Phil C. ⋅ Fort Worth, TX ⋅ 3 years experience

Jason,

Thanks for taking the time to respond. I would be VERY interested in what HR has to say about this situation. This would be a EXCELLENT opportunity for HR folks to shine. A paradigm shift is a must.

-Phil

Jason H. ⋅ New York, NY ⋅ 8 years experience

Phil and Jason.:
First, to both of you - thank you for your service.

Second, its important to have these types of open conversation. The link to Verizon came from the Verizon Linkedin page, so I cannot speak to its specific usefulness, but it sounds like you are speaking more generally about most of these types of tools, and I will use that term loosely.

Phil:
I am reaching out to some folks I know professionally that are closer to the process in Human Resources and I want to get their feedback and let them understand your experience. We nedd to bridge this gap. And thanks for posting!

Jason Kugel ⋅ Yulee, FL U.S. Navy, Chief Petty Officer ⋅ 21 years served

I think that these tools are sort of useful, but so very hard to get right. If you put in your "CORE" MOS, which for me can be either Aviation Electrician or Military Police Officer, it focuses on ONLY those skills related to those MOS'. I also have "NECs" or sub-specialties for instructing various courses, and again, to use one ignores the others. The largest shortfall here is these translators ignore your pay grade. As a CPO, I was "middle management- the hands on, follow me, knows his folks like family leader. It leaves it up to the HRO to figure out or interpret that from a resume which by general consensus is supposed to be short but interesting. The USG has references stating a CPO is equivalent to a GS-6. The position I held as a CPO and Chief of Police was a civilian GS10 position. No GS6 to my knowledge is supervising an operations department of 200. In this case, corporate knowledge of the military and what I am stating on my resume can cause a conflict where the HRO is thinking I'm lying or exaggerating. We have our VMET documents in the Navy, I assume there is something similar in all branches. This document summarizes not only the generic responsibilities of your rank, but gives significant details about every school or course you attended. It might add to their read time, but HR offices all over the country would help themselves and veterans if they got these descriptions from each service and created a database (well, there probably exists one anyway) but it could be used the very second they see "Retired Chief Petty Officer and Military Police Officer".

Phil C. ⋅ Fort Worth, TX ⋅ 3 years experience

Jason,

I just field tested your "Verizon Military Skill Matcher" with the military occupational specialty (MOS) I had in the Army, which was 15Y and here are my findings.
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MOS 15Y AH-64D Armament/Electrical/Avionic Systems Repairer
MOS Description

https://www.cool.army.mil/enlisted/15y.htm

“The AH-64D armament/electrical/avionic systems repairer supervises, inspects and performs aviation unit (AVUM), intermediate (AVIM), and depot maintenance on the AH-64D armament, electrical and avionic systems, to include the electrical, electronic, mechanical and pneudraulics systems associated with AH-64D armament/missile fire control systems. “
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I plugged in the 15Y MOS into the Verizon Military Skill Matcher and this is the first position that came up:

Responsibilities
Provide Tier-1 surveillance and break/fix maintenance support for Verizon’s Global Voice Traffic Network.
This position involves shift work in a 24 X 7 group environment. Candidate must be flexible on work schedule including willing to work weekends, shift work and holidays as required.
Proactive network monitoring of TDM and VoIP call completion rates via Verizon Network Management systems. Following established procedures and policies when responding to network alarms and events. Perform trouble triage to include fault isolation, cooperative testing, and/or engaging next Tier technical support as required. Trouble ticket management, flash notification management, escalation management. Candidate must be able to clearly communicate, both verbally and written, technical information and status to customer service centers, technical support organizations and Verizon management teams.
The candidate must demonstrate strong knowledge of TDM and/or VoIP telephony equipment and technologies, such as Voice Switching, CCS7 Signaling, Switch Translations. Must be able to follow documented processes and procedures. Candidate must demonstrate ability to perform in a fast paced environment while adhering to established guidelines.
Qualifications
Required Skills & Experience:
4-year technical college with a major in electronics, computer science, telecommunications, information technology or related area preferred, or an Associate Degree in electronics preferred and 3-5 years of job-related voice switch platform experience, or an equivalent combination of education and experience. Strong troubleshooting skills and the ability to work as part of a team. Strong interpersonal skills, oral and written skills, and problem solving skills are required. Ability to generate, drive and update problem-tracking tickets via multiple ticketing systems. Work with internal and external organizations as necessary coordinating, troubleshooting and driving remediation of network events. Ability to provide timely and accurate network information to management and other groups during network events and major outages.
Desired Skills & Experience:
Proven job performance in current and previous positions. Ability to speak a foreign language is preferred. Knowledge of telecommunication equipment, call processing, signaling, circuit/network troubleshooting a plus. Knowledge of specific vendor platforms a plus.

Equal Employment Opportunity
Verizon is an equal opportunity and affirmative action employer M/F/Disability/Vet

Job ID: 342695

http://www.verizon.com/jobs/cary/network/jobid342695-advanced-technician-network-engineer-operations-verizon-jobs/
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This is a hypothetical question, but would Verizon hire me right out of the military? Let’s be honest, given the vicious cycle of training and deployments, not too many service members are going to have college or anything close to it under their belt. They’ll be separating from the military with just military training and experience. Would my formal military education in aviation technician school and 3-5 years’ experience maintaining Apache helicopters be enough to get the job? Half the other positions that aligned with this MOS are engineering positions. There’s NO WAY I would EVER get hired for those positions without an engineering degree. I know this for a fact; I’m a practicing electrical engineer. Pardon me for being so candid, but Verizon’s Military Skill Matcher has some shortfalls that need to be addressed. This is a problem not just with Verizon, but with other employers too. The vast majority of companies are absolutely clueless when it comes to knowing what to do with well trained and highly capable veterans. It’s really time industry and former service members have some honest dialogue on this topic. Is it about hiring veterans that are going to be an asset and produce, or is it really about a tax break? Please! Let’s talk about this!

-Phil