Iowa Veterans Get Help Finding Jobs

Despite the sluggish economy and the state’s high unemployment rate, Ray Rodriguez wants veterans to know there are plenty of jobs available to soldiers returning from overseas service.

Rodriquez, who works for the Employer Support of the Guard and Reserve was at the University of Phoenix in West Des Moines Thursday to help veterans and their spouses find new jobs.

“There are jobs out there right now,” Rodriguez said. “People are willing to look at service members because of all of the skills that they bring to the table.”

In July Rodriguez traveled to Wisconsin to meet with members of the Iowa National Guard’s Second Battalion, who were returning from a tour of duty in Afghanistan. Over the course of a month Rodriguez and his team met with 2,400 of the 2,800 soldiers. More than 600 told Rodriguez they didn’t have a job to come back to when they returned home.

Rodriguez touted the ESGR’s website, at employerpartnership.org, which he said had over 1,152 job listings, many of which are exclusive to the site.

“These are civilian employers looking to hire servicemen and women and their spouses,” Rodriguez said as he scrolled through a listing of jobs available in the Des Moines area.

On Thursday the ESGR staff, along with volunteers who work in human resources for a number of employers in the Des Moines area, met with job hunters, helping them create resumes, improve an existing resume, and sharpen their interviewing skills. While 13 veterans signed up for the class, only nine attended because the remaining four have already found employment.

Gale Battles, one of the veterans who attended Thursday’s seminar, said that he found the information helpful. Battles, a specialist in the Guard from Pleasant Hill, said that while he’s already decided to return to Afghanistan as a contractor, it didn’t hurt to brush up on his resume and interviewing skills.

“I got some fine tuning with my resume,” Battles said. “It really opened my mind; I tried to plan ahead with better answers to the questions that they asked.”

Rodriguez said one of the biggest challenges veterans face is being able to translate their skills into civilian careers. Guns and ammo aren’t the only skills veterans have. The average 23-year-old sergeant in the Army is responsible for a staff of 14 soldiers, as well as over a quarter million dollars worth of equipment.

“They just need to be able to articulate their skills,” Rodriguez said.  

Specialist Justin Beery of Cedar Falls, who worked on unmanned aircraft during his time in the Guard, said he’s lost count of the resumes he’s sent in and the number of job applications he’s filled out since he returned to Iowa this summer.

“It’s a lot tougher because I need to find a job that pays more than minimum wage,” Beery said.

The 27-year-old said he doesn’t just want to find a job, he wants a career. Looking for a position in field maintenance has been tough, and Beery said that if something doesn’t come his way soon, he’ll consider rejoining the Guard and heading back overseas.

Still, Beery said the chance to sit down with potential employers and human resources managers was “good networking” and he’s hoping it’ll pay off when he lands an interview. He’s hoping the input from today’s sessions will give him a better handle on what employers are looking for.

“These are good people to know, good people to have on your side,” Beery said, looking around the room.