Hire a Vet? IT Says Yes

Computerworld: U.S. veterans have a disproportionately high unemployment rate compared to other workers: 12.1 percent. To remedy that situation, President Obama has challenged U.S. companies to hire 100,000 unemployed vets by the end of 2013.

Because today’s military is so high-tech, many enterprise IT departments are finding veterans to be a good fit for their IT departments. “The military is arguably one of the most high-tech organizations in the world,” said Mike Brown, senior director of talent acquisition at Siemens. “If you’re working on a ship or a plane or tank, you’ve got responsibility for large, complex, extremely expensive equipment run by highly sophisticated IT platforms and software.”

“There is the perception that veterans can be resistant to change, but of course that’s not the case,” said AT&T recruiting manager Rachel Book. “Imagine being in combat, where you need to change the plan and do something completely different in a moment’s notice, while people are shooting at you. After that, a new email system is not going to be that much of a problem.”