Veterans, civilians search for employment at job fair | News

The Onslow Career Center in partnership with the Disabled American Veterans Chapter 16 hosted a job fair for veterans and civilians that attracted hundreds over the course of the event. 

With employment opportunities spanning a variety of disciplines, employers such as the Onslow County Sheriff’s Office and Home Depot introduced themselves to potential candidates while schools such as Wyotech, who provided lunch for all veterans, passed out information about their programs to prospective students.

Despite having more than six months left on his contract, one Camp Lejeune Marine, Cpl. Kyle Flynn, decided he would be proactive and use the skills he learned at transitional workshops on base. For him, he said, learning things in the workshops like how to introduce yourself to employers, ask the appropriate questions and how to answer challenging questions is great but getting hands-on experience using his new skills was much more valuable.

“Being that I’ve been in the Marine Corps for four years, I need to learn all over again how to look for a job, interview and talk to employers,” said Flynn. “I’m rusty and need to learn how to talk to people and find out what my resume needs to look like.”

While a career in pediatric nursing would be optimal for him, Flynn said he is still making up his mind on the future. One reassuring thing, he said, is that the job market seems to be fairly veteran friendly with assistance and programs available. After attending the job fair, Flynn said he feels more prepared for civilian life. 

“A job isn’t going to get thrown at you,” he said. “It won’t come to you so get out there yourself.”

As an employer in the Jacksonville community, Lori Ready-Digiovanni of Sodexo said the company is interested in veterans because they make great employees because they hold intangible assets such as consistency, professional style, interpersonal communication skills and follow through.

“The majority of veterans seeking employment have the courage to stand up and do what is right and in accordance with company policies,” she said. “They understand direction and have many leadership skills that some civilians just don’t have because they haven’t served.”

Jacksonville, she said, is a friendly community toward veterans, partly because more and more people are staying in the community compared to years prior and most of them want to contribute back into the community.  

“The biggest challenge for finding employees locally on both sides of the fence — both civilian and veterans — is that they look for the pie in the sky of six figures,” she said. “They’re looking for more of a bigger industry that just isn’t here locally and some are taken aback by the pay range here and need to be explained where they fit in here. With veterans, they understand and have proven in the past that they can start at the bottom and work their way up.”

Without having a means to pay for school, 24-year-old Mindy Hodges of Maple Hill traveled to Jacksonville to take part in the job fair opting to seek employment. Having held a variety of jobs ranging from supervision, management and entry-level positions, Hodges said she feels as though she holds qualities an employer would look for. While a job would mean the world to her right now, a career in radiology would be a dream come true.

“I’ve held so many jobs because I wanted to diversify myself,” Hodges said. “I’ve learned with time that I can lead a team and be both dependable and reliable. It’s hard being unemployed but if you want something you have to go out and get it. You just have to be proactive.”

Contact Daily News Military Reporter Thomas Brennan at 910-219-8453 or thomas.brennan@jdnews.com. Follow him on Twitter @ thomasjbrennan.