Role and Company
Project Manager/Management Consultant, Robbins-Gioia
Expertise
18 years experience in financial services
Location
Seaford, NY
About John
I am a retired financial manager who has spent most of my career in the financial services industry. I have a undergraduate degree in Accounting from Pace University which I completed while working in various financial positions. I also possess a Master's degree in Finance from New York University. I was fortunate in that I was able to utilize the GI Bill to help pay for my education . That combined with some tuition reimbursement work plans allowed me to graduate while incurring no student loan debt, a situation which is obviously more difficult to achieve in today's economic environment. However, my advice to veterans wanting to pursue higher education is to avoid or minimize any student loan debt.
Since retiring I had been volunteering with a NYC non-profit that provided various teams of professionals to assist non-profits in developing websites and Annual Reports . My responsibility involved forming the team, interacting with the client and trying to stay out of everyone's way. I particularly enjoyed interacting with groups of talented young people and ultimately delivering a final product that the client could utilize.
I think I can provide some assistance to recent veterans in critiquing their resumes, suggesting target industries and making some suggestions. I have two major suggestions for writing resumes : 1) Vets need to capture the reader's attention in the opening Summary of Experience . Think of this section as a headline and opening paragraph. Otherwise, prospective employers will never read the entire resume and 2) Vets need to translate their military experience to the best of their ability into comparable civilian terms. I know that's not all easy, particularly if someone has spent his or her entire tour primarily in combat. But it's not impossible either.
I would urge all recent veterans to network as much as possible with everyone they interact with: friends, relatives, other veterans, associates and just about anyone they come in contact with. Also, I would suggest that vets get on military. com's distribution list. It's a terrific website with an excellent newsletter. I've read numerous articles designed to help job-seeking veterans and they were all excellent.
There may be other excellent resources out there. I would hope this site would provide a forum for veterans to see responses from different individuals which hopefully provides them with various perspectives and resources to aid their job-seeking and other professional endeavors. If I were a recent vet, I'd make certain I took advantage of every opportunity the government offers. Now I'm a believer in education. It was the path I took but not everyone has to go to a four-year college. There are excellent community and trade schools out there and let's face it: a plumber or an electrician can earn a hell of a lot more than the majority of liberal arts graduates.
I obviously don't have all the answers . I'm hoping as I write this that any question a veteran has is visible to a forum of potential advisors so veterans can have the benefit of different perspectives but I'm not certain how visible this forum is. Clearly, a question to pursue .
One final word on passions. I have one odd one: fraud detection and prevention. Nothing irritates me more than to see vets or anyone victimized by bogus educational or other schemes. I would advice all veterans or any young person to be very cautious before entering into any written agreement or financial contract. And just because a trade school makes a specific claim regarding graduate employment success, this statement needs to be verified via an outside source or a state's educational commission. I'm not an attorney and cannot or will not provide detailed financial advice but I will advice against entering into any agreement without receiving the benefit of an outside attorney or financial professional. My advice would always be one recommending caution and independent verification before entering into any agreement.