Life & Times Blog - Blog Archive

google
yahoo
bing

Life & Times airs weeknights at
7:00 PM on KCET

Tues. – Thurs. at
7:00 PM on KCET-HD

This blog is fully moderated: Moderation Explained; Terms of Use

Recent Posts: Life & Times Says Goodbye; The Mayor Gets His Schools; Nuclear Biomedical Waste Buried in Brentwood; Waiting for Justice: Executions on Hold; Lethal Plastics–Visible and Invisible; Fighting a War Remotely

: About L&T blogs

Engage, Interact, Debate with Life & Times RSS

About the Story: Finding a job is a challenge for anyone, but try convincing someone to hire you if you went to war straight out of high school. Some 12,000 veterans enter California's job market every year. Toni Guinyard catches up with some Iraq War vets at a job fair and others who are taking a more unconventional route to employment. (TRT: 8:31)

: The Association for Parrot CARE; California Employment Development Department; California Fellowship of Christian Veterans Blog; Employers 4 Veterans Blog; G.I. Jobs; GridApp Systems Blog’s “Cover Letter Inspiration” Article; HireVetsFirst; Hiring America’s Veterans Today; National Veterans Foundation Blog; United States Department of Veterans Affairs’ VA Greater Los Angeles Healthcare System; Tags: Government, Iraq War, Labor Union, Military, War

Hire a Vet

Publish date: December 4, 2007
Last updated: January 5, 2008

Reporter's NOTES

Toni Guinyard
Many veterans who are trying to reenter the workforce after returning home are finding that it’s not a simple process. Some need therapy.

Others need help figuring out what they’re qualified to do. My first stop for this report was a job fair that is targeting veterans.

It was one in a series of 10 that are being held statewide. According to the California Employment Development Department, nearly 7,700 people came in search of work.

Just over 4,000 were veterans. They’re trained to do jobs that most of us are afraid to do in places that most of us wouldn’t dare to go. Now, they’re trying to figure out how to apply skills they have learned in the military to jobs that are available here at home.

We invite you to tell us your thoughts about this issue.

COMMUNITY VIEWPOINTS

01.05.2008 | 8:49 pm
Did the veterans in Iraq sleep in instead of going to class for their Master’s degree? I am a Vietnam veteran who recieved two purple hearts in 10 minutes, survived with no mental medication and was spit on by college students when I came home. Are the college-educated folks judging who is worthy of a fair-paying job after they slept in instead of defending their country?

AHowell - Tigard, Oregon

12.10.2007 | 8:42 pm
Enlisted military personnel are trained to do some jobs that would require certification for the same employment outside of the military. This is the reason that some veterans cannot obtain employment right after leaving active duty.

I believe that the military services train in this manner to retain personnel. I think that there should be a professional certification program within the military that will prepare personnel for employment after leaving active duty.

L.E. - Las Vegas, Nevada

	* Required
* First Name:		* Last Name:
* City:		* State:
* Email:		* Screen Name:	(will appear on post)
* Comment:
	By submitting a comment I have read and agree to KCET's Terms of Use for Online Forums.