SAG

Dear Veteran Friend,

Wow … What a week it has been ! We had a super interview with “Successful Veteran” Kelly Perdew and had a lot of great feedback that was posted on our group wall.
Speaking of feedback, we saw some interesting trends and findings from the USVA’s first-ever membership survey that was sent out a few weeks ago and we want to share it with you.
We all know that the employment market is still not good in our country, but we found it to be even worst among our veteran members with 40.6% of those responding indicating they were unemployed.
And while unemployment is still way too high among veterans, there are services and resources that you said you needed to help find employment and success in your careers following the military : professional networking topped the responses in two questions on our survey, with 45.2% of respondents saying that a stronger network would help them achieve business goals, and a whopping 61.3% of respondents saying that networking training and education would help them get to the next level in their careers.

In addition, 38.7% of veterans also stressed ongoing education and training would be key to achieving their goals, while 25.8% said leadership and management education and training would help them in their careers.
When asked what you saw as the biggest challenges you’ve faced after the military, 32.3% of veterans said that relating to civilian co-workers in a professional environment was their biggest issue. Not to be outdone, increasing income also came in at 32.3%. Along the same line, finding a job was the biggest issue after the military for 25.8% of respondents. Both of these statistics correlated to the 40.6% unemployed status.

You can go here now to see all the results from the survey and please feel free to comment : facebook.com/topic.php?uid=126323400723205&topic=249

Although, these numbers may seem a bit gloomy, they are encouraging us to move forward even faster with our mission at the USVA. We heard you loud and clear – we veterans must have our own professional network to educate, support, and connect with each other. We now believe even stronger that what we are doing is important and necessary for our veteran community.
We greatly appreciate everyone’s participation in the survey. Now that we know the challenges and issues you are having, we are putting together a plan to provide you with the information and resources you need to reach your goals. So, keep an eye out in your in box and check the group page daily, as we will be announcing some great things here very soon…

Best of Success,
Hal Fischer
Proud USAF Veteran 87–97