A HIRED CALLING!

Derek (00:00.823)
All right, good morning. Stephen Weston. Welcome to Resume Revelator's Hired Calling Podcast. How are you?

Steven Weston (00:06.713)
I'm doing well, sir. Thanks for having me on. It's always a pleasure.

Derek (00:10.871)
So Steve, you prefer Steve or Steven? Steven? Steve? So Steve, you work for Verizon, I believe, right? Thanks for having you on the show, for being here. You originally were scheduled, you were gonna be here and then you said you couldn't make it because you were in the hospital. And then the next day you were like, no, I'm good, let's go, let's get on the schedule. So what happened, what was, you were...

Steven Weston (00:14.361)
Steve is fine.

Steven Weston (00:20.377)
Yes, sir.

Derek (00:38.423)
You were unsure how long you were going to be there and then they let you out. What did you do?

Steven Weston (00:42.713)
Sure, so from the weekend, I had some symptoms pop up and my spouse and I, we figured it would be best to go get checked out to rule out that there are no issues. And it just so happened that as I was getting checked out, we found out that I didn't have any issues. We still don't really know what made the symptoms happen, but.

You know, the message that I shared on LinkedIn and with everybody in my professional network was, you know, when we're veterans, we don't have to worry about retaliation or negative impact with your new corporate careers. In corporate America, you know, it's okay to go to the doctor. It's okay to make sure you're taking care of yourself and it's important to take care of yourself. And if something feels off and doesn't feel right, then...

you need to go get checked out because there's a lot of folks that I served with, well, not a lot of folks, but there's a lot of folks that I served with that shared the same sentiment. And unfortunately, I've had a few folks that have retired a little bit ahead of me that weren't going to the doctor and getting checked out as regularly as they should be, and they're no longer with us anymore. And so I think it's a very powerful and strong message to make sure that...

folks know that it's okay, we're not on active duty anymore. You don't have to worry about getting yanked off a deployment and getting removed from your position or not getting promoted because you went to the doctor to talk about stuff that was bothering you or something didn't feel right. So that's kind of really what happened, but the best outcome is what happened. Nothing was wrong with me, I ended up being okay. And I felt bad for canceling, but I wanted to make sure that you knew that I was ready.

And of course, we rescheduled and we're here today. So thanks for doing that and being open to rescheduling.

Derek (02:36.055)
Yeah, no, it's a really it's a first world problem to have on rescheduling. I'm happy that you're well and thanks for this message to people because yeah, we do need to hear that as veterans that you know, you don't always got to tough it out and and not go deal with your health care. You're gonna put your health health first. So by all means happy you're doing well. So you are an Air Force veteran, right? And what was your you were enlisted Air Force? What was your rank when you got out and what was your job the last year you got out?

Steven Weston (02:51.961)
Absolutely.

Steven Weston (02:57.529)
That is correct.

Steven Weston (03:04.153)
Great question. So I joined in July of 2000. I know that was a little bit a ways from today, but I came in as an air transportation specialist, did that from E1 all the way up to E5. In 2009, I transitioned and became an Air Force recruiter through the old volunteer program. So I was not DSD like the new ones are actually volunteered.

I had to put together a package of sorts and then fire that off and it went to a board and they brought me in and I ended up doing my initial recruiting tour in Middlesex County, New Jersey. For those that know where that is, that's where main campus Ruckers is located. So I was the recruiter in the main campus Ruckers campus as well as the entire rest of Middlesex County. Finished that, ended up.

going through various other assignments within Air Force Recruiting Service as a MEPS liaison, as a senior MEPS liaison. And then I ended up retiring at my 22 year mark as the regional recruiting manager for the 900 square mile Philadelphia area. And the Air Force were called flight chiefs. And then ended up going through the Hiring Our Heroes program and did my fellowship with Verizon and the rest is kind of, rest is history, I'm still here. So.

Hahaha.

Derek (04:33.911)
All right, sounds like you got a very active and interesting career there. How many years total did you spend recruiting on the Air Force side? 13 years total Air Force recruiter. And so how is recruiting different? Actually, before I get into that, so your process on your last year, you understand you went through a higher merit heroes. You also went through a TAPS class, right? Did you do that TAPS class in the same timeframe as you started your?

Steven Weston (04:40.473)
13.

Derek (05:02.711)
your higher hero's skill bridge internship.

Steven Weston (05:09.945)
No, I started preparing for my transition about two to two and a half years prior to my exit. I did the, I did the TAP course right at that 12, 13 months out, Mark. I know you can do it earlier than that. That's when I did it. I was, I didn't do it earlier. I was kind of already living out in the civilian populace. I was, you know, I was already accustomed because being a recruiter.

I had already been doing table setups and going to chambers of commerce and I was already pretty much well integrated in with corporate recruiters and what they're looking for. So for me, you know, TAP, I kind of waited a little bit longer, but I went through TAP, completed that and then it was like, I think it was actually in TAP. No, it wasn't TAP. I had Karen Rack, who is the program manager for the Northeastern United States and still is.

She came in for Hiring Our Heroes and did a little 20, 30 minutes presentation for us. In that presentation, that's where I learned about what HOH was, what their mission was, what they did. I had already been engaging with employers before that, looking for a traditional skill bridge, but I didn't even know that Hiring Our Heroes existed and offered fellowships, which are very similar and are technically still skill bridge too.

It is a SkillBridge program. So once I found out what they were there and her office was right around the corner, I immediately, when I got out that day, I walked over and said, hey, I want to sign up for this program. I think there's a lot of value here. And so that's what I did. And so I actually engaged with HOH. I think they officially pulled me in like maybe a month after I met them.

Derek (06:57.175)
Okay. And so how should other veterans or I'm sorry, how should other service members get informed about hiring our heroes and SkillBridge while they're still in active duty?

Steven Weston (07:09.913)
Sure, so for those that don't know what SkillBridge is, SkillBridge is a Department of Defense program that enables transitioning service members who are on active orders to, within their final 180 days of active duty service, they can engage and court Fortune 500 employers and even local employers to see if they have internship opportunities for the intent.

to help them transition and find a meaningful career after service. Hiring Our Heroes is one of these such programs. There are many out there. If you go on the DoD website for SkillBridge, which you can just type it into Google DoD SkillBridge, you can go to their OSD site, and they'll kind of run you through what are the requirements for the program and things like that.

If you don't wanna do a traditional SkillBridge, you can do Hiring Our Heroes, which is, like I said, a SkillBridge program. And what they are is they're more cohort -based. And so what's a cohort? Cohorts kinda like going through a program with multiple people, having wingmen instead of doing everything by yourself. But whether you do a traditional SkillBridge, which is you doing everything by yourself and engaging with employers on your own, you can go through Hiring Our Heroes and they have over 200 employers that work with them.

to hire military talent as interns, we call them fellows. And a lot of these companies, they also have, like Verizon, we have dedicated headcount for every fellowship position that we offer. And so anybody that goes through one of our fellowship programs, when they come to us from hiring our heroes, it's a 12 week program. You can either start in January, May or September.

It's a 12 week program. And at the end of the program, the intent with us is to fully convert you and hire you into that dedicated headcount that we have off the side. Not all SkillBridge companies and hosts have dedicated headcount. That's something that we do. And there's a handful of other companies that also do it, but we kind of sit at the top of the pack doing that. Our intent with our hiring managers is if you want to participate in the program, we require that manning slot.

Steven Weston (09:29.369)
we hold that manning slot for the purpose of if that fellow is recommended to take the spot, we hold it until they're pushed into that spot. And when they do take that role, it's on the exact same team, under the same leader, at the same location, doing the exact same thing. The only difference is you go from being unpaid to paid. The reason for that is when you're on SkillBridge, whether it's through hiring our heroes or traditional, you are not paid by your host company because the Department of Defense continues to pay you your actual...

duty check.

Derek (10:02.327)
Pardon me. So Steve, it sounds like you just said that essentially in Verizon's SkillBridge, hire our heroes program, the position, there is a position that exists that is full -time on that team, reporting to the same manager, and then you allow them to open up a SkillBridge slot to fill it. And then you hold that full -time employment slot for the SkillBridge candidate, SkillBridge fellow until they...

come through their end of term and you either, they either get that role or they get to go somewhere else. But there is a position for them, which is important because we hear stories of companies who don't do what you just described and they have skill rich people coming through to work there three to six months. And then good luck, see you later with no position either associated or on the same team.

at the same pay level that was described. There are horror stories out there.

So it sounds like you guys are fixing that problem by having the established position and you yourself are in a unique situation here because you are a recruiter, you're already living in town, you transitioned into being a recruiter for Verizon through this program that you're now supporting. That must be very helpful and also rewarding for you.

Steven Weston (11:28.633)
Yeah. So, you know, it was weird. I was in cohort two of 2022, which started in May. And when I describe it to, to folks that, you know, are thinking about the program and what it was like, you know, basically asked me the same question. And I say, it was kind of weird, you know, it was, it was like, you know, in the wizard of Oz, it was like being Dorothy and the wizard behind the curtain at the exact same time. You know, I was Dorothy because I was a new person on the team, new to corporate recruiting.

New to Verizon, you know, new to this whole, even this whole hosting fellows. And I, I was, I was a military recruiter and that's not what we did, you know, and then, but at the same time, now I'm doing interviews and screening talent for the next cohort at the exact same time as a fellow, you know, so the perspective that I got was not just one of a candidate that everybody else gets, but I also have the perspective of now I got to hire these same people that were just peers of mine in.

my Friday huddles, you know, or are still currently peers of mine in my Friday huddles. So it was, it was definitely a unique experience, but I think it was very valuable because now when I speak about these experiences, I do speak as somebody who lived in this industry and went through this program from beginning to end and found success. And I know how others can find success. And so now a lot of the things and stories and tips and tricks that I share,

is to help people coming behind me to do the same thing that I did.

Derek (12:59.175)
you

That's very important. And as part of, you know, self -ethicacy is showing others that it can be done and providing them the vicarious experiences and being a model for that. So do you think it's different being in the recruiter role versus somebody who's transitioning through a higher heroes program going from being, for example, a tank mechanic to being

in United Rentals, Hiring Our Heroes Program, where they're changing jobs, right? What you have is a little bit of, you have the experience on both sides and you went through it. So your experience is unique and it was, I'm not saying it was any easier by any means, I'm sure it was as hard, but the career change for you is different than the career change for others. How do you think?

These programs help people who are changing their careers entirely.

Steven Weston (14:01.305)
This is a great question. And so something that I started doing, it was really shortly after coming on board full -time, you know, at the end of my internship is I opened up a lot of time slots on my calendar. And within the first year, the 12 months of my jumping on this team full -time, I conducted over 350 individual mentorship sessions and resume reviewing with various veterans and military spouses.

to tackle this question that you just asked me. And what it really came down to was showing veterans the importance of how to verbalize their value to hiring leaders and how to get that across on a resume. When you go through TAP, unfortunately, not all TAPs are created equal. Some TAP mentors are amazing. Some TAP mentors leave a little to be desired. And so,

Oftentimes in the military community, they'd say, tailor this and tailor that, but they don't actually sit down and show you how to do it. I think when I went through TAP, it was like a 20 minute section in a three day class that they spent our resumes. And if that's all I was, if I hadn't had other mentors on the side and other programs that I was already mixing it up with, I don't know if I would have been as prepared. And so,

you know, for those that are switching gears, let's say you're going from logistics to sales, or you're going from HR to finance, whatever that transition looks like, there are transferable skills, no matter what job you did in the military, that civilian companies are looking for. And it's knowing how to identify those skills, identify them in the job descriptions, and then work to make your resume speak to those skills.

Derek (15:52.087)
That's a fantastic answer. So tell me a little bit about how you're finding veterans right now for your roles at Verizon.

Steven Weston (16:00.281)
Absolutely. This is a great question too. So currently I use multiple, you know, networking platforms to find talent. So obviously I'm on LinkedIn. I have a five -star LinkedIn profile. You know, I engage with folks. We comment, I build relationships that way, but I also use LinkedIn recruiter. And in LinkedIn recruiter, I find a lot of transitioning and even active duty military talent based off of the banners that they're using, the job titles that they have.

you know, the different hashtags and skills they have uploaded to their profiles. For those that don't know, everything you put on your LinkedIn profile, the more you put on there and the more flushed out your profile is, the easier it is for somebody like me to find you, identify you, and reach out to you to offer an opportunity to screen and be interviewed. I also use Glassdoor, Indeed. I also jump on 50 Strong, Vets to Industries occasionally. We mentor...

and run sessions occasionally for four block. We've partnered with ACP in the past. These are all great organizations that are there to help mentor and move military talent into corporate positions successfully.

Derek (17:14.391)
Great answer. So you personally, did you use any other nonprofit besides the Hiring Our Heroes program whenever you transitioned out? In terms of the career space, not the other things that are available.

Steven Weston (17:25.625)
yes, Vets to Industry actually had a couple of mentors personally, that I actually met through the first Vets to Industry event that I attended. And I had one that we had conversations every Friday for months leading up to the resume release I had with Hiring Our Heroes. So you don't have to be one dimensional. You don't have to just rely on one program. You can be going through one program and also use the...

the education services and mentorship opportunities from other programs. For example, Onward to Opportunity is another one. A lot of veterans use that in conjunction with other programs to knock out certifications to prepare to get out.

Derek (18:07.927)
Thank you for that. A big part of my research, plenty of my interviewees commented about using multiple programs and a couple of midic comments along the lines of use everything that you can, use all that's available to you, be selfish and take all that you can because we often, veterans, have the feeling of if I'm sitting in this seat, nobody else is sitting in this seat or taking a seat from somebody else. But that's not really the case, I don't think, in the nonprofit space when you've got 50 ,000 nonprofits out there offering things.

Steven Weston (18:19.609)
Absolutely.

Derek (18:36.567)
I think having more people fill more seats maybe could direct the funds more appropriately.

Steven Weston (18:42.585)
I agree. We just have to make sure that, you know, the intent of the programs, you are correct. There are a lot of programs out there and I meet leaders and not owners, but founders of other organizations all the time. For example, I was blessed to meet Peggy last week and Peggy is the founder of the Guitars for Vets program that the Gary Sinise Foundation just recently started working with.

Derek (19:11.671)
Nice.

Steven Weston (19:12.441)
You know, there are a lot of other organizations out there that are there to benefit veterans. I just ask that the veteran and the military spouse to whoever it is that's looking for employment from our community. You really need to vet some of these programs though, and make sure that not only do they afford you an opportunity to learn and possibly knock out a certification, but are they veteran ready and not just veteran friendly? There's a lot of companies out there that are veteran friendly.

But when the time comes to push and shove on hiring talent or retaining talent, they're not quite there yet. And so that's one thing that Verizon that we've done a very good job of is not only having opportunities for veterans, but like I said, that head count piece, that holding that manning slot and those hiring leaders to that manning slot to actually bring that talent on full time at the end is very valuable.

And then the next piece is, are you creating a culture within your business that values veteran talent so that the talent stays long -term? And so at Verizon, we have a 90 % success rate of veterans going all the way back to 2018 that are still here. So the fellows that we hosted in 2018, 90 % of them are still with us five years later.

Derek (20:32.983)
I love that you have these metrics and the numbers around their hiring and retention. That's fantastic. That is a sign of a mature program. And we need more companies to have programs like that. But 99 % of the companies in America are small businesses, not in terms of the dollar value, but in terms of actual hiring, in terms of people that are employed. It's a blessing and it's, companies are fortunate usually to have.

Steven Weston (20:55.097)
Yes.

Derek (21:02.167)
these big staff hiring veterans. I had a call or a pod chat with folks at Amazon the other day and they had an impressive number of people that are in there, right? Different program managers for different channels of veteran acquisition. How many of those channels do you guys have? You named off different programs, but are you the program manager for all those or do you have peers working in this with you as well?

Steven Weston (21:25.721)
I'm not the program manager. I'm just one of the recruiters. our program manager is actually Paola Martinez. She leads our team. currently right now there are four of us on the team. So Paola leading myself, you have Brittany Becker and Kedrick Harris and me, Kedrick and Brittany, we each split off and support one of the individual.

business groups for Verizon. So for example, Brittany supports our global networks and technology. That's a lot of our cyber, the outdoor, the cell site engineers, the linemen, the HVAC folks, the technicians, as well as the leadership hierarchy within those organizations as well. Kedrick supports mostly corporate and BCG, which is our sales business. So he works a lot of the corporate roles.

You're going to see a lot like business transformation, finance, things like that, as well as project management and things, as well as sales roles. And then I also help split off the sales group. And then I support Verizon Business Group. And so there's a lot of the AI, robotics, also program management, product management, and some other similar type roles. And so depending on, you know,

where you're kind of looking to move into, that's how we kind of determine who supports you. As well as that's, you know, when you're looking at our military fellowship ads or postings on our career site, that's kind of also how you know kind of who to reach out to depending on what you applied to. So if you know you applied to a business group role, project management, I'm probably the person you're gonna wanna hit up.

you know, to ask, hey, I applied to this role. This was the rec number. This is when I did it. Can you, you know, just wanted to give you a shout out. I usually take those messages and then I go make sure everything uploaded correctly. And then if it's my requisition, I do all the screening, interviewing and setting up the interviews with the hiring manager.

Derek (23:27.959)
Thank you for that response. It's perfect. So I imagine then you have to kind of focus in and stay abreast of things happening in your individual slices of the industry. If you're in the business side, you might attend the business conferences or be following the business messages versus on the engineering side, you're following the engineering side of the work and you're getting involved in engineering things. And that's kind of a good place to run into.

Steven Weston (23:40.761)
Yes.

Derek (23:57.655)
recruiters and other other people on the in the space because the recruiters also need to stay abreast of their industry and then their space, right?

Steven Weston (24:06.425)
Yes. You know, one of the things that I found a lot of value in with the current team that I'm on is that we also rotate who manages those different business groups too. So, you know, you might've been maybe for two cohorts, you manage global networks and technology, but then I swap with one of my teammates and we swap business groups. And what that's been able to allow us to do is not only get experience recruiting,

You know, one subset of careers for one part of the business, which Verizon's a Fortune 20, we're gigantic. So, you know, we have over a hundred thousand employees. So a business group for us is huge. You know, and so we also get experience working across all the business groups. So, you know, I've recruited everything from retail sales to, you know, an executive coming in, looking for C -suite to, you know, just a project manager or, you know,

I have been exposed as well as my teammates to all the business groups. And so we get to learn bird's eye view, what Verizon does, not just from this little tunnel vision, this tunnel vision, this tunnel vision, but we get experience talking to leaders throughout the entire organization. And so when we go to get those fellowships and work with those transitioning members, we have a very good bead on the pulse of the business and what direction it's going.

Derek (25:35.127)
That's also a fantastic experience for you guys. Do you know if similar programs exist across Verizon for other employees to get more of the cross training, you know, the way you just described?

Steven Weston (25:46.905)
not currently. Our program, the military recruiting team is very unique. Now we do have other programs like our campus team that specializes in our university engagement and relationships. We have our thrive program, which is brand new. You'll start seeing some of those job postings come out on our career site. That's more for our entry level folks, folks that are maybe switching gears. Maybe you did 20 years as a propulsion engineer, and now you're looking to jump into cyber as a cyber security person.

You know, those are what those types of roles are for. You know, you're not, you're not necessarily a college student, but you're switching gears into a new profession and you need that opportunity to get your foot in the door.

Derek (26:29.335)
What was that program called again? So you have a thrive program that's basically a career transition space for not necessarily for college, college grads. You could have experienced other industries and you're saying, Hey, I want to go become, I was formally again, a tank mechanic, and now I want to go be a cybersecurity engineer. I realized that I need some training and, this is not quite skill bridge. there's no funding involved other than you're working there.

Steven Weston (26:31.225)
thrive.

Steven Weston (26:58.137)
No, this is a different program, yeah.

Derek (27:00.151)
but you guys are probably gonna provide some training around that or some grace in terms of you're gonna move up pretty quickly as long as you're transitioning well in the role or is it, is that program, is the role also guaranteed at the end or am I missing it?

Steven Weston (27:18.841)
I'm not as knowledgeable because it's not my program, but basically what it is, it's more of like an internship program. It gives you the ability to get your foot in the door, work with a team for a small period of time, very similar to hiring our heroes. But the piece that I'm not fully educated on is whether or not there is a dedicated manning slot. If they're treating this more as a job placement program, or are they treating it more as an internship program? Our campus team, a lot of their

programs are very internship based. So, you know, in the summers between semesters and things like that, it allows these college students to come in, get some experience. So then, you know, when they finally do graduate, their resume has, you know, hey, I did this internship, that internship. So they have relevant experience to get hired into a full -time role post -graduation. Thrive programs kind of, you know, it's very similar, but like I said, it's not geared just towards.

students or just towards the military community. It's actually open to everybody. So if you would like more information on that, you can reach out to Michael .McCoy at Verizon .com and he can introduce you to the program manager Rose and she can offer some more insights on that.

Derek (28:33.399)
Great, thank you for that. So as you're out there recruiting veterans and as you're pulling them in, approximately round number, how many veterans have you interacted with since you joined Verizon?

Steven Weston (28:47.129)
Well, when I first got hired full -time onto Verizon, I think I only had a few hundred followers on LinkedIn and I'm getting ready to hit the 19 ,000 mark since then. So I would say 19 ,000.

Derek (28:59.831)
Well, that's an impressive number. I was more thinking along the lines of in terms of direct collaboration, getting them into Verizon. But I see you have a bigger sense of it. It's actually a better answer to my question. What are the common barriers or what are the problems that you see with veteran resumes and interviews that you see coming into New Orleans?

Steven Weston (29:10.617)
Ha ha ha ha ha.

you

Steven Weston (29:23.801)
So to answer the previous question a little bit more specifically, we've hosted over 200 fellows since 2018 through just that one program. So I didn't do that all by myself. That's a whole team accomplishment. But every cohort, we have anywhere from 20 to 30 fellows per cohort. We do three cohorts a year. So you can kind of do the math for two years what that kind of comes out to. But what I say is,

20 ,000. I do that because, you know, I'm not just recruiting for Verizon. I'm also a member of Millcruit. I'm also a member of other organizations, the VFW, things like that. And so, you know, my network presence on social media isn't always just about hiring people. And so I've provided value and mentorship and material to countless people that are not only hired by Verizon, but they're getting hired elsewhere also. So like, for example, the 350...

or so folks that I did my individual mentorship sessions with, they didn't all get a job at Verizon, but they all got jobs elsewhere. You know, and so at Verizon, we serve the two V's, Veterans First and Verizon. And so when you engage with our team, whether it's on the side individually in a 50 strong event, you know, whatever it may be, you hear about us at a hiring event for hiring our heroes, or you just, like I said, attended an info session, the information that we push out,

is not just for us, but we push it out in our sessions and when we interact with people because we statistically can't hire everyone. And so the more that we share information, we might be able to help somebody get their foot in the door at John Deere, Cushman and Wakefield or Chase or, you know, another organization that we also work closely with. You know, so there's a lot of value there. As far as resumes, some of the things that I see that are like repeat offenders or

I call it repeat offenders, but they don't know what they don't know. You know, especially when they're only getting 20 minutes in a tap class. you know, a lot of the things that folks don't understand is you need to have a master resume that has an entirety, everything that you've ever did. And as you move forward, you should always be writing down and keeping track of everything that you're doing. That's why it's called a master resume. You can come back to it at any time, take bits and pieces out of it that you need.

Steven Weston (31:49.081)
in order to craft a more tailored resume specifically for something that you're, you know, a company that you're engaging with for a particular position. And so what a lot of folks do is when they're crafting that tailored resume, they're not doing a very good job of actually reading and understanding the job description and making sure that the resume is speaking directly to the skills, experiences, and things that the hiring manager is seeking. And so does that mean.

lie about everything on your resume and just make sure you talk about everything in the job description. That's not what that means. What it means is you should be reading that job description from top to bottom. Bump your resume up to it. Put them side by side. Go line by line down that job description. If you legitimately have experience doing anything listed in that job description, you should be talking about it on your resume.

If there's something that you're missing and you don't have it, that's okay. Be honest about it. You know, like, I don't have a lot of experience doing that. However, I do have experience doing this other thing over here and bring that up. You know, but what a lot of folks are doing is they're basically throwing everything they ever did on their resume like a master resume. And then they use that one resume and apply to a hundred positions and they don't change anything. And so what happens is,

you may get lucky and run across somebody like me that is from the community and I can kind of read between the lines on a lot of things and go, okay, they were a Sergeant Major in this battalion. They did, okay, I know they were doing one, two, three, four, and five as a battalion Sergeant Major, because that's what they do. That's the whole point of the SEA job. However, a civilian isn't going to know that. They're not going to know how to read between the lines. And so what happens to a lot of talent is,

they use the same resume, they splatter it around like a shotgun blast. And a lot of the civilian recruiters who don't know and understand our community and the rank structures and the implied, like if you're in a certain position, it's implied you already know what you're doing because you already came through everything on the way up. They don't know how to do that. And so they will think that you don't have the relevant experience for the position. So wrapping this up with a tiny little bow, it's very important when crafting a resume to really know that job description up and down.

Steven Weston (34:08.185)
and really craft your resume to speak to the hiring manager's problem outlined in the top half of that job description.

Derek (34:14.967)
Steve, that was great. And I know we're all guilty of spraying our resume out there a little bit, you know, get into to apply to more jobs faster. Right. And that's kind of, and my software enables that because it allows you to tailor to each individual resume in like five minutes. Right. If not less, once you create a master one, you can hide the jobs that you don't want to show, highlight the ones that you do.

Steven Weston (34:26.905)
Sure.

Steven Weston (34:37.529)
Yes.

Derek (34:44.631)
a few buttons and bring over the keywords right into your resume. And one of my guests at the day had a quote that was like, he said, a resume is an individual love letter to one company, right? And that made a lot of sense. And it's, I think it's, it's, it's tough and we're not all good with words. And that's kind of what got me into that whole, this whole space and what prompted me to go apply AI to the problem and get a doctorate in how organizations are doing.

Steven Weston (34:57.113)
Yes.

Derek (35:14.423)
what nonprofits are doing research, how veterans are transitioning, because there's not a lot of new problems to solve, we've been solving these for a long time. The only thing that's really new in this space is AI, right? So how do we get that applied appropriately? How are you guys using AI at Verizon right now to search for candidates or bring people in?

Steven Weston (35:36.825)
So right now, on our team, we don't use AI as heavy as some others. But we do use LinkedIn Recruiter. And of course, anybody who's familiar with LinkedIn Recruiter knows that they have some AI processes built into that platform. As far as you can craft job postings, you can craft pipelines, you can start pipelining talent. They've automated a lot of the reach out measures through individual messaging, group messaging.

There's some, there's, you can save templates. There's a lot of things that you can do within that platform. If you're not familiar with it. I've actually found a lot of talent via that platform. I think I have one fellow right now that actually found the fellow through LinkedIn recruiter. You know, I just happened to be sourcing for one of our role open roles and he had his open to work banner on and he popped up in my feed. I reached out and we ended up getting an interview and he won it out. You know, so.

A lot of value in those platforms. I also have used chat GPT in the past. I've used other AI tools like skills, sinker and job scan, which are similar to the revelator. I think the revelator is a better product, you know, but, you know, but there's definitely some stuff out there that you can utilize.

Derek (36:47.767)
Thank you for that. I appreciate you for that.

Derek (36:54.967)
Yeah, the world is definitely is changing in this AI space. And, you know, there are a lot of products and it's important that people use something, right? Everybody uses something now. And I know people who are like, who talk about feeling guilty using AI in their resume and are abstaining from it because they don't feel that they're they feel that they're cheating.

This is not cheating as long as you're reviewing what is written and you're backing up that, I actually did this. I can tell you why. And actually why.

Steven Weston (37:26.425)
Yeah. I liken it a lot to, let's just say, I don't know, you're the president of the United States. Do you think the president writes their own speeches? No. Somebody else writes it for them. But do you know what they do before they jump on television? They usually read through that just to make sure there's no grammatical spelling, out of touch messaging, anything like that. So when they get up on stage, there's no surprises. I use these tools in AI the same way. You can use AI to build a resume.

But you should still, once that finished product comes, you should bump it up next to that job description and make sure you're hitting everything that you need to hit. You might have to make some minor edits, some minor changes, but what it'll do is it'll remove that 45 minutes that you have to do it from scratch. It's really like a fast forward button in a video game. You can fast forward through all the BS and get right down to the meat and potatoes of the issue and then work from that point further.

Derek (38:24.855)
And that's great. And one important thing about observing AI writing for you is that it actually increases your writing ability because you are learning while it's doing it, as long as you're paying attention. Now, if you just let it do it and close your eyes and don't watch, then there's no learning involved. But that goes back to self -efficacy as well. And one of my classmates, peer mates, one of my friends, Dr. Jerry Washington is big in this and AI and self -efficacy. He taught me that. So shouts out to him.

I'm gonna change the gears on you for a minute here. So the open to work banner you mentioned, there's a controversy around whether that is helpful or hurtful in the job space. Sounds like you guys use it there. What's your thoughts?

Steven Weston (39:11.161)
Absolutely, I use it. You know, I get a little frustrated sometimes because I see other folks on the platform, you know, the LinkedIn platform that are, you know, especially like for like our military spouses, you know, they have a 20 % plus unemployment rate. They're telling them, well, don't put that you're a spouse on your resume. Don't put that you're a spouse on your LinkedIn profile. Don't use the banner.

Well, when I'm going into LinkedIn recruiter and I'm looking for folks from the community to fill these roles, I'm not finding them because they got these people telling these candidates not to put that stuff on there to identify themselves. You know, it's very easy for me as a recruiter. If I have a military spouse list themselves as a spouse in their, in their page or on their title or on their resume, or I have a transitioning service member on the first line of their resume, they let me know that they're a participant in the hiring our heroes program and which cohort.

It's very easy for me not only number one to identify and find them. Number two, I can very quickly identify if they're in the right timeframe for the role that I have. And if they are, I can reach out, I know how to reach out to them. I can send correspondence and make sure that there's a follow -up and also get them to attend our info session so that they can get all the info they need to make an educated, non -biased decision on what company they want employment.

Derek (40:31.127)
So it sounds like you're saying it's important to understand where you are individually in the transition and own that spot and be willing to seek and accept help and be found, right? So people should maybe stop trying to look so cool as in they've got it under control, maybe put that flag out there and take advantage of programs that are actually trying to help.

Steven Weston (40:41.273)
Absolutely.

Steven Weston (40:54.584)
Now, of course, with any program, you can't 100 % rely on the banner to get you hired. It is a piece of the pie. It is a piece of the puzzle. You also have to make sure you're doing a good resume. You have to make sure you're practicing interviewing. You have to make sure you're networking and going and meeting people. If you just rely on that banner to get you hired, then of course, in context, you may or may not get hired. But if you use it in conjunction with other things that also provide value,

collectively together, they will help you.

Derek (41:29.463)
Great answer. I'm going to change gears on you again. I recently shared a story on LinkedIn for the Military Times about a Marine who had saved the Marine Corps $140 million as a corporal by finding some problems in his interaction with the manufacturer Oshkosh and their blueprints. He got a Meritorious Medal for this.

Steven Weston (41:32.313)
Sure.

Derek (41:55.095)
I don't recommend people put their medals on their resumes directly. I recommend people to understand what the medals were awarded for, take that language and put it in as appropriate and to be careful in listing their medals. Cause then you have to explain my opinion. You gotta explain how you got some of those medals. Sometimes the explanation doesn't quite sit as well with the normal civilian sitting across the camera, across the table. Then everybody's Steve Weston, you know?

Steven Weston (42:21.305)
You

Steven Weston (42:25.689)
Yeah, I understand. And I also see folks that put metals on there. And like I said earlier on to one of your other questions, you might get lucky and find a military veteran recruiter at a company that you're targeting. And they might not mind it as much because they know what it is, obviously. But when engaging with, if you look at the US population, only about 1 % of us are on active duty.

You know, only about, I think, six to seven percent of the total U .S. population has ever served. So that's from World War II all the way up till now. We still have some World War II fellows and ladies out there, but not as many as we used to. But if you just use those percentages across the entire country aggregate, that means when you're dealing with recruiters, if you use that same mindset, that means, you know, 90 something percent of the recruiters out there are not military.

You know, and so they're not going to understand what those metals mean. Like you said, now it's obvious, like a good conduct metal. You can kind of read between the lines on that one, but a meritorious service metal. What's the difference between that and achievement metal or an accommodation metal or a flying cross? They don't, they don't know what that is. And like you said, it detracts from the rest of the value that you're throwing on your resume. I think that was great thing of what you said is, you know,

Whenever we submit ourselves or leadership submits somebody or however that medal is awarded, there's usually a write -up that goes with it. In the Air Force, we do a 1206 document where it's in paragraph format narrative. It has all the metrics as the justification for why that medal is being presented. No matter what branch you're in, I would take that.

and use that as your master if you want to really talk about some serious accomplishments that you had. Those documents are going to have the relevant info you need to really shorten that down. In the Air Force, we use it, we call it bullet writing for our awards packages, 1206s, annual accomplishments, performance evaluations. You want to take three paragraphs and nail it down to like a one -liner. And you can't do that unless you have a lot of information.

Steven Weston (44:38.425)
So for the metals, especially your more significant metals, there's going to be a lot of material to justify that metal. Use that material to showcase your value in that action impact result type format. Some people call it bar. Some people call it star. You know, they add that situation at the beginning, but what, however you want it, whatever you want to name it, whatever process you want to use, these are tools to help you be clear, concise, and to the point.

to speak on those experiences that those medals were earned doing. Or not that anybody shoots out to earn a medal, but for example, a lot of our Medal of Honor winners, they didn't wanna get a medal. They did what they had to do in the heat of the moment to take care of the people on their left and their right, but they earned it through their hard work and sacrifice.

Derek (45:30.839)
Yeah. And Steve, you hit a lot of topics there. I'll cover the respond to the easy one first. I like the star method. But then when you get to more of the manager, director level on the executive level, it becomes the Rasta method, the result first. And then, yeah. And then the STA after results first. But so that story that Marine's name is Corporal Gage, Barbie Airy. And I wanted to, I mean, he had the opportunity to work with Oshkosh engineers as a young Marine.

Steven Weston (45:35.225)
Okay.

Steven Weston (45:44.345)
the Rossman.

Derek (46:00.727)
I was the same situation. I got to work with Grumman and Boeing engineers and workers and mechanics as a young Marine. And I think that if you get that opportunity, you should really leverage it and make the best of it while you're on active duty because it helps you when you transition out. But on the flip side of that, Oshkosh Defense, the corporate side of this, should have their targets on hiring this guy whenever he does transition, if he does decide to leave the Marine Corps before he...

at a young age, I do a full career. But even if he just retires, I mean, that's a pretty impressive accomplishment for a young Marine, no college experience to save us $140 million. I mean, us collectively, taxpayers, that's our money. Impressive.

Steven Weston (46:43.865)
I sure hope they gave that young man a commission for saving the Marine Corps that amount of money because that's more than most folks do in their first four years of service, as far as money saving process improvement, things like that. That's an amazing accomplishment.

Derek (46:47.223)
I don't think the break or gives a week.

Derek (47:01.271)
It's pretty impressive for sure. He got this, you know, Meritorious Service Medal. So I'm not sure what else they gave me, but they should be, should be a promotion involved there somewhere soon, hopefully. Right? Show them the money. Any advice you have for transitioning service members coming out besides hire our heroes and SkillBridge, anything that's job related, but...

Steven Weston (47:08.185)
That's what I'm talking about.

Derek (47:30.327)
not necessarily a program.

Steven Weston (47:32.953)
I would just say, keep an open mind. You know, we need to very quickly, you know, something that really kind of helped me mindset wise, you know, because mindfulness is very real. And, you know, being willing to eat a slice of that humble pie, you know, when you get out, you don't know everything. I don't care how many years you spent in the military and how many thousands of people you led, you don't know everything. You know, you really don't. And so.

You know, I think what really kind of helped me was eating that slice of humble pie, admitting to myself in the mirror that I don't know everything. And then what that did is by getting myself into that mindset, that's not me. That doesn't mean I don't have value. That doesn't mean I'm not a high speed, low drag individual that can get shit done. But you know, what it does is it prepares my mind to be willing to accept mentorship and learn from others. And when you're ready to listen and learn from people, they'll be willing to.

you and teach you. And so I've been able to learn a lot in a very short period of time by getting my mind in the right place. You know, being a sponge, being a pair of eyes and a pair of ears in a meeting room. Now, be where your feet are. Michael McCoy, a friend of mine and also a former boss of mine, you know, he leads all of the emerging talent programs at Verizon. He consistently tells our fellows all the time, be where your feet are.

Stop worrying about having wanting to produce immediately. Stop worrying about, I feel like I'm not doing enough. Stop worrying about be where your feet are. Slow your brain down. It's okay to slow down. We're not on active duty anymore. There's no lives at stake in the hiring process. You know, nobody's going to die if you don't get something done by tomorrow morning at nine o 'clock. It'll be okay. You know, and learning to kind of dial back a little bit.

relax a little bit and like I said, open your mind up to being willing to listen and learn from others around you. Even if they have less experience than you, they may have more experience in where you're at now than what you do. And so you can learn from them and use that knowledge to very quickly climb the ladder.

Derek (49:46.839)
Thank you for that. So it's different being a transition service member, you know, for that one year, two years out versus being somebody who's been out for seven, eight, 10 years and maybe then realizing that you need to change. I think, and I would have to go back into the research, but I think the incidences of homelessness in veterans actually increases after 10 years. It's not an immediate thing. Something happens there. I think it's a...

Steven Weston (49:59.769)
Yeah.

Derek (50:14.967)
probably a long period of time not having meaningful employment. But so the path back to meaningful employment is really different for transitioning versus I've been a veteran for a long time. How do veterans who've been out for a while get back into these programs, organizations who are looking for them?

Steven Weston (50:34.969)
I'm very glad you actually brought this up. I didn't know you were going to ask that question, but I'm so glad that you did because there is a program that Hiring Our Heroes has that is specifically tailored to veterans that have been out for an extended time. And so that program is called Career Forward. And what Career Forward is, is it's a Hiring Our Heroes program that is sponsored by Google. And they have a slew of professional certifications that you can earn.

It's a free program for veterans. And what you do is if you're a veteran, and this is open to military spouses as well, by the way, but what they can do is they can apply for this program. If accepted into the program, they have to pick and complete one of the advertised Google certifications. Once they complete the requirements of the program and the Google certification that they chose, they then become eligible to participate.

in the hiring process for fellowships. So yes, the same fellowships that the SkillBridge active duty members compete for, they can also compete for those as well. And they also get paid a stipend while they go through the internship. It's not gonna be, you know, it's only gonna be like $18 an hour. However, it's better than nothing. And it also, this is a huge opportunity to get your foot.

Derek (51:55.191)
Right.

Steven Weston (51:59.417)
in the door to a Fortune 500 company or even a local company, because you can bring your own company to Hiring Our Heroes and get them signed up to become a new employer with that program as well. And so let's say you went out and sought a company and this company is like, we'd really like to get into the SkillBridge. You can bring them to Hiring Our Heroes and Hiring Our Heroes will get them spun up to get them to be an approved employer so that you can do your fellowship with them. Or you can use one of the ones that are already there.

I'm currently hosting right now three individuals from that program. One's a spouse, one's a transitioning service member, and the other one's both, a spouse and a transition service member. And they're finding success going through our programs. They're currently getting ready to finish week two, going into week three. And I have successfully fully converted folks from this program onto full time. And they're currently working for Verizon right now.

Derek (52:37.875)
Yeah.

Steven Weston (52:57.177)
Laurie McAlexander is the program manager for that program.

Derek (53:03.127)
Well, Steve, you're doing the Lord's work here. I wasn't aware of this. I wasn't aware of this program.

Steven Weston (53:05.721)
There's a lot of people that are not, they don't know about that program. So even if you're somebody that got out 20 years ago, you can use this program.

Derek (53:11.479)
And so.

Derek (53:16.727)
So thanks for that piece there too. And so I have a doctorate in this space. I've researched this space and there are so many programs that exist and one common question or concern or thing that I like to figure out how to go fix is, is how, how can we create slash why is there not a real functional active repository or master listing for this? I think it's because of all the different channels of the nonprofit money and you know,

Yes, they all want to work together in terms of they all want to solve veteran unemployment. There's also probably some competitiveness or some program space of, you know, I'm not sure what you call it, but the inability for everybody to collaborate on the same thing because of slightly different priorities in terms of how their funding comes in or what their mission statement says or what their objectives are or how much they need to grow to do certain things.

Steven Weston (54:07.449)
Yeah. Yes.

Steven Weston (54:13.849)
Yes, that's something that if you guys have never met Candy Tillman, who runs the 50 Strong Organization, she talks about this amongst other subjects as well. But there's so many different types of SkillBridge programs and fellowship programs. Like I said, HOH is just one of many. But you have some that are purely educational in nature. You have some that are more like what we call the Vet Tech programs that are VA funded. If you don't know how those programs run,

The VA, I believe, pays 50 % upfront when a person enrolls. And then if they're placed into a career at the end, then that other 50 % of the payment goes to that organization on the back end. That's a different type of organization. Then you have ours, the direct corporate fellowship programs. Then you have like the onward opportunity type programs. So,

There are a lot of different programs in the space. And like you said, you are correct. They're funded in some different ways. And I know recently with like the vet to tech program, it's come out that a lot of these organizations are failing because while they're providing a lot of service members with certifications and things like that, it's not necessarily translating to hires, you know? And so there are a lot of veterans that are going through those programs and they're not getting hired.

six months to 12 months post going through the program. So a lot of the things, you know, that us, those of us that are very big into the space are trying to do is really get that message out about, like I talked about with you earlier is, are you working with your leadership in your organizations and your businesses, whether it's a small business, local, or a large organization like a Walmart or something, you know, are they allowing you to take that head count?

Are they being meaningful when they have those programs? If you host a hundred people, do you have the headcount for a hundred people for that cohort? You know, are we pushing people into those programs? Those are really kind of the messages we're really trying to get employers to get in the mindset of, all right, yes, this program initially was just like an internship type program from the DOD. However, if you're going to bring these people on and spend 12 weeks mentoring them and training them,

Steven Weston (56:32.281)
Why wouldn't you want to retain that talent and keep them? You know, and so we're just trying to change that narrative.

Derek (56:40.023)
It's a multi -faceted topic too. I have a friend I won't expose who he is. He's a senior enlisted military, retiring, has impressive graduate degrees, and was looking for a skill bridge program to help him transition legitimately career to career. But due to command constraints and bureaucracy and also availability,

Steven Weston (56:43.673)
Yeah.

Derek (57:08.087)
He got into basically a program where it was a PMP, a skill bridge program where it was like online for 10 weeks. And he was like, yeah, this is a really good deal as I transitioned. But now that he got out, he may have his PMP, but he doesn't have any employment lined up. And now he's like, that was not a good deal. I should have, I wish I had had better opportunity and it wasn't just his fault. A lot of it comes back to command. And even I found too in my research that one of the common complaints is that the skill bridge opportunities,

Steven Weston (57:08.217)
Yes.

Steven Weston (57:27.321)
Yeah.

Derek (57:37.495)
are aren't always approved. There's plenty of people who get through the process waiting on one signature and that signature never comes. And there's not enough due to manning requirements for actually performing the military role, not enough people to let go to do these things. And I guess I probably just muddied up the topic there for you, but what do you think about that space?

Steven Weston (57:53.177)
Yes.

Steven Weston (58:03.385)
You know, I run into this quite often, you know, because I not only live in the HOH space, but we also do traditional SkillBridge. We do both. So I have fellows that I'm hosting right now that are traditional SkillBridge. I have folks that I'm hosting right now that are fellows from HOH. HOH is the more structured program with the three cohorts. They're 12 weeks, no ifs, ands, or buts. The non -traditional, you know, or the non -traditional, but the traditional SkillBridge programs,

We're a lot more flexible. They're not cohort based. And so we can do anything from like eight weeks to I have one that's going to be doing 17 weeks, you know, for an internship with us. We're a lot more flexible with that to kind of help out with that as well. You know, in case the commands are like, well, you can have 60 days. All right, we can do eight weeks. We can do that. Now, you might have to do some of it on your terminal leave or something, but we can usually kind of help kind of work around, you know, work with that a little bit.

as long as everything's on the up and up. As far as like how to deal with the commands, depending on what mood they're in and whether they, depending on mission and manning, whether they can or cannot support. I mean, I don't know if there's ever gonna be a perfect answer to kind of fix that problem, but one thing that you can do, not you, but the member that's seeking that employment opportunity, communicate often and early with your leadership.

you know, I've had folks where I interviewed, we went through the whole gambit with the hiring manager. I prepared all their training documents, training plan, all that got it all submitted. And then they had a change of command. The previous commander on the way out, didn't approve it in time, for whatever reason. And then when the new commander came in, they had a different philosophy. And so they, they, they said, no, I'm not going to allow it when the other one was going to allow it. So,

Derek (59:52.023)
Thank you.

Steven Weston (59:58.873)
you know, if you're communicating with your leadership early and often, it usually, you know, that track leading up to when it's time to play ball, you know, if there's an incoming commander or even if at first they weren't on board with it, sometimes you might actually get them to change their mind, the more knowledgeable they are on the program to kind of help alleviate those problems. But there's always going to be that one command that legitimately doesn't have the manning to let their people go. I mean, there's, I can't really speak on that.

that retention piece depending on the branch, but there's always going to be those onesy twosies.

Derek (01:00:34.551)
One kind of pie in the sky idea I have around that topic is, let's say for example, what would you have said had you had the opportunity to, I think now the maximum you can do for SkillBridge is six months, and that's like you got the top load and they hooked you up, is six months. What if you got to do, instead you worked all the way up until your EAS, and then you went for one year in this internship new SkillBridge program paid.

So you serve your full term at your duty station. Your commander had his personnel fully for their enlistment, for their contract. But then that one year after that was more of an internship program. Maybe different for retirees, but the one termers, they have the four or five years active, then you have the three to four years inactive. That one year in session could be very helpful if that were, you know, and I think that if you were to balance out the extra recruiting cost,

Steven Weston (01:01:23.129)
inactive, yeah.

Derek (01:01:30.839)
and the extra cost of paying that salary for the year, you might actually see there's actually a profitable balance in terms of the net effect.

Steven Weston (01:01:39.513)
Yeah, that's a unique way to kind of look at the problems very outside the box. The only concern that I would have would be, let's say they, they, they're your huckleberry and they want to go down that road. I would be concerned that they would, well, we already offered the GI bill and we already offer chapter 35 benefits. So if we're going to start doing that, maybe we don't need those anymore. You know, so, you know, that's a very, it's a, it's a good outside the box idea, but my concern is I would rather keep my GI bill.

and chapter 35 benefits versus the other way around. Because long -term, those benefits go much longer. I would hate to rob Peter to pay Paul. But that would be my only concern with that, really. Other than that, I'm probably not as researched in that field as you are. But that would be my concern just at the top of my head.

Derek (01:02:32.023)
Now, those are very good concerns. I don't know how they would overlap or conflict, but not everybody goes back to college for the GI Bill. Not everybody can get into the VR and E programs. And the GI Bill, actually, that program has an expiration date. I think it's 2035 or something. No, no, not your entitlement to it. The existence of the GI Bill being something that's offered to service members coming in is going to end at some point.

Steven Weston (01:02:47.161)
Not anymore it doesn't. No, not anymore it doesn't.

Steven Weston (01:02:58.297)
tracking. Yeah, tracking. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Derek (01:03:01.527)
Yeah, I didn't get the Forever GI bill. I got out too early, but that was definitely an upgrade to the program.

Steven Weston (01:03:04.697)
Why transferred mine to my kids? So, you know, that's the other thing is if they take that away and I transferred it to my kids, now they always grandfather it. So anybody that already did whatever they did, they wouldn't take that away. But anybody new wouldn't have the ability to transfer their GI bill to their kids. Maybe, I don't know. Like that's when you talk government funding, like sometimes they'll be like, all right, we'll do this, but we're gonna pull the money from here, you know? Like.

Derek (01:03:33.431)
Right.

Steven Weston (01:03:33.465)
It's like sleight of hand, right? That's my concern. Yes, sir. You know.

Derek (01:03:37.783)
Robbing Peter to pay Paul.

Derek (01:03:45.175)
Steve, I know we are at our time here and I want to be mindful of yours. You got plenty more veterans to go hire and I want to let you go do that. I appreciate you being here. I'd like to have you on again in the future once they get more, you know, better at this and have more things lined up. So anything you want to share with us before we get off here?

Steven Weston (01:04:03.193)
Sure, I'd like to share with you something that everybody's been bugging me about for the last week on my LinkedIn profile when I made my announcement that I have some good news coming up. This Friday will actually be my last day recruiting for Verizon. As I'm set on starting on Memorial Day, I'm going to be moving into a marketing manager role supporting a different part of the business at Verizon. So this is actually one of my last events representing Verizon as an actual recruiter.

Derek (01:04:17.295)
my gosh.

Derek (01:04:32.407)
Wow. Well, so I didn't see that note and I definitely feel, you know, humbled that I get to be one of your last events as being a recruiter for Verizon. So this new marketing role. So, so congratulations on that. And I mean, I have some time if you don't mind. How did you, how did this happen? So you're, you're changing, you're, you're now yourself changing your role a little bit. So please tell me more.

Steven Weston (01:04:52.473)
Exactly. So, you know, coming into this organization, this employer is very good at developing its talent. We have something called a talent GPS where, you know, as soon as you're a full -time employee, you can view the entire taxonomy of the business, all the job descriptions, not like the full job descriptions, but basically the taxonomy describing each position and each level. And so if you, for example, you come in out of the military and

And you're like, you know what, my first job is, I don't know, I'm a project manager, project managing something. But you're like, you know what, Billy over there, Billy does something really cool. I want to learn more about what Billy does. I can go into the taxonomy, look up that position, read what it's all about, what organizations they support. And then I can use that information to reach out to those organizations on the side, utilizing our Slack.

and start building those relationships upfront so that when the time comes that that team has a project or they're looking for somebody to advise or consult or whatever, your name is at top of mind because you've already established those relationships. And then when they finally do drop an opening on that team and you apply, it's a no brainer that you're going to be a good fit for that team. They've already worked and conversed with you previously, you know? And so what I was doing for the last couple of years was just really

Like I said, being a pair of ears, bearing a pair of eyes, learning and listening from everybody, my peers, my leaders, you know, entry level folks, college grads, you know, whatever, anybody that I could get time with, I learned from. And so, you know, I was applying for a handful of roles and it just so happened that this was one of the roles that came down. I thought it was a great opportunity. So I shot my shot.

And I was very lucky that they, they reached out. They saw my resume that of course, you know, cause I practice what I preach. they allowed me to do an interview and they absolutely, you know, I obviously I knocked the interview out of the park because I got the job, but you know, it just really goes back to everything that we've been talking about for like the last hour. You know, do you have goals long -term and short -term? Where do you want to be?

Steven Weston (01:07:07.289)
Is it the employer you want to do it with? And for me, you know, just having done the research upfront and following through with what I'm talking about in my content, you know, has led me to this position and this new opportunity, which I'm very eager to learn and grow even more. And then maybe next time I come back, maybe I might have another one to share with you, you know, but I find it very important to practice what you preach. So.

Derek (01:07:35.095)
So again, congratulations on the new role and thanks for sharing here again, you know, being your last, your last roles, your last events in this role is special in the way that you just told us how you did it is important and impactful because it was very intentional where you talked about planning and like putting together, you know, your, how you were going to accomplish this and starting early these kinds of roles, the, the, the role that you always want. I mean, being very general.

Steven Weston (01:07:38.233)
Thank you.

Derek (01:08:03.799)
They come up and they go away. They be prepared for them. I think a lot of us, we spend more time searching than we do preparing. And then when we find something, we rush through the process and then we miss the opportunity. So being prepared for that role sounds pretty important.

Steven Weston (01:08:20.121)
Yes, sir.

Derek (01:08:21.943)
So Steve, I will let you get to your next and hire more veterans and start planning for your next job and getting into that new role. And I wish you all the success that you possibly can have and look forward to talking to you again soon.

Steven Weston (01:08:33.241)
Thanks, Derek.