Santa Fe College introduced a new service aimed at helping veterans find jobs, but some veterans say the tool may not be all that useful.
On Friday, Santa Fe announced a free service available in Career Coach that lists jobs relevant to veterans’ military experience. The tool uses information such as salary, local job outlook data and real-time postings to help veterans find career paths, according to the press release. It also links veterans to relevant and local degrees or certificate programs.
The service allows veterans to communicate with advisers about career options and the steps necessary to choose and achieve them, according to the press release.
While Santa Fe military veterans say the program is of some use, there are still problems preventing veterans from getting jobs.
Christopher Imler, a U.S. Air Force veteran and 23-year-old Santa Fe botany sophomore, said veterans who served in direct combat roles, such as riflemen, have a more difficult time transferring into the civilian workforce.
“When you get out, there’s not a huge job market for that unless you’re trying to get into private security,” Imler said.
Air Force and U.S. Navy veterans, Imler said, are more likely to transfer easily into the civilian workforce than those who served in the Army or Marine Corps, which are made up of a larger number of riflemen.
He said Santa Fe’s program will be helpful in looking at veterans’ traits, such as leadership skills or problem solving, and matching them to suitable civilian jobs.
Imler said the program aims to inform employers that a rifleman’s job was more than just using a gun.
“Their job wasn’t just to pull a trigger,” he said. “It was also to lead, to be a manager, to be an effective organizer.”
Phillip Snarr, a Santa Fe student who served in the Navy for 24 years and was deployed around the world, said many veterans leaving the military are discovering that civilian employers favor degrees over experience.
“I think civilian employers undervalue veterans’ experience,” the 49-year-old psychology freshman said. “I don’t understand that.”
[A version of this story ran on page 6 on 2/17/2015 under the headline “Santa Fe introduces site to help veterans on their job hunts"]
