Relationships bring promise to those seeking employment
San Antonio area veterans attend a Hiring Our Heroes job fair at the AT&T Center in San Antonio, Texas on Wednesday, February 3, 2016. Photo by Lucas Carter/The American Legion.

Relationships bring promise to those seeking employment

Hiring Our Heroes and The American Legion are working with Major League Baseball, the NBA and the NHL to provide servicemembers, veterans and military spouses with employment opportunities and education through a series of hiring expos across the country.

Already this year, events in Cleveland, San Antonio, St. Paul, Minn., Denver and Houston have brought thousands of servicemembers and veterans in contact with hundreds of employers who know how valuable those with military experience can be to their companies.

Chuck Hodges, Hiring Our Heroes senior director of events and programs, said these types of events “truly show the commitment of the American industry, American companies, the American economy, their commitment to supporting our servicemembers.

“They understand that we’re dealing with the top 24 percent of the American people who are able to join the military, and these companies want them to join their team. So these types of events, we really can make those connections. We connect the veterans who are out there across the entire nation with the companies that really want them. And the companies we partner with are not the ones that are just waving the flag … they’re veteran-ready companies that understand the importance of veterans and what it means to recruit them, onboard them and retain them in their organizations."

The cooperation of major sports teams such as the San Antonio Spurs, the Denver Nuggets, the Arizona Coyotes, the Minnesota Wild, the Boston Red Sox and others have helped boost the hiring expos, with the events taking place during the day at team arenas in conjunction with ticket giveaways to the servicemembers for games that night.

A dozen more “major league” hiring expos are scheduled for the rest of 2016, although events are subject to change:

March 17, Phoenix Hiring Expo with Arizona Coyotes (NHL);

April 13, D.C. Hiring Expo with Washington Wizards (NBA);

April 25, Arlington Hiring Expo with Texas Rangers (MLB);

May 3, Pittsburgh Hiring Expo with Pittsburgh Pirates (MLB);

May 24, Boston Hiring Expo with Boston Red Sox (MLB);

May 25, Seattle Hiring Expo with Seattle Mariners (MLB);

Other expos are tentatively scheduled for August in Washington, D.C., and Kansas City, Mo.; and in the fall in Dallas, Chicago and Miami.

“I think what we do that is so exciting to the vets and the military spouses, is they can actually come up to the employer, present themselves, maybe present their résumé, and then have a one-on-one conversation about the opportunity that the employers have, and talk about the skill sets that they bring to the table,” said Ernie Lombardi, regional associate for Hiring Our Heroes. “It’s just a great chance, and I tell the vets when I have them at the registration table, make sure you see everybody, because all it takes is one conversation.”