Veterans, transitioning service members and military spouses need not sell themselves short when seeking employment. They can find valuable resources and networking opportunities this Thursday at a job fair hosted by DAV and RecruitMilitary. The event will be held at Club Stewart on Fort Stewart Aug. 8 from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. The free event is open to veterans, military spouses, transitioning military, National Guard members and Reservists and will feature a wide variety of employers ready to hire.

RecruitMilitary’s Senior Vice President, Chris Stevens, himself a U.S. Air Force veteran, said that too often, veterans and those transitioning out of the military pigeonhole themselves when seeking employment in the civilian world. Stevens advises them to “think outside the box.” As an example, he said a culinary specialist can look at well-known restaurant chains for employment, but should also look at large manufacturers – like Lockheed Martin – that might need cooks in their company cafeterias.

The unemployment rate is at a historic low, 3.2 percent, according to Stevens.

“There’s no better time to find a job when you have a job,” he said. Stevens described the current job market as a job seeker’s environment, if that candidate is willing to relocate. 

In addition to providing career opportunities for veterans, RecruitMilitary is also focusing efforts on the more than 600,000 military spouses in the United States who are unemployed or underemployed in their professional careers, Stevens said. The company is actively working to help address the exorbitantly high unemployment rate of military spouses – nearly 25 percent – a rate more than six times the national average. This is the highest unemployment rate of any singular group in the U.S.  

Through its partnership with Google, a new job search tool is now available to assist military spouse and military trained talent to explore 8,000 remote work options in the RecruitMilitary database of more than 250,000 jobs. With more than 140 veteran and military spouse job fairs this year, RecruitMilitary offers veterans and military spouses the most opportunities of any organization to help facilitate their future career goals.

Stevens also advises veterans, transitioning military and spouses to consider continuing their education, perhaps pursue additional certifications – such as for IT – which can be beneficial for making a job candidate more marketable or help an individual make a desired career change.

RecruitMilitary hosts job fairs at Fort Stewart twice each year, according to Stevens.