Illinois hiring event matches employers with job-seeking veterans
Photo by Clay Lomneth/The American Legion

Illinois hiring event matches employers with job-seeking veterans

Some 90 employers filled rooms at the Prairie Capital Convention Center in Springfield, Ill., on July 15 for a hiring event organized by The American Legion Department of Illinois.

“We’ve been doing this (job fair) for three years, and this is the first time we’ve had 90 employers. Last year it was somewhere around 70,” said Gary Jenson, assistant adjutant for the Illinois department. “And this year we also have … over 260 jobs that are available right now. Now we just need the veterans to come in and apply for these jobs.”

Held in conjunction with the department’s state convention, the hiring event was supported by the Illinois Department of Employment Security (IDES), Illinois Department of Veterans Affairs, Employer Support of the Guard and Reserve and Hero 2 Hired.

“I’d like to say a special thanks to The American Legion, who puts this together and asks the partners to help so that we can supply an opportunity for the people looking for jobs, and to highlight the fact that you are looking for qualified candidates to keep our America strong,” Dolores Simon, IDES deputy director for business services, told employers at the start of the event.

Maj. Gen. Richard Hayes Jr., adjutant general for the Illinois National Guard, also thanked employers for taking their “valuable time” to find veterans and other job-seekers to fill jobs in their companies.

“We’re starting to see a lot of veterans come through the transition assistance centers looking for jobs (due to military downsizing). Veterans are looking for jobs … they want to be utilized in a productive way,” Hayes said.

While a later portion of the job fair was open to the general public, veterans were allowed in first to the free event.

Jenson noted that veterans have a lot of qualifications and skills beyond those of a civilian job seeker.

“A lot of our veterans are trained to work as a team, and they’re also trained to do individual work. The military equipment that they are sometimes in charge of is multi-million dollar equipment that really the civilians have no idea how to manage or operate,” Hayes said.

He also noted that requirements of serving in the military—not calling in sick, getting to work on time—can make veterans more reliable employees than some civilians.

Hayes echoed that to employers, telling them that veterans are “all mission-focused, so whatever you’re trying to achieve, you lay it out to them, they’re going to run to it.”