American Forces Press Service
By Lisa Daniel
WASHINGTON, Aug. 23, 2012 - When First Lady Michelle Obama and her "Joining Forces'" partners
talk about service members needing transitioning into commercial work, they're
talking about people like Paul Michael Andrews.
First Lady Michelle Obama announces a major military employment
milestone during a "Joining Forces" event on Naval Station Mayport in
Jacksonville, Fla., Aug. 22, 2012, reporting that more than 2,000 companies have
hired 125,000 veterans and spouses through the campaign. U.S. Navy photo by
Petty Officer 1st Class Ian W. Anderson
(Click photo
for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image
available.
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Andrews
joined the military young and without a college degree. The Navy sent him to
school to be a sonar technician, and he spent most of his six-year military
career operating the world's most sophisticated equipment to detect and track
foreign submarines from the USS Roosevelt guided missile
destroyer.
Andrews had two deployments: one to Somalia, and another to
eastern Afghanistan to serve nine months working intelligence for a provincial
reconstruction team.
The former petty officer knew he'd had "some awesome
experiences" in the Navy, but when he decided to separate, he said, the thought
of a civilian job search was filled with anxiety. Like many of his shipmates, he
had never written a resume and didn't know where to begin.
"We don't
spend time tweaking our resumes and building our professional networks," he
said. "Our network consists of the men and women we serve next to.
"I
knew that I had the skills to be successful," Andrews added. "But I also knew
that I couldn't say that my strengths were finding foreign submarines in the
ocean or tracking down the Taliban in Afghanistan. I didn't think American
businesses were looking for those skills, and I couldn't imagine a job outside
the military that would require those skills."
That's where Joining
Forces and one of its partners, Orion International, came in. Andrews attended a
job fair sponsored by the two and quickly garnered Orion's help for making the
transition.
"They clearly got it," he said of the company's ability to
translate his military experience into a civilian resume. "What they helped me
understand is that American businesses do value those skills."
After some
coaching, Orion helped Andrews gain an interview with Sonardyne International.
Pretty soon, the Texas native was on his way to Houston for his new job working
with sonar.
"I didn't have to go a single day unemployed," he said. "So,
Joining Forces is real; it has an impact."
Yesterday, Andrews introduced
the first lady to a crowd at Naval Station Mayport in Jacksonville, Fla., where
she announced that Joining Forces' had exceeded its goal of helping private
industry hire or train 100,000 veterans and military spouses by the end of 2013.
To date, she said, the program has partnered with 2,000 companies that have
hired or trained 125,000 veterans and military spouses.
Read more
here.