In a fast-changing world, education is a key to success. Whether learning is the path to advance a career, or to a job that can support a family, or simply to pursue a passion for discovery, it’s always a path to opportunity.
With a suite of world-class tools, content and products, Pearson believes we can positively change the outcomes for students to ensure that they are not just educated, but also employable.
Watch the video above to see how Pearson is changing the face of modern education — and the modern workforce.
Learn more here.
Tag: employment
A Movement to Transform Coal Miners Into Beekeepers Is Great News for the Planet
Tucked inside an old gymnasium, hundreds of wooden boxes are stacked along a far wall. The space, formerly home base for a summer camp, is now host to labs and classrooms filled with bright, freshly painted blue boxes.
But children won’t be playing here this summer. Instead, among the boxes and stainless steel vats, displaced coal miners and low-income West Virginians will learn a new trade — beekeeping. It’s part of a program run by the Appalachian Beekeeping Collective, a program for low-income West Virginians to make supplemental income through beekeeping.
While beekeeping may seem like an odd choice for former coal miners, it’s a viable and increasingly popular way for people in rural areas to make money. In West Virginia, where poverty is high and jobs are scarce, a large part of the population is struggling to make ends meet.
Coal mining once bolstered the region, but between 2005 and 2015, employment in the coal industry decreased by about 27 percent, according to research by West Virginia University. Across the nation, states like Kentucky, Wyoming and Pennsylvania have to find jobs to fill the employment gap left by the coal industry.
Enter the Appalachian Beekeeping Collective. The collective operates across 17 counties in southern West Virginia and offers classes in subjects like, Is Beekeeping Right for Me?, bee basics and advanced beekeeping. It’s a branch of the Appalachian Headwaters, a nonprofit formed to develop sustainable economic opportunities across the region.
Interested beekeepers can take Beekeeping 101, which is a five-week course where they learn the basics of beekeeping, bee biology and solutions to common problems. Once the new beekeeper has completed this course, he or she can become a partner in the collective. The partnership offers training, mentorship, equipment and bees for free or at a reduced cost.
But the startup cost to becoming a beekeeper can be a barrier of entry.
This was the case for Jason Young, a resident of White Oak, West Virginia.
Young originally started beekeeping as a hobby but quickly realized it could turn into a small business. “We had decided that we wanted to move forward,” he says. “But it was really the money that was holding us back.”
When Young discovered the Appalachian Beekeeping Collective offered training and equipment at low cost, he leapt at the opportunity.
Young and his daughter enrolled in the free Beekeeping 101 course and received 12 hives from the collective for a reduced price. From there, he formed White Oak Bee Co.
Last spring was their first harvest. It produced enough honey for his family and his honey-roasted coffee, which is White Oak Bee Co.’s signature item. This season, however, he has 14 hives ready to harvest and hopes to make a profit that he can reinvest in the business.
“Beekeeping and our relationship with the collective has really made that possible,” Young says.
The Appalachian Beekeeping Collective successfully trained 35 beekeepers this past year and plans to train another 55 this spring.
When it’s harvest time, the nonprofit will process, market and distribute the honey for its beekeepers for free. That can result in a nice chunk of change. In 2018, the market value for a pound of honey was about $7.33. A single hive can produce 20 to 100 pounds of honey a year, which means a single productive hive could earn its owner over $700 a year. With multiple hives, a beekeeper has the potential to make thousands of dollars every year.
And the bees do more than produce income for their owners. The forests provide nectar for the bees, and in turn, the bees pollinate these key natural habitats and create more plant diversity, says Parry Kietzman, an entomologist and educator at the collective.
Kietzman says she’s noticed people are more aware of the land and plants once they have bees.
“It seems to give people more of a handle on environmental concerns,” she says. “Simply because they’re worried about their bees.”
For others, like Young, it’s a chance to accomplish goals.
“What I feel most thankful for is the opportunity to take some dreams we’ve had for a really long time,” Young said. “And to really see them, kind of, come to be.”
Denver Pays Homeless Residents to Help Clean Up the City
Brett Hart never imagined he’d end up homeless. The Denver-based engineer spent years working maintenance jobs and earning a decent living, until a bike accident upended his life.
“I was T-boned by a car,” he says. “And so unfortunately when that happens, you end up in the hospital… You spend 30 days in the hospital and you’re not working, so you can’t pay the rent for those 30 days. So you get evicted and you lose your job… So you find yourself pretty much on the street.”
Living temporarily in a camper and desperate for cash, Hart discovered a program that could help him get his life back on track.
Denver Day Works was launched by the city’s Human Services department in November 2016 to provide low-barrier employment opportunities to people experiencing homelessness. Modeled after similar programs in other cities, Denver Day Works pays participants $12 to $13 per hour to help with city projects like cleaning up the streets, landscaping and general maintenance. Participants also receive breakfast and lunch while they’re working, bus fare to get to worksites, and access to employment specialists who can help them find long-term work opportunities.
“Maybe a subtitle for this program is MythBusters, because I think a lot of people, including myself, weren’t sure how successful this would be,” says Don Mares, executive director of Denver Human Services. “We had so many people sign up … that we had a waitlist of folks to come and do that work.”
Boosted by the legal marijuana market and a booming aerospace industry, Denver’s economy continues to thrive. But with its economic resurgence, the city must also grapple with rising housing prices and a recent spike in homelessness.
Watch the video above to learn more about how Denver Day Works is helping people like Hart and others who have fallen on hard times get a fresh start.
More: Day Jobs for Panhandlers, America Resurgent: Denver
How Artificial Intelligence Is Transforming the Future of Work
Artificial intelligence intersects with many aspects of our daily lives, from navigation apps to search algorithms, email filtering to online shopping, and more — but the technology is also beginning to shape the workplace of today and tomorrow. Its tremendous potential and its power to disrupt entire industries is becoming a critical issue in the modern office.
As AI’s capabilities continue to accelerate, the technology is increasingly being used to create new ways of working and altering the skill sets that tomorrow’s workers will need in order to thrive.
In a meeting with leaders in technology, business, academia and the nonprofit sector on this topic, Samsung NEXT and NationSwell explored how AI is impacting the workplace, which uncovered a number of key benefits ahead, as well as risks that may need mitigating.
Here are five key takeaways.
AI Is Restructuring Jobs and Roles
AI is transforming today’s workplace, serving to restructure some jobs while introducing others more highly in demand (e.g., data scientists). As AI is increasingly leveraged to perform work tasks that can be repetitive and monotonous, humans are freed up to perform an array of value-adding functions.
One key issue is how to blend the roles played by both humans and technology, enabling each to do what they do best. Human workers may need to develop new skills in order to take advantage of AI and accommodate its growing use in the workplace.
AI Solves Some Challenges Better Than Others
AI is better suited to solving some challenges than others — for instance, where large and complete data sets are available, where issues are well-defined or where ethical concerns are less critical.
However, as Jean Horstman, founder and former CEO of Interise, notes, “The evolution of AI is what Russ Ackoff called a ‘wicked mess’ — high human behavior and high dynamic system complexity. How is AI going to evolve to actually improve outcomes for all people, mitigating the unintended negative consequences that will arrive if both types of complexities aren’t addressed together?”
Robert Nagle, chief product officer and CTO of Interactions, believes that the future of work involves a careful blending of technology (like AI) and humans, allowing each to do what they do best. “The future isn’t so binary,” Nagle says. “We’re showing how to supplement AI with human intelligence. Each can complement the other, with both improving in our closed loop.”
Hiring Is Hard, But AI Can Help
Some companies, such as Unilever, leverage AI to screen candidates early on in the hiring process, then arrange human interviews with the few remaining candidates. Using AI in these ways can help reduce the cost and time of hiring, a massive benefit for companies and workers alike.
Some participants expressed concerns around how using AI in hiring might hinder the promotion of fairness and inclusion. Much of that hinges on whether there’s enough of the “right” data available to “solve” the challenge of hiring the right person for the right job, especially when there may be potential bias hidden in the data sets.
Better Data Means Better AI
More and better data can support the effective development and use of AI. But it’s important to examine what data goes into building algorithms. More and better data can support the effective development and use of AI. But it’s important to examine what and whose data goes into building algorithms. “Our unconscious biases can be built into the data [underlying AI systems],” Horstman says.
Rudina Seseri, founder and managing partner of Glasswing Ventures, expresses special concern about one element of risk: “Our inherent gender biases are getting captured in these algorithms, while we should be promoting more diversity and inclusion.”
Shawn Bohen, chief transformative impact officer at Year Up, points to the use of college degrees as a screening criteria in hiring. Requiring a college degree may exclude highly capable talent who may actually have the requisite skills to succeed in today’s landscape of accelerating change, where the ongoing ability to learn is as important as what is learned.
We Need to View AI in a Multidisciplinary Way
Discussions involving actors from a variety of disciplines are key to optimizing the opportunities and mitigating some of the risks of artificial intelligence. And those who work on the technology can help with this process by more clearly communicating to a lay audience its potential impacts.
Ali Amarsy, co-founder and CSO of Gram Labs, says, “There’s a responsibility to have more transparency with data sets. Especially if the data sets are public, the algorithms [built using them] should also serve the public.”
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Article produced in partnership with Samsung NEXT, Samsung’s innovation group that works with entrepreneurs to build, grow, and scale great ideas. NationSwell has partnered with Samsung NEXT to find and elevate some of the most promising innovators working to close the opportunity gap in America. Click here to meet the finalists.
America Resurgent: Albany
Albany, New York is the epicenter of a workforce renaissance.
Following decades of manufacturing job losses, the city capitalized on its infrastructure and advances in technology to create thousands of new jobs and increase its GDP more than 60 percent between 2001 and 2015. More than $49 million worth of state and federal funding helped the Port of Albany-Rensselaer expand its shipping operations for clients like GE Power, while simultaneously creating 1,400 jobs.
At the same time, the construction of the Colleges of Nanoscale Science and Engineering at the University of Albany added an additional 4,000 jobs and helped the city become a leader in the worldwide semiconductor industry.
But despite these advances, Albany’s poverty rate still remains higher than at the turn of the century, with 36,827 residents living in poverty as of 2015.
Watch the video above to see how Albany’s growth has changed the nature of this capital city.
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#AmericaResurgent is a five-part series that elevates the changemakers, approaches and innovations that are driving urban revitalization across the nation. Look for the next four installments in the weeks to come.
Need a Job? Try Flaunting Your Ink
My first day at the Philadelphia Inquirer and Daily News, my editor walked me around to meet the rest of the writers on staff. It was all fairly uneventful with the handshakes, hellos and making coffee dates with other editors. But there was one thing my editor said that made this first day different: I was told to keep my sleeves rolled up and my arms exposed.
My tattoos — at the time I had a half-sleeve of graffiti art on my right arm and a patchwork of ink on my left — were not only unique or perhaps fun to look at, they were a part of the reason I got hired in the first place.
Like it or not, tattoos and body modifications are more common than previous decades among the American workforce. And whereas tattoos previously might’ve only been acceptable to flaunt while working as a cashier at Virgin Records in the 1990s, new research shows that may no longer be the case.
A new analysis conducted by three researchers from the University of Miami and the University of Western Australia Business School found that, in aggregate, there was no statistical difference in earnings or employment level among the 2,000 U.S. participants.
According to Andrew R. Timming, one of the researchers, that might have to do with the increase in visibility of tattoos in America.
A 2015 Harris Poll found that almost a third of all Americans have at least one tattoo — a nine percent increase from the year before. Almost half of all millennials have at least one tattoo.
All of this means not only visible tattoos in more workplaces, but also, as the younger tattooed generation moves up the ranks into hiring positions, they are less likely to see tattoos as a barrier to entry for jobs.
“You consider [decades] ago, women weren’t allowed to wear pants in the workplace. Now, it’s just part of the background,” Timming tells NationSwell. “The key takeaway here is that attitudes toward body art are changing so quickly, and it’s because of the increased prevalence in society.”
Even public critics of tattoos in the workplace, such as Andrew Hill from the Financial Times, are now telling younger job applicants to hold off on laser removal, despite expectations that the tattoo removal business will grow into a $2.8 billion market.
Past wisdom from hiring recruiters and columnists would be for young professionals to forego ink for the big paychecks. And there is still a perceived bias against those with tattoos, according to a Salary.com survey last year, which found that out of 2,700 people they surveyed, three-quarters of those who responded believed that having visible tattoos hurt an applicant’s ability to get hired.
Timming’s own research over the past decade backs this up. Going into the new survey, he and the other researchers expected those with more tattoos to be at a disadvantage when compared to the ink-free.
“[We thought] we would find significant wage discrimination or employment discrimination, based on our expectations from previous research, but apparently hypothetical relations are one thing,” says Timming. “Reality is very different.”
Fighting Poverty With Jobs
We all seek meaning in the work we do, but what if you’re struggling to find a job in the first place? For some, that means turning to America Works. Called a “company with a conscience,” this employment agency offers a network of work-readiness and job-placement programs to clients including veterans, people with disabilities, the formerly incarcerated and the homeless. Their mission: to help lift people from all backgrounds out of poverty, by giving them the skills they need to support themselves.
Since it was founded in 1984, America Works has helped more than 700,000 people find, and keep, meaningful employment. Here are some of their stories.
A FIRST OPPORTUNITY
When Jaquell Langley showed up at the America Works office in the Bronx last April, he was dressed for success in a full suit.
“His motivation was already there,” says Abigail Kelly, a program manager at America Works of New York (AWNY). “We didn’t have to teach it.”
The 24-year-old was eager to land a job, yet a significant speech impediment and slight cognitive delay meant Langley was struggling to get noticed by potential employers.
Still, he was determined. Each day, when the America Works office opened at 8:30 a.m., there was Langley, suited up and waiting outside the front door. He immersed himself in employment skills workshops and sat through mock interviews. Realizing Langley found it harder to speak when he was nervous, the staff worked on upping his confidence — chatting him up in the halls and encouraging him to perform in a poetry slam.
When Langley first interviewed for a part-time greeter position with a pharmacy chain, he didn’t get the gig. “But he didn’t mope,” says Kelly. “He kept showing up to our office, ready to work.”
AWNY staff arranged for Langley to re-interview for the greeter position a few weeks later, and this time, he was hired.
“We ring a bell in our office when someone gets a job, and Jaquell ran to ring it,” Kelly says. “He made the rounds, shaking hands and giving high fives like the mayor.”
Langley has since been promoted to full-time cashier and is saving money for his first apartment.
“Too many in life take the easy way out, refusing to even try to push themselves,” says Kelly. “Jaquell chose a different path, and pushed to have as normal a life as he could.”
A SECOND ACT
30 years. That’s how long Marvin Daniel worked as an operations manager in the banking industry. Yet last year, when his company decided to move out of New York State, Daniel found himself out of work.
The good news was that Daniel, 59, had glowing references and a solid resume. “The only thing holding him back was a lack of opportunity,” says Sami Martin, his career advisor at AWNY.
Martin enrolled Daniel in classes to get him up to speed on commonly used computer programs and website design. She arranged for him to meet with America Works’ career agents, who have connections to companies looking to hire, and encouraged Daniel to pursue leadership training.
Within a few months, Daniel landed a position at a bank. He’s about to celebrate his one-year anniversary.
“I love being a person’s cheerleader,” says Martin. Of the three years she’s been at America Works, she says, “I couldn’t tell you how many clients I have helped, but I can say that they’ve all been special to me.”
A CHANCE TO START OVER
At first, Melvin Taylor was reluctant to visit America Works. In other employment programs, he’d faced rejection due to his criminal background. But a few months earlier, he’d lost his job due to alcohol abuse and had found himself living in a homeless shelter.
When a public assistance agency referred the older gentleman to America Works’ Staten Island office, his desire to find a job led him to show up.
Kaitlyn Squire, a career advisor for AWNY, helped Taylor get some professional clothes, revamp his resume and hone his interview skills.
“From the get-go I really clicked with him,” she says. “Melvin has such a genuine personality and a smile that touched my heart.”
Taylor told Squire that he would work in any field, just so long as someone would take a chance on him.
When a string of job interviews led nowhere, Squire had an idea. She contacted the cafe where she used to work. Her ex-manager there agreed to interview Taylor for a part-time dishwasher position.
“They loved him and hired him on the spot,” Squire says.
Fast forward a year and Taylor has graduated to a full-time position. He was recently named Employee of the Month, and came back to America Works to show Squire his certificate.
“I was just a helping hand. Melvin did his own work,” says Squire. “Our program is not a fix-all, but clients who really take what we offer and apply it can do amazing things.”
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This post was produced in partnership with the NationSwell Council, a membership community of service-minded leaders committed to moving America forward. To learn more about the Council, its members and signature events, click here.
These Parents Started Businesses to Employ Autistic Kids Like Their Own
Valerie Herskowitz never imagined she’d become an entrepreneur until her son, Blake, was diagnosed with autism. And though John D’Eri had several company launches under his belt, he too was motivated by his own autistic son to look to a new business model.
Herskowitz’s endeavor, The Chocolate Spectrum, grew out of an informal therapy program she had been running from her home kitchen in Florida. In 2016, she opened the doors of her new chocolate shop and job-training center to the public.
Nearby, John D’Eri, along with his son Tom, had launched Rising Tide Car Wash in 2013 as a means to boost the employment opportunities for his autistic son, Andrew. Today the enterprise has grown to two locations in Florida that employ more than 60 people.
Statistics show these kind of work programs are sorely needed. Approximately 80 percent of people on the spectrum are unemployed or underemployed. The good news? Herskowitz’s shop and D’Eri’s car wash are just two of a growing number of businesses working to create job opportunities for adults with autism.
Herskowitz met John D’Eri at an autism fundraiser. Through Rising Tide U — D’Eri’s related initiative that offers online courses to help aspiring entrepreneurs launch similar companies — she was able to turn The Chocolate Spectrum into a viable business.
“If we can really prove to the business community that there’s real value in employing people with autism, we’ll close the unemployment gap,” says Rising Tide’s Tom D’Eri.
Watch the video above to learn more about Herskowitz and the D’Eris — and the power of this new business model.
The Disaster Response Program That’s Building More Than Homes
Susan Ward had only served five weeks in the military when she was medically discharged after an injury — but that didn’t change the fact that she wanted a life in service.
“From that moment when I got out, I was devastated,” she tells NationSwell. “That was my life goal and plan. I didn’t know what to do. I love helping and serving people, doing what I can for people.”
That feeling isn’t uncommon for thousands of military veterans who have a hard time transitioning to civilian life. Though unemployment among veterans who have served since 2001 has gone down, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics counted 370,000 veterans who were still unemployed this year.
Numerous transition programs exist to help vets bridge that gap, but for Ward, finding a gig — or even volunteer work — that was service-oriented was necessary for her happiness. She eventually became a firefighter in Alaska, but after 10 years a different injury forced Ward to leave yet another job she loved. She fell into a deep depression, she says, and struggled to find another role that allowed her to fulfill her passion for public service.
“I was on Facebook one day and just saw this post about Team Rubicon, and I had this moment of, ‘Oh my gosh, I need to do this,’” she says.
Team Rubicon began as a volunteer mission in 2010 after the earthquake that devastated Haiti. The organization offered disaster relief by utilizing the help of former service workers from the military and civilian sectors.
It has since evolved into an organization fueled by 80,000 volunteers. The majority are veterans who assist with everything from clearing trees and debris in tornado-ravaged towns to gutting homes that have been destroyed by floods. The teams, which are deployed as units, also work alongside other disaster-relief organizations, such as the Red Cross.
Similar to Ward, Tyler Bradley, a Clay Hunt fellow for Team Rubicon who organizes and develops volunteers, battled depression after he had to leave the Army due to a genetic health problem.
“After I found [Team Rubicon], I was out doing lots of volunteer work. My girlfriend noticed and said she would see the old Tyler come back,” Bradley says. “Team Rubicon turned my life around.”
“There’s one guy who says that just because the uniform comes off doesn’t mean service ends,” says Zachary Brooks-Miller, director of field operations for Team Rubicon. He adds that the narrative around the value of veterans has to change. “We don’t take the approach that our vets are broken; we see vets as a strength within our community.”
In addition to Team Rubicon’s disaster-relief efforts, the organization also helps to empower veterans and ease their transition into the civilian world, according to Christopher Perkins, managing director at Citi and a member of the company’s Citi Salutes Affinity Steering Committee. By collaborating with Citi, Team Rubicon was able to scale up its contributions, allowing service workers to provide widespread relief last year in Houston after Hurricane Harvey. Those efforts were five times larger than anything the organization had previously done and brought even more veterans into the Team Rubicon family.
“Being around my brothers and sisters in arms whom I missed so much, it was so clear to me the impact Team Rubicon would have not only in communities impacted by disaster, but also among veterans,” says Perkins, a former captain in the Marines. “Every single American should know about this organization.”
Although Team Rubicon doesn’t brand itself as a veterans’ organization, it does view former members of the military as the backbone of its efforts. And many veterans see the team-building and camaraderie as a kind of therapy for service-related trauma.
“There are so many people who have [post-traumatic stress disorder] from different things, and when you’re with family you have to pretend that you’re OK,” says Ward, who deals with PTSD from her time as a soldier and firefighter. “But when you’re with your Team Rubicon family, it’s a tribe.”
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This article is paid by and produced in collaboration with Citi. Through Citi Salutes, Citi collaborates with veterans’ service organizations and leading veterans’ champions to support and empower veterans, service members and their families. This is the fourth installment in a series focusing on solutions for veterans and military families in the areas of housing, financial resilience, military transition and employment.
How to Translate Military Skills to a Civilian Resume
A military job like U.S. Air Force aircraft controller doesn’t exactly translate to the majority of civilian career options. At least that’s how Eric Lundberg felt once he gave the Air Force his notice to retire.
Lundberg is not alone. Sixty-eight percent of veterans say that securing employment opportunities that match their military experience is one of the main challenges to finding a civilian job, according to a 2014 survey by VetAdvisor and Syracuse University’s Institute for Veterans and Military Families. “There is a critical element in transition,” says Ruth Christopherson, SVP of Citi Community Development and program director of Citi Salutes, Citi’s company-wide initiative that supports service members, veterans and their families. “That’s the translation. Not everyone knows that veteran military language.”
Some of that difficulty is a result of the military mind-set that there is a playbook for everything — including finding a job. After all, most military operating procedures, from running a nuclear submarine to changing battery frequency, are spelled out in some sort of field manual. That’s just not the case, though, when it comes to snagging a job in the corporate or tech sectors.
For Angel McDowell, who was a major in the U.S. Army’s Signal Corps, one of her challenges was that she followed the career map provided by the Army, as opposed to fine-tuning her skills to one unique specialization. In her two decades of service, her enlisted duties ranged from medical lab technician to troop commander — not one of which easily translated onto a résumé. As a result, she stuck to focusing on project management.
“I asked my mentor for advice, hired a résumé writer and started looking for a job,” she says. “I followed all the transition steps you learn about while still in Army, but I did not have much success.”
For someone who enlists after high school or has never had to apply for a civilian job, the process can be daunting. Translating military skills to an appealing civilian résumé can be particularly challenging, because military titles are often obscure — “field officer” and “financial technician,” to name a few. Military-transition and mentoring programs, like Veterans on Wall Street or the university-accredited FourBlock (which prides itself on having a strong relationship with diverse employers), can help find clarity.
“Each veteran’s transition is unique,” Christopherson says. “Every aspect of their life is up in the air. Mentoring is that personal touch that takes the unknown and makes it less scary and less of an obstacle to be successful.”
Experts recommend that vets making the transition to civilian life outline their work duties in a typical day as well as for an atypical day. But, they add, it’s best to remove all military jargon. “Explain it as if you’re talking to a 4-year-old,” says Robyn Coburn, a résumé coach specializing in the entertainment industry and founder of WorkInProduction.com. “Then you can start seeing how your particular duties translate to job-speak.”
Veterans shouldn’t feel compelled to find a new job that exactly mirrors their former military duties. In fact, one of the perks of having general responsibilities like report acquisition and handling of multimillion-dollar equipment is that they translate to a myriad of jobs, from script supervisor to operations manager. Industries all across the board value personal interests and unique experiences that go beyond job titles.
For veterans seeking a civilian job, experts recommend creating a résumé that reflects a desired trajectory: Look up descriptions for dreams jobs and then incorporate keywords from those descriptions onto the résumé itself.
For vets who choose to go back to school, the Columbia University Center for Veteran Transition and Integration offers online modules that go hand-in-hand with specific higher education coursework. The program is like having an insider whisper all the tips and tricks to getting through school, from effective note-taking to navigating campus life. “Here is a university that understands the [transitioning] veteran,” says Christopherson. “Columbia’s program and partnerships help guide a career path into the workforce.”
Transitioning vets are also privy to tech-forward resources designed to help them enter civilian life. For example, Military.com’s Transition App, which is part of Monster Worldwide and supported by Citi, links vets with job matches based on specific experience and title by aggregating data from Monster.com’s employment website. In matching skills developed while in the military to databases, the app recommends jobs that not only target primary skills, such as leadership, but also takes secondary and tertiary skills into account. It also offers an interactive checklist to assist with transition concerns, like financial education and preparing for relocation. A planned update to the Transition App this spring will expand content for military spouses and veterans with disabilities, further assisting a smooth transition for the entire family.
Shift, a tech-focused recruiting platform for those transitioning from the military, is another service that assists with career changes. Shift’s founder, Mike Slagh, a former U.S. Navy bomb-squad officer, started the company in 2016 to give future veterans a leg up in finding tech careers by facilitating fellowships before officially leaving the military.
When Lundberg gave the military his six-months’ notice, he started to look for a civilian job. “The transition is crazy,” he says.
After 10 months of searching on his own, Lundberg reached out to Shift. The recruiter matched Lundberg’s Air Force skill set with the needs of tech companies, resulting in a three-month fellowship with Citrine Informatics, an AI platform aiding in the acceleration of materials and product development. As part of his fellowship, Lundberg educates material scientists on how to optimize Citrine’s AI platform by providing customized training.
“That’s exactly what I was doing in the Air Force,” he says. “When I’m at a training event, I can translate what I did to what I am doing now.”
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