Editor’s note: Hiring Our Heroes funnels the immense employment potential of transitioning service members into veteran-ready employers through the Hiring Our Heroes Corporate Fellowship Program. Working at more than a dozen program sites across the nation, transitioning military service members have the opportunity to gain hands-on experience in the civilian workplace through an on-the-job fellowship with businesses of all sizes. The Corporate Fellowship Program matches candidates with participating companies, giving service members behind-the-scenes insight into how some of America’s biggest and best organizations operate, and at the same time connecting employers with top veteran talent.<\/p>\n
The Fellow Spotlight introduces a fellow who has recently graduated from the program.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Master Sergeant,\u00a0U.S.\u00a0Marine Corps<\/strong> I\u00a0learned\u00a0about the Corporate Fellowship Program\u00a0during a\u00a0brief\u00a0delivered\u00a0to my Transition Assistance Class. I noticed that there was an array of companies that participated,\u00a0ranging\u00a0from Fortune 500 companies to smaller\u00a0startup companies. The list of\u00a0participating\u00a0companies\u00a0piqued\u00a0my\u00a0interest\u00a0that I may be able to\u00a0job-shadow in a company such as General Motors or UPS,\u00a0which would\u00a0then\u00a0hopefully turn in to a job offer at the completion of the program.<\/p>\n I\u00a0had\u00a0the pleasure\u00a0of\u00a0working\u00a0as\u00a0a\u00a0\u201cUPS\u2019er\u201d,\u00a0a\u00a0title that is given to every employee within UPS. Due to the large size of the\u00a0organization,\u00a0UPS\u00a0has\u00a0many different roles and responsibilities that reside within\u00a0the company. The objective of UPS\u2019s program\u00a0was to expose us to as many different functional\u00a0areas\u00a0as possible during the\u00a012-week\u00a0program.<\/p>\n I was\u00a0first exposed to\u00a0the\u00a0small package operations\u00a0and learned how parcels\u00a0are organized, dispatched, and delivered. I actually went to UPS\u2019s driver \u201cboot camp\u201d where new service providers are trained and tested against metrics that\u00a0continually allow them to set industry standards for\u00a0package delivery. Prior to\u00a0attending\u00a0that course, though, I spent a day with a driver, wearing the same uniform\u00a0and making\u00a0deliveries! For a day I was\u00a0that\u00a0UPS\u2019er\u00a0who was delivering on a promise that was made when the shipper turned the package over to UPS. For me,\u00a0the marquee week\u00a0was\u00a0when I was given the opportunity to shadow UPS\u2019s\u00a0public Affairs team in Washington D.C. I spent the morning at an\u00a0international\u00a0trade summit where I had lunch with James Sullivan, the Deputy Assistant Secretary for Services,\u00a0and Laura Lane, the President of UPS\u2019s Global Public Affairs Division. The afternoon was\u00a0spent\u00a0lobbying support from multiple U.S. Representatives at the Rayburn Building\u00a0and I ended the\u00a0day with a visit to\u00a0the UPS Townhouse. Less than 12 hours later, I was on the TARMAC at Baltimore Washington International, sitting in the cockpit of a UPS Boeing 767 that had just delivered packages from Louisville, Kentucky, discussing the intricacies\u00a0of\u00a0UPS\u2019s\u00a0air operations.<\/p>\n I had an absolute blast in every aspect! As a military logistician,\u00a0this\u00a0opportunity\u00a0was second to none. This was a chance for me to\u00a0see if I liked working for UPS\u00a0and if I could prove my potential worth to UPS as\u00a0a\u00a0UPS\u2019er\u00a0as well.<\/p>\n The Corporate Fellowship\u00a0Program\u00a0helped\u00a0ease my fear of not finding a job.\u00a0Even\u00a0more than that, the Corporate Fellowship gave me an opportunity\u00a0to\u00a0grow my network exponentially, as well as reinforced the belief that my leadership abilities transcend the uniformed services.<\/p>\n The fellowship program has an 80% job placement rate for\u00a0fellows upon completion,\u00a0so\u00a0when I\u00a0received\u00a0the\u00a0list of\u00a0companies that I was\u00a0scheduled\u00a0to interview\u00a0with,\u00a0I knew that I wanted to\u00a0be a\u00a0fellow with UPS. When I was offered the fellowship with UPS I was ecstatic,\u00a0because I knew that\u00a0meant I\u00a0had an excellent opportunity to earn myself a position within the\u00a0company.<\/p>\n These companies that are willing to take on service members understand the value that we, as uniformed service members, can bring to their company. As service members\u00a0we are given immense amounts of responsibility from a very young age. Those responsibilities range from maintaining multi-million-dollar\u00a0pieces of equipment without supervision to leading patrols into combat.<\/p>\n These companies intrinsically understand the\u00a0amount of pressure that is placed into our hands\u00a0and know the value that we can bring to their companies with the soft skills that become innate over a service member’s time in the military. These\u00a0soft skills, such as\u00a0decision making, leadership, and work ethic,\u00a0are all skills that can transfer to any occupation.<\/p>\n With regard to personal discoveries, I rediscovered my passion for getting into the trenches with the operators on the front line. What I am saying is that I got\u00a0so\u00a0used to working as a\u00a0manager\/supervisor in the latter part of my career, that I had forgotten how much I enjoyed doing some of the \u201cheavy lifting,\u201d so to speak.<\/p>\n Professionally, I learned that synergy, team work, and leadership in the civilian workforce are very similar to the same methods that I have used throughout my career in the Marine Corps.<\/p>\n The biggest benefit that I gained from this program was the opportunity to learn from different companies about the hiring process, interview process, and resume tips and tricks. Most of those topics are covered during the mandated transition assistance class, but the fellowship gave me\u00a0the opportunity to see these topics\u00a0covered\u00a0by hiring professionals.<\/p>\n Coming into the Fellowship, I was used to a rigid schedule. When you come into the fellowship, depending on the host\u00a0company,\u00a0your schedule may vary from day to day, or week to week. Every\u00a0fellow\u2019s experience is going to be unique, but if you give the program and your host company 110%\u00a0effort,\u00a0you are going to come out of the program with an\u00a0informed understanding\u00a0of how the corporate civilian workforce operates, regardless\u00a0of whether\u00a0the program ends with a job offer.<\/p>\n Editor’s note: Hiring Our Heroes funnels the immense employment potential of transitioning service members into veteran-ready employers<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":611,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[25,53],"tags":[75,66,34],"service_role":[],"class_list":["post-610","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-articles","category-stories-of-success","tag-fellowships","tag-military-transition","tag-veteran"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n
\nMilitary Occupational Specialty:\u00a0<\/strong>Logistics Chief
\nCurrent\u00a0Employer:<\/strong>\u00a0Innovative\u00a0Reasoning LLC<\/p>\nWhy did you choose to apply for the Corporate Fellowship Program?<\/h4>\n
What was your\u00a0experience while working and training with your corporate partner?<\/h4>\n
What difference did the\u00a0Corporate\u00a0Fellowship\u00a0Program make in your transition process?<\/h4>\n
What\u00a0does it mean\u00a0to have companies that are willing to invest in transitioning service members?<\/h4>\n
What personal and professional discoveries did you have while studying as a fellow?<\/h4>\n
What is the biggest\u00a0benefit of participating\u00a0in the Corporate Fellowship Program?<\/h4>\n
What should other transitioning\u00a0service members\u00a0know about the Corporate Fellowship Program?<\/h4>\n
Hiring Our Heroes Corporate Fellowship Program is a 12-week program that provides transitioning service members with professional training and hands-on experience in the civilian workforce. For more information about Hiring Our Heroes’ Corporate Fellowship Program, visit HiringOurHeros.org\/Fellowships.<\/a><\/h3>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"