CAMP PENDLETON, Calif. --
Hiring Our Heroes came to Camp Pendleton to host a hiring event at the Pacific Views Event Center here May 7th. Over 300 job seekers and 45 employers were in attendance.
With over two-hundred productive yearly hiring events, Hiring Our Heroes travels across the country in search of transitioning active duty members, veterans, retirees, reserve members and their families to afford them with job and networking opportunities.
Hiring our Heroes is a non-profit organization with the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation that has initiated a campaign to consolidate cohesive businesses with military affiliates in an attempt to hire 500,000 by the end of 2014. Since its inception in March of 2011 it has confirmed 108,000 hires as a direct result of their fairs and events.
“We are really focusing on trying to be as accessible as possible to transitional service members and veterans and their families,” said Sarah Worley, Military Spouse Employment Programs Coordinator. “We understand a lot of the unique challenges they’re facing, we are looking to bring them the opportunities we know they deserve by connecting them with the employers at our hiring fairs.”
The Hiring Our Heroes organization is very diligent about their selection process for employers by assuring that available slots are open for hire in accordance with specific regions. They ask that local employers have a minimum of three positions open locally, while national employers have at least five positions open.
“My job is to advise the military how we can help them as they transition out, and at the same time advise hiring companies why these applicants are suitable candidates,” said Pedro Navagonzalez who is the Military Programs Advisor for Volt and a retired Marine Career Planner.
As the military programs advisor for Volt, Navagonzalez helps transitioning military members find local job opportunities within their communities that can potentially lead into a long term career. Volt coordinates with companies such as Boeing, Solar Turbines and General Atomics.
“The Employers are all very helpful, very friendly, and willing to communicate with us,” said Master Sgt. William Amass, the deputy director of the Consolidated Material Service Center with Headquarters and Support Battalion. “[Volt] is almost like my own team of job hunters goings out there and supplementing me.”
Amass said he could see the correlation of both tangible and intangible skillsets acquired in the occupational specialties and training of the Marine Corps that can attribute with associated job fields offered at the hiring fair. Amass saw professionalism, discipline, and punctuality as contemporary values within both the Marine Corps and the civilian occupational world and would stress to military members to actively pursue these opportunities.
Volt is just one of many employers that took part in reaching out to job seekers at the hiring fair. Representation covered a broad spectrum from job opportunities at the University of California, San Diego to the U.S. Customs and Border Protection or wild land firefighting with the California Conservation Group.
There is something out there for everyone, stated Worley, and our mission is make people aware of these meaningful job opportunities.
For more information on Hiring Our Heroes and upcoming job fairs visit
uschamber.com.