind of people who found success? Sure. Sure. There's a, I don't have specific names a lot of times, but what happens is you'll have vendors that'll set up at the job fairs, sometimes for the venue, and we predominantly hold our job fairs at NFL stadiums, majorly baseball stadiums. We want to have that environment that would attract the veteran to come in. And even if they're not a big sports fan, they'll say, hey, I've never been. I want to go see what it's all about. Well, we want to bring them in. But when we bring them in, then we show them was available to them. And sometimes you'll have them, you set up tables themselves. So I was at a job fair and I want to say it's Washington, DC. Now the commander's stadium. And the vendors for the stadium were there and they're hiring for security and they were hiring for, you know, entertainment and several other areas and they hired three veterans right on the spot. And that's not, that's not something that's unusual. You'll go to other events. I've been to events where you'll have them offer two, three job offers to people on the spot. Right now, as we go back to what I said earlier, it's very, very important that all veterans and their spouses understand and separating service members, they have the leverage. They can go out there and get that next career that they're looking for if they put 50% effort forward. And I always tell them, I can offer you 50% information advice. You've got to do 50% of the work and that's going to get you where you need to be. Yeah, showing up is that first step. That's a big step. Once you show up, I can help you from there. Right. And I can, and right now we're seeing, we're seeing a lot of employers that are very, very eager to bring people into their roles. They're lacking employee base and you've got to understand attrition still takes place. People still retire. People move on. Employers are stuck in that area where, you know, their recruiters and their HR departments are working very hard to find that little niche where they can pull, you know, viable candidates in to bring them onto their staffs and into their culture. And I think job fairs are a great way to do that in person. Job fairs do that very well as well. And we're starting to see an uptick in the number of exhibitors. I'm really excited about what I'm starting to see again because we got spoiled prior to March of 2020. We had huge events, Dallas, Atlanta and San Antonio and Houston, big, big events. Hundreds and hundreds of veterans and their spouses would be there. And it was a shock when we got back and we're seeing not nearly as many attending. And now we're starting to see a creep back up. And I think the economy is pushing some of that when you have inflation and you have, I mean, everything that you use in life is increased food, gas, everything. There is a need for you to be able to get into an employment situation that's going to allow you to maintain your standard living. And that's the key right now. I don't think we've touched on this, but we've also been seeing an increase in job offers for the past few fairs. Tell us more about that and kind of why you think that is. It's really exciting for us. We, in the last four job fairs, we had the results back from the analytics that were run by every military. And that's when the employees report back to them on how many offers. And it's really interesting to me where you have say 165 veterans and their spouses show up and there's 230 job offers. That's telling me there's multiple job offers to individuals. And that is very, very important that that is an indicator on how, and I'll go ahead and say desperate corporate America is right now. They're desperate for viable candidates. And veterans walking in the door, if they're able to present themselves as themselves and not try to be some stiff person who's just trying to get a job, if they're communicating and talking about their skill sets and what they did in the military, these employers are going to offer them positions. And I always tell veterans that are attending in their spouses, don't walk by an exhibitor because you think by their name that you know what they're looking for. You've already done yourself a disservice. Talk to all of them. You'd be surprised. We used to call it there's a diamond in the rough. And sometimes at job fairs, that's exactly what happens. So it's really neat to see them get all the job offers that are coming out. And we're hoping that that trend continues. We won't know until the events actually take place and we get the analytic information back. But we're really encouraged by the numbers we're seeing because we're seeing, you know, three or four times the amount of job offers being given than they were before just last year and even at the beginning of the year. Going back to the, you know, not passing over the diamond and the rough. I imagine a lot of people learn about kind of job opportunities that they didn't even know were a thing, but they they didn't know that it existed. Correct. So I imagine that's a good opportunity to learn kind of where they can put their skills. It is. And what happens at my booth, I always bring my laptop and anybody who's been to my booth will know that. And I will have our landing page up and I will have six or seven people around my table. And I'll say, I'll pick one of them and say, what are you looking for? Let's do a job search on the spot. And the effect that I like is the wow effect. I see that light bulb go on. And that's when I know that they're very interested and they learn about, you know, their translation, their translation of their military skill sets to civilian codes was very, very important. We want to show them that if you are a supply chain in the military, you can be logistics on the outside. You can be operations. You, you have a lot of application for your skill sets and different, different segments of an industry. So I show that to them and I populate all the jobs or career, next careers that are available. And they're really, really shocked by it. Actually, they're like, wow, I had no idea. And that's what I want to get because we just show them something. I just provided them a tool that can change their life. And that's what DAB is all about. No matter if you're working a claim, if you're getting employment, if you want, if you want voluntary opportunities, all of those, we change lives and we impact them in positive ways. And we always have. And so when I go to job fairs, I handle that very seriously, but I have fun too. I want the, I want the participants to relax. So I have fun with them, you know, I get them to relax a little bit. And when you have somebody relax, they're absorbing more information. That's my goal. Yeah. So what's your biggest piece of advice in terms of how people can prepare before they ever get to the job fair? Well, of course, you have to have a pretty good resume. I want to make sure that your resume straight because that usually is the first impression that employers going to get. Right now we're so used to see our codes reading and getting your data and your information. There's very few paper job resumes going back and forth anymore years. So first of all, make sure you have your resume and it accurately depicts who you are. And I always tell them, put a coverage on it. Even it's just a paragraph two about you. Don't give me the information I'm about to read when I turn the page. Tell me something about you that's personable. You know, that you're motivated that you want to get into this industry, you know, what it is you bring to the table. And at the end of the day, I have a wife, a child, a dog, and I like skiing. I mean, be a little personable about your cover page and make that review or want to turn the page and look at the rest of your skill sets and your experiences. And I also say, you know, be yourself. Have an elevated pitch for yourself. You know, practice it a little bit. Tell them about your military service and just in a short way, your experiences, where you'd like to go, what you'd like to do. So know that much. And one of the most important thing I think is know a little bit about what you're looking for. So I'll have veterans that will walk in and they'll hit my booth first, of course, or I'll pull them over and I'll give them information. I said, what are you looking for today? Well, I don't know. And I'll say, here's what I do not want you to say to any of these employers that you do not know. Nobody here can read your mind. So here's what I want you to say. I'm open to new opportunities. Sounds more palatable. And it does it broadens the conversation. And it allows that veteran or that spouse to expound on their experiences and their talents and their credentials a little bit. And that's what I want them to do because I want them to be able to show up, beat themselves, talk to a potential employer and give them that five minutes of information that's going to cause that employer to say, you know what, this is a viable candidate. I'm going to grab the information up to see our code, get their information, and I'm going to follow up with them. That's the goal. So as you mentioned at the top, we also offer resources for employers. Yes. So what's your biggest piece of advice for employers headed into these job fairs? You know, corporate America, in my humble opinion, has come a long way in the last decade. They've learned that prior to that, many of them were missing out on military talent and the soft skills that we offer. So they began hiring veterans to work in their HR departments as recruiters and talent acquisition people because they didn't understand military lingo and they didn't understand our culture. So they started hiring veterans to vet veterans. And that's one big step that corporate America took to help themselves and help the veteran. And also there's a little stipend that an employer can get for hiring a disabled veteran through the government. So there was a little carrot that was put out to them and that works well. It helps pay for their onboarding process. We also have a document or a booklet that's a living, breathing document on our website. It's the hiring guide. We put together a hiring guide. You know, there's been guides over the years, Department of Labor and the VA and several other entities that put out guides on the importance of hiring veterans. We wanted to drill down a little bit on that. We wanted to dispel some of the myths out there about veterans when they come back from war or if they have a disability. You know, they're still functioning. They're high speed low drag. They have goals. They're loyal. A lot of veterans are loyal to their employers. They will stay with them through the thick and thin. You know, they'll do that. So it's very important that employers understand that, you know, the soft skills are there. Everything that they're looking for in an employer is any veteran and just because they happen to be disabled in some way, it does not take away their ability to function in today's environment and be an asset to that company. So the hiring guide does that. It gives them strategies as well as how to go about hiring veterans. But we wanted to make sure that an HR director from corporate America could look at this document and understand better what a military culture is about, what a disabled veteran is, and how that person can be very effective to their bottom line as an employee. And I think that makes a big difference for the veteran as well when they're greeted by someone who can kind of relate or understand their experience. That's the key. Veterans vetting veterans is the best way to go about it. And I'm so happy to see that as a matter of fact, and many, many of the exhibitors, representatives of our in-person job fairs, and even on the virtual platforms, our veterans. So they're able to say, hey, I was a 19 kilo 10 and the other person, if they were the same branch would know that. But even if you're a different branch, you know, you're able to break down and understand that just because it says you did this in the military on your discharge, we know as a former service member ourselves, you wore two or three hats. You had a lot more experience than that piece of paper says. And only someone in the military would really understand that. Any final words? I would just say, I would encourage everyone is seeing this today. If you're a veteran, separate servicemen, regardsmen, reservists, and military spouse, get on our website, jobs.dav.org. Look at the resources we have. We have an email button right on the front landing page. If you have an inquiry, whether it's for employment, whether it's for claims work, if you have issues with the VA and you need representation, send us an email. We'll ensure that you get the information you need, the guidance, and the tools at your disposal to help you obtain that next mission, your next career. Thank you, Rob, for joining us. It's my pleasure. Thank you for watching. You can find DAB on LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter, and, of course, at DH.