Story Created:
Jul 31, 2008 at 3:12 PM CDT
Story Updated:
Feb 19, 2009 at 5:32 PM CDT
Thursday, July 31, 2008; Posted 2.50 pm (CDT)
After several years in the military, some veterans have difficulty finding another career once they leave. Hundreds of veterans attended the RecruitMilitary Career Fair hoping their skills would lead to something new.
About 50 vet-friendly companies set up shop to find their future employees.
"We're looking for correctional officers, medical staff, clerical ... kind of a variety of stuff that'll come open," says Delfina Lopez, Human Resources Manager for Cornell Company.
"We're recruiting for customs and border patrol officers," says Ervey Guardado, Supervisor for U.S. Customs and Border Protection.
Veterans as well as their families handed out resumes and gathered information for jobs they may have seen while in the military but were unsure how to get.
"These companies have been there right along side us, providing support to us while we're doing our combat mission," says Tech. Sgt. Bill Nystrom with the U.S. Air Force.
Nystrom has been in the Air Force for 10 years and says finding a new career can be challenging.
"I think basically it's hard for them to understand how to market themselves and to realize there are actually companies out there that really do want to hire them and are just struggling to find where they can find these great folks," says Larry Slagel, Senior Vice President of RecruitMilitary, LLC.
Local, national and international companies attended looking to bring in employees with military experience.
"I think the discipline they already have in the military helps toward following procedures, following policy," says Lopez.
"Right now, yeah, it's a little murky, but it's probably just because I'm right at the beginning of that transitional phase," says Nystrom.
Nystrom says having a variety of companies under the same roof helps and makes finding a job a little less stressful.
Thursday's event was the second in Oklahoma City this year. Officials with RecruitMilitary say they plan on coming back at least twice a year and only plan on stopping when people stop attending.
The jobs offered are not just for Oklahoma. If you are a veteran, you can register for free at www.recruitmilitary.com, where they have more than 4,500 companies hiring.
