Hiring a Veteran!!!!!!!!!!

There is a segment of our society that many multifamily property owners and management companies have not tapped into and that is the veterans. Now like in any profession you have the broad spectrum of professionalism and of course the lack there of. So how do you break the code? First lets talk about translating some service skills over from military jargon into langauge that can be understood by those who have no idea about military skill sets.

1. Non Commissioned Officer (NCO) these are personnel that served in the grades from lowest to highest Corporal, Sergeant, Staff Sergeant, Sergeant First Class, First Sergeant, Sergeant Major: These ranks are all called noncommissioned officers and it is because they have not been commissioned by Congress for their ranks. These personnel obtained their ranks through working in their professions, perfecting their skills, appearing before boards for the next level of responsability and once obtaining the grade of Staff Sergeant and promotions after that, they are compared service wide with others with their grade and military occupational skills (MOS). These personnel are leaders and the higher their rank normally the more personnel they are in charge of.

What do you get? You get people that are leaders, team players, problems solvers, and some of the best trainers in the world! You have personnel that have been trained in accounting, maintenance, management, training, leading, counseling, and many other areas not listed here.

2. Student Living and family Living this can be compared to housing single soldiers. So, there is turnover. Now there are some differences from military to civilian as the soldiers do not pay directly, but the First Sergeant has to have a maintenance program (Self help) for their unit. There has to be a list maintained of maintenance requirements and the First Sergeant ensures they get done.

There are other duties within what was military housing before privitazation where the noncommissioned officers had to be Stairwell, Building, and Area Coordinators for their communities and looked out for the maintenance, safety, and well being of the families in their areas.

3. Evaluations and type of discharge will tell you what kind of person you have before you. It will also speak of their experience in the number of years served. Normally you do not have a ship jumper and their motivation is job satisfaction, being recognized for a job well done. You have personnel where as they may not have a college degree for the most part many of them may have enough experience in given areas which will translate into and associates and there are some even that have taken college courses in marketing, business management, business law, and so on.

4. In general for those of you who are looking to hire veterans or do not understand what skills they may have; I have talked about just one area of personnel as there are also the commissioned officers, who received their rank through Congress. For the most part they all have at least their batchelor degrees.

You have a section of our society that have served our country and have a passion for their profession and to have a veteran on your team 98% of the time you will not be sorry, because for the most part they will exceed your expectations!

Do not get me wrong here either as I am not knocking any other portion of our society, just bringing attention to a group that maybe overlooked and are a great resource to look at.