Vetonomics - Episode 9: Further Your Education After the Military

Hi, everyone. Justin Henderson with Recruit Military. Thank you so much for spending a few minutes with me to discuss this month's jobs report. Can I get a thumbs up from the producers that you can hear me? I didn't hear the intro, so just want to make sure we're good to go there real quick. I want to jump into what we do every month, which is go down through the jobs report. This is really interesting because we were at 3.1% for veteran unemployment last month, which was near a record low. And I was really intrigued to see what we would see this this month if we would actually crack that 3%. Just so you know, veteran unemployment went below 3% only three other times in the 21st century. So veterans, we are being valued for our human skill set, what corporate America used to call soft skills. They're really targeting us for those human skills and saying, hey, I think we need people that can show up to work, people that are mission focused, people that are team builders, not team destructors. And really leadership. Corporate America right now doing more with less is looking for leaders to develop strong cultures within their departments. So it's never been a better time to be a veteran either looking for employment or furthering your education to jump into this market. So what we're going to do now is we're going to jump right into the, into the PowerPoint I put together for the jobs report for March and we'll discuss the, the numbers that we see. If you could put that up, Sean, also, I didn't. We're going to talk about furthering your education as well at the end of this with my guest speaker. But first, let's jump into the unemployment rate and where we are from here. Here we go. So just want to confirm that everybody can see this. Great. And so this is Vetanomics April. This is our ninth edition. So thank you all for those that have enjoyed. We've been viewing these since the beginning. I am working hard every month to get a little bit better and to be more concise in the information I deliver to the team. But if you have any questions after this, you can reach me on LinkedIn. You can shoot me an email. J hendersonrecruitmilitary.com Happy to answer any questions that I may have missed during this presentation. But here's the big reveal. So veteran unemployment is down to 2.4%. You know, that puts you just about 200,000 veterans looking for employment across the country. Break that down, divide that by 50, all things equal, I let you know that right now at any given time, there's just a few thousand veterans in your state looking for employment. Now if you go to top 10 states, California, Texas, North Carolina, Florida, New York, those, Virginia, those states that really have a large veteran populace, you're outside of those top 10. You know, you may have a thousand to 1500 veterans looking for employment across your entire state. National unemployment went down from 3.8 to 3.6. So we're really right about where we started. We're coming out of the pandemic two years later and it's work. The national unemployment rate is really back where it started. We have five, I'll jump it down here. We have 5.6 million citizens looking for employment right now. February 2020 we had 5.7 million. So there's 37,000 more people looking for employment right now than There was at February 2020 when the pandemic hit. But just a reminder for people that are new to the program, you know, Veterans are only 5.6% of the US workforce. This is a little old. This is from the end of 2020. So we're missing one year. But I don't think there's that big of a difference between this 2020 and 2021 stats. But that only gives you, it gives you less than 9 million veterans out in the market working right now at any given time. And here's what I broke out of the, out of the report. So we had 531,000 new jobs in March. We're still down about 1.6 million roles. And you could see that with the labor force participation rate, not a lot of people follow this in economists. It's something that's important to me. As a populace gets older and wealthier, their labor participation rate lowers. So you'll find like Japan's having a really hard time with their labor participation rate. We're kind of at that 63, 64 mark. When we get down in the mid-50s, we can have a hard time. Older people are being, a vast majority of older people are being supported by younger people working. So that'll be something we'll follow the next three or four years. But for right now, we're about one point away from being back to that February 2020 numbers. The employment ratio again, that's just about the people that are bringing up their, that are total populous, that are working. And like I mentioned earlier, we've got about 5.737 million job seeking citizens right now. So only 37,000 Delta compared to February 2020. What's really, really interesting for Those user looking and getting in specific industries. This is what's important. You know, the leisure and hospitality industry has been decimated. We went from restaurants being shut down, resorts being shut down, hotels, you name it. And as they're recovering and coming back, they're looking to fill that gap in talent. But that talent has left and went into other industries. You can see that they're still down 8.7% from their February 2020 stats. They're still down 1.5 million people. So it's almost like that 1.6 million job openings. That's hospitality trying to make a comeback. Healthcare brought up 8,000 more people, but they're still down almost 2% of pre pandemic levels. Manufacturing, which is surprising. You know, I would say from the recruit military side, the largest group of companies coming to us looking for military talent are that manufacturing world. And then attached to that would be the transportation, warehousing, distribution side. So manufacturing is down 128,000, transportation's up 600 and some thousand. What was really interesting about the transportation warehousing, when I looked at that, they lost 1,000 roles in warehousing transportation, but they gained 7 or 8,000 in gig workers. So distribution people delivering your Uber eats or delivering your groceries or your Amazon order or anything like that. The gig worker, that remote worker, that contract of hey, this is kind of flex work is really big right now. And we're seeing that there construction is, it passed pre pandemic levels last month and it's continuing to grow another 19,000. We're short almost 4 million homes across the United States. So you're going to see construction continuing to boom. We still have that construction bill that made it through Congress a few months ago that has to be implemented. So there's going to be a lot, a lot of money in that industry. So those of you looking to get into market, you're looking for an industry that's going to grow. I'll tell you that manufacturing needs a lot of help. Construction is going to boom, of course, warehouse transportation, we're becoming more of a order in type society. So having things delivered to us, we're going to see that grow. And then of course you can see leisure and hospitality. There's a huge delta. So that means there's an opportunity to make an impact quickly there. Another point that people are really, really looking at is inflation. We're at the largest inflation growth we've had in I don't even know the last time it's been this high. I'd have to go look but 7.9% wage growth is great. It's 5.6%, but it's not keeping up with inflation. So we're going to have to see, as you could see, the Fed creating more increasing interest rates. They're going to be working pretty aggressively. I think they're even talking about a half a point raise next instead of their typical quarter point. So we'll see them trying to slow down the economy, that is, slow down the inflation and that burn rate to hopefully get it more leveled out. So keep an eye on that. Going back through what we've, what we've seen for last month, you know, March numbers, what we saw were again, construction, manufacturing, retail trade, professional, professional services growing again. I'm not, you know, I think that pretty much just covers any office job that can't fit in these other ones. So you're going to continue to see that. But leisure and hospitality, you know, that's that biggest growth for opportunity. They're the biggest ones that have that, that delta for talent. And it'll be interesting to see how they, how they retool themselves. You know, I was in the restaurant industry for 12 years before doing this, and the compensation is just broke. The savvy corporations that loan large restaurant chains, I think they may come up with some new incentives to help the staffing shortage, even the hotel chains. I've talked about the great resignation, the great migration, and the great renegotiation. The great migration was we had a lot of citizens moving to the southeast from colder weather. And then the great resignation was when we went home and people started spending more time at home and realizing, hey, maybe I'm not in the right career path, I'm not at the right company or, hey, the culture is not what I'm looking for. I think that was the biggest thing we've seen here. We have the same that culture eats strategy for lunch. And that's what I hear a lot. Veterans that have been out in market and have been working for a few years, and they come back, Joe or Jane, you've been having a great career. Why leave? They go, well, hey, you know what? It's just the culture or I don't feel appreciated. So where we're at now, that great resignation is turning to the great reimagination. What that means. I got this from the Wall Street Journal yesterday. Companies are struggling to attract talent. You know, top companies are rethinking the work ecosystem. So what they're doing now is they're moving from jobs to skills. The job description was created during the Great Depression, 25% unemployment rate. Right now it's 2.4% for veterans, a tenth of that. And people are still using job descriptions. Hey, you must have specific experience, you must have certain software, you have to have these certain words on your resume where I wanted to talk to you. Smart companies are understanding they can't do that anymore. You want to go for skills, not experience. And that fits real good into the veteran side. Maybe that's why our unemployment rates below 3%. Because companies are looking at skills and we are skilled leaders, managers, technicians, you name it. Also looking from employees to, from employees to workforce ecosystems. So looking at tapping a broader talent pool, they're looking at, hey, what can be a gig worker? What can be a contract at, hey, can we have a marketing function, a PR function, an admin function, tech function that we can move out to a contractor instead of a full time employee so that we can plug that person in and out when we need them more strategically flex from work to flex. Everything remote work is a big deal. Now we're over 15% remote work again. I think it's going to stay that way. I know I have companies coming to me giving me more remote opportunities for veterans. And I know that the profiles coming into our system, veterans looking for more remote work. So I can only see that rising. I wouldn't be surprised if it's 18% by end of the year, maybe even 20. But another big one is task, not time and seat management. That is something Here at Recruit Military we incorporated years and years ago. It wasn't about having your butt in the seat from 8 to 5. It was about accomplishing the mission. I'll tell you what happens is high performers like myself, we're able to accomplish more when we, when we want to accomplish more. We can come in, do what we need to do or what we're motivated to do at that time and then plug into, you know, kids other other responsibilities and having that flexibility to accomplish the mission when you have the time is phenomenal. And then from predictive to rapid experimentation. If we have all these really smart people to try to predict the market and try to predict the economy and it never works. My favorite thing is getting a government economist and saying, hey, when's the next recession? They never see it coming, yet it happens every seven to 11 years in the United States. So the smartest companies are becoming reactive. They're building a team that knows how to react. What we say in the military. It's called commander's intent. Understanding commander's intent. Every Way all the way down the ladder. So all the way at that individual level, that person understands commander's intent and is capable of instilling that in any decision they have. Companies are becoming more and more. What I look at is actually investing in the human instead of trying that to buy that human that's fully invested in already, just use them. And then today, what I'm really excited about is to have Arianna Hunter on. So I'm a. Like I said, I'm from Pittsburgh originally and I, after the Marine Corps, I went to the University of Pittsburgh, earned my degree in economics and I thought it was really good. Now as we're getting into that spring season, as people are starting college, graduating, looking at their next year, what they're going to do to have Arianna on, to talk about how to use your GI Bill effectively and how to look at different university, different options and make sure you're doing the right thing. So Arianna, here's her bio. But she's an Iraq war veteran, mother of four, author, veteran, activate. This is great. She's the youngest of 10 children, so she's definitely learned how to get by at an early age. And she joined the army right after 9, 11, like so many people watching right now have done. And it's just amazing to have somebody at that age answer the bell at that time. She currently holds our master's in Business Administration, Public Administration, and she's working on her Ph.D. so high performer. I'm really excited to have her on here. She's the director of the Office of Veteran Services at University of Pittsburgh. So really somebody that can help us understand the best way to use your GI Bill. So without any further ado, I would like to introduce Ariana and welcome her to Veteranomics.

Hey, thanks, Justin. Good to be here.

Great. I actually am having a problem here because I can't hear.

Oh, no.

Can you hear me?

I can hear you just fine.

Oh, no, that's not good. Hold on one second.

Okay.

Hello? Hi,

Nothing. John, can you hear me?

Hello? Hello?

I can hear you, Justin.

You can hear me? Yeah, I'm a lip reader here right now. Oh, you know what? I have you on my speaker here. So we'll adapt and overcome. I love it. All right, what's the first thing you do when you go outside the wire? Go to plan B.

That's right. You figured it out though.

Yeah, right. Adapted, overcome. So great. Well, thank you so much for spending a few minutes to talk to us today. And you know, when I reached out to you a few weeks ago and asked about this. I love that you were so excited to have the conversation. So I guess first, you know, I did a general overview, but if you could do a quick intro about yourself, we'd love to hear about you.

Yeah, sure. So I am an army veteran. I don't know what you guys can see, but like, there's my husband's Marine Corps flag in the office. There's Army. So we are a military household, that's for sure. And it's funny, we have four kids. They have, you know, me and their stepdad who are veterans, as well as my ex husband and his lovely wife who's an Air Force veteran. So all of us are all these veterans who are like taking care of all these kids. It's quite hysterical. But anyway, yeah, So I joined two months after 911 happened. For me, it really was, you know, answering the call of service. At the time, I. I felt like growing up in poverty, growing up the way I did, we really didn't have access to everything from education to food. Right. Like, I didn't know how I would go to college. I got great grades, but it was not a reality for me. So when 911 happened, it was like, I think this is meant to be. I'm supposed to join. I'm supposed to go do this. And when I got out, ah, the GI Bill. Right. I was like, okay, what's this mean? I'll do that. And it's interesting. They now call it like your grandfather's GI Bill. The Montgomery GI Bill. The one that I use to go to school.

Yep, yep. Same thing.

Is that the one you use, Justin?

Yep, yep. Aging ourselves a little bit.

Well, I'm like, grandfather, excuse me, I'm not that old. But that's the reality of it. It was at that time you paid $100 a month for 12 months, and then you got to utilize the Montgomery GI bill when you got out, but you had to use it within 10 years. There were a lot of stipulations around utilizing it. So for me, I was like, I'm going to school. I'm using this. And I did. I was able to get a bachelor's degree. I have two master's degrees. I'm working on my PhD. But education is super important to me. And my initial career took me out into corporate America. I was a IT project manager, managing software implementations globally for Fortune 500s and burned myself out really quickly, as veterans often do in roles like that. Right. So it wasn't until 2019 that I recognized for myself that I am A mission driven person. Like a lot of veterans, that mission of that organization inspires me to want to do the work. And when I saw the role of director open up at the office, Veteran Services at Pitt, I was like, that's a mission I can get behind. So what made you go there? Yeah, yeah, I made a big switch in my life. And, you know, it's. I think we have to like adapt and overcome and kind of figure out how we are able to contribute to the community. And I never thought that I would end up in the position I am now, but I got there by doing all the things they tell you not to do in the military. I volunteered for everything.

Yeah, right.

Yeah, I did. I was like, okay, what nonprofits doing what? I'm going to show up, I'm going to put on my dirty jeans, I'm going to go do the work. And that's what I did. You know, Team rwb, the mission continues. I mean, you name the nonprofit in the region, I went out and volunteered for them, did the work, got started making connections in the community and started to feel like I was a part of something bigger than myself again.

Well, you know, that's what I had said earlier when I was going through the jobs report. I hear that time in and time out from people looking for a transition veterans is that they just don't feel the call to service at their current role or their current company or their current group. And they're out there looking for that. And, you know, I think you were wise to give up a career. Right? Go, hey, I'm going this way. It's time to take a step back, figure out what's right for me long term and then, and then redirect. And so with that being said, you know, I mentioned veteran unemployment rates 2.4%. It's only happened three other times in the 21st century. May of 2000, October of 2017, April of 2019. So it's a tight labor market. But also I think it's because we're retooling so many of our people from that service based industry to that product based industry. So now is a critical time for people that may have that, that wondering feeling of am I going down the right path? And if they have their GI Bill, if they still have that at their disposal, I think now's a really good time to explore. Right. Education opportunities. And that's why I wanted to bring you on, because I know I was like, you kind of grew up on the cusp there of welfare or not, and College really wasn't something that I knew I could afford. And I said, hey, I just need direction and purpose. Guess what? Parris island will do that to me.

Yeah, let's go.

That's what I did. And then I went to Pitt, use my GI Bill. So, you know, I wanted to, I wanted to have a conversation with you of, you know, what's the first step? You know, so last last month I had on transition assistance manager to actually walk through the 18 month transition brand, coming out of the military, going into corporate America. But what if you, what if you're transitioning out and you want to, you want to further your education? Do you have any like guidance of timeline or how to, how to just make that first step to understand what's the right education to use?

Yeah, I mean I think the first, yeah, the first step is identifying where you want to be. Right. So for a lot of people, they're going back home to where they grew up when they're getting ready to get out. Others are like, there's no way I'm going back there. I want to go somewhere else. I want to try something new. And so kind of identifying that space, maybe it is a school that specializes in it. Maybe it's Carnegie Mellon, maybe it's Pitt. Because you want to be in healthcare. Like what, you know, whatever it may be. But identifying that school and make outreach to would be like my counterpart, right. The director in the office. And well, here's the struggle with some of our public institutions. Not all of them have a director in the Office of Veteran Services. Right. Not every single one has someone like me, but they do have someone that certifies their GI Bill benefits. So asking that question, who's your SEO? Who can I talk to about my benefits at your university? And starting that conversation sooner rather than later. So if you've got a year before you're getting out, you should be having that conversation right now. Because the way that cycles work to be accepted for universities are different. Like a lot of them. You're putting your applications in, in a January to be accepted for a fall semester.

That's a really good point because I, you know, you reflect back. I reflect back when I was putting in my college applications before I rose my right hand and left in high school and that was it, it was beginning of the year, you know, trying to make that plan. You mentioned the SEO and you know, one thing. So one jumped out. You said location.

Yeah.

And you know, we're such a mobile group of people, right. We can relocate in a heartbeat. And be fine. So that location really is something that maybe we don't think about enough, you know, that we understand that, you know, you are who you surround yourself with in that group. So, so making sure that, that, that you look at that. But what, how do. Any idea or any advice if you're exploring an online versus a brick and mortar, like, is there any advice to understand if you're. If that if either of those are the right path for you?

Yeah. I mean, so when you get out and when we got out, you want to get that degree as fast as you can and you want to be moving on to the next thing. Right. So you want to know how many credits are going to transfer from your military experience. You want to know how short are your semesters? How much can I knock out in a year? Right. And so that's the component that other people we should be looking at too. But I don't want to forget the community. Right. Part of the struggle of transition for so many people is that loss of community. We get out of the military, we lose our friends, we lose our job, we lose the people are drinking buddies on the weekends. Right. We, we don't. We're alone. And that like, feeling of alone. I remember being a month out going, oh, I think I'm going to reenlist. Like, I can't do this. I can't be on my own. And you know, I think the sooner we. When you have that in person component in offices like mine, you get that community. It's like instead in the nature of what we do, like, I've got breakfast on Tuesdays and snacks in my office all the time. And like, I send them emails probably more than they want me to, to tell them to come do yoga or come do some, you know, some programming with us to make friends, to build those connections to like reimagine that community now for them. And so you don't kind of get that online, but you can go quick and you can get done. And so, you know, the pandemic made us all kind of go online for two years. And I will say that I saw veterans really hunger for human connection, and you don't get that online. And so that's the challenge is really kind of thinking about yourself and really identifying what's important to me. Will I be okay doing it online? Do I need the support of a community around me? Would I like the support of a community around me?

Yeah, that's a really important point that I don't know. I know me personally, I didn't Think about. Yeah, but the. It's a really important point now because it's. You have both sides. You have some people that can't wait to get out and they're never looking at that uniform again. See you later. And maybe they're not. They won't have those issues, right, that they're landing right back in their hometown. They're getting back in their own network. They're fine. They could do it online, you know, or it's that person that gets out at Fort Bragg and doesn't leave, you know, so they're still around their buddies. So maybe they can do that online course. But I think it's really. You're right. It's really important. If you have that trepidation and that concern, hey, I'm leaving the military because I know it's the right thing for my long term goals.

Right.

But emotionally, I'm still connected. And if that's who you are and you're listening, you know, I per. What. What you said, you really want to look at that veterans group and see that. Do they have a robust group? Is it.

If they don't create one. Right. Yeah. Do it because there's a. The Student Veterans of America, they have chapters in so many different schools. So, like, look up, see if your school has a chapter. You know, we are, we're reengaging our chapter here at Pitt. You know, the pandemic, we weren't getting together, we weren't doing things in person. So actually next week we're kind of having elections again. So find your SVA chapter too. I mean, that's another really good way to connect with veterans on campus.

And then let's say I apply to University of Pittsburgh. I'm accepted. When do I engage your team?

Oh, engage us before you apply. Because sometimes, especially here at Pitt, we have a waiver for your application fee if you're a veteran. And I can give you that code to do it. Right. So reach out to us. Send us an email before you apply. Hey, I'm interested in applying. What are my next steps? I send that email ten times a day. I've got a template because I send it so often. Right. Here's step one. Here's step two. Here's step three. If you have any questions, call me and we'll help you navigate the process. Because it does feel like so much, you know, I've got to apply. I've got to get accepted. I got to register for classes. Well, if you call us, we can tell you that veterans have priority registration. So you get to beat all the other guys to picking the good classes, right?

Oh, that's right.

Yeah. So those are things you may not know or may not be able to be connected to if you don't reach out to us before you apply.

No, that's. And one other thing you mentioned is that educational credits for your military service, is that something that like your MOS school could convert to? Is it something. Or is it something that you had to take some type of specific coursework, post a school and everything else?

So when you leave the service, you have a joint service transcript, a jst, and that JST will have every kind of course that you took, whether it was first aid to. You attended some classes at, you know, the Air Force College. Right. Those Air Force College ones are actually easier to get transferred because it's a college and they're accredited, but the others can be a little bit harder to get transferred depending on the university, depending on their policies. You know, honestly, Pitt hasn't been great for a really long time and accepting JSTs, but we've just updated a policy, so now we have some more flexibility in accepting those. So.

Yeah, well, that's great. So that's another point to engage the team before deciding on your university, because you could save yourself a semester of school just by selecting the university that takes the most amount of credits.

That's right.

If all things equal. That's really amazing. And then, you know, so we've covered the brick and mortar verse online. What about. Is there any. You mentioned accreditation, and that drops me into that public versus private market. You know, public universities have to be accredited, but private universities don't. Any. And I've seen this, doing this 16 years. I've seen it too many times to count where a veteran will come to me looking for employment and on their resume has a degree. But when that company vets, that person says, hey, this isn't accredited, we can't use it. And then that vetter gets hit in the face after already going through all the coursework, paying all the money. Oh, my gosh, this is useless.

Yeah.

Any. Any pointers on how to avoid those pitfalls or how to vet different opportunities?

Yeah, I mean, the vetting process individually can be really hard. Right. Because we do kind of come at with that mindset quickest. How many credits are you taking? I just want to be done. So the VA instituted a rule, it's called the 9010 rule, where the university or the, you know, the college has to have more or at least 10% of their profit, has to come from private sources. It can't, they can't have 100% of their money come from federal aid is essentially what it's saying. And there was a loophole where the GI Bill was not counted as like federal aid. It was counted as private money. And so for a long, that was where we saw a lot of these veterans get caught up and not, you know, have like a piece of paper, but it's worthless. And so the VA is doing their best, right, to kind of be reactive and try to hold institutions accountable. They just came up with another rule. It's called the 8515 rule. Right. There are a lot of numbers involved. But the problem is that sometimes for offices like mine, Republic Institution, doing the right things is that that creates a lot of work that we have to then provide to the VA to show that we're doing the right thing. Right. And so you have SEOs, which is your school certifying official who's working with the VA to get you funded, get your GI Bill, get you your money. And now they have all these additional duties that they have to do for the VA to be able to get you

just a few bad actors make

it harder for them. Yeah, exactly. And so it can just be, it can be a struggle. And so not every office is like mine and has four people that we can really manage that workload. Some are, like I said, one person who's also working in admissions or also working in financial aid. And this is just a part of their duties that is a struggle.

And like most things, right, initiative. And if you're, if you're vetting a non public university, make sure that, you know, you go and source that it's accredited and make sure that it's accredited. We had a great. Doris asked a really nice, a really good question that looking to pursue an education outside of the mls. Hey, my MLS was taking me this way. I want to go a totally different way.

Yeah.

Should I do it or not? The concern is when you hit the market, they're going to say you have zero experience. Have you heard that? Have you dealt with that? What are your thoughts?

I mean, I could even speak from that from like a personal perspective. Right. So I was radio communications in the army, part of an air defense artillery unit. And I got a degree in business and project management, which I did not do in the military. And when I left the service, I was able to not only work as an IT project manager pretty quickly after getting my degree for them, it was more like you put in the work. There's four years of you showing up on time at 6am of you deploying of all the, like, the wonderful attributes and assets as a veteran. I mean, it kind of speaks to what you said on the beginning, Justin. It's those skills. It's not so much the work, it's the dedication. And so that's what I recognized in my own career. As I talked to folks, it was never like, oh, well, you did commo, but you're not doing commo now. They didn't care. They were like, you know, you're a dedicated worker. You're a hard worker. You follow the rules. And I think that was more appealing than the work that I did while I was in.

Well, yeah, well, the ender, the last sentence you said, right? More appealing, which means passion. And passion increases output, and output's gonna, you know, increase is gonna help your career. I think what I would want to build on that as well. You know, I was motor transport. I was a truck driver in the Marine Corps, and I didn't want to do that when I. When I got out and I was a lost soul at Pitt, I just started taking classes. And I remember my junior year, my advisor saying, hey, you've already taken all the classes for an economics degree. You now have to take your continuing it. You know, your rocks for jocks and all those other ones. I just kept going down, and that's how I got earned a degree in economics. So I think my. From my 16 years of experience in this seat, my answer to Doris would be that, you know, your career is a lot longer than you realize. At the stage of life you are in now, life's a lot longer than you realize. And LinkedIn had a great. They had a report come out, 2020. It was the LinkedIn Veterans Work Opportunity Report. And in there, they said that over a third of veterans take a step back in their career when they transition out of the military into corporate America. But within three years, over 70% passed their civilian peers. So, you know, my response to anybody thinking about changing direction from military career path to civilian career path. If your passion lays here, follow your passion. That passion and purpose will drive you so far in your career. I mean, I know that's why I'm still here. I mean, I'm passionate. Nothing better than giving an E4 a job offer right when they've just relocated home and said, oh, my gosh, I know. I don't know what I'm going to do. It's like, I've got you. Here you go. Yeah, thanks for your service. Best of luck. So I think that's a really good question, and I think you should be open to it also. You know, as far as I mentioned earlier in the program, you know, everybody wants to predict what's going to happen in three or four years. We don't know. But what I do know is that our labor participation rate is going to continue to decrease as we become a more an older populace, and they're going to need people with that ability to do more with less. And that's the veteran community. So our unemployment rate is going to stay below the national. So take that risk, bet on yourself, get that degree, and I'm sure you'll land on your feet, you know, and then all that soft skills, human skills that you have for the military is going to shine and your career is going to grow. That's great. One other thing you mentioned last week when we spoke was vocational readiness and employment program. I wanted to pivot to that because I'd never heard of that before. Can you expand on that and kind of explain what that is and how that kind of goes into this conversation?

Yeah, absolutely. And actually, the first thing I always ask every veteran who walks into my office, because I know they've just transitioned out, they're like, I just got out in August. It's September, right. And I'm fortunate. Here in Pittsburgh, we've got a really great va, but I send them up the hill to our Oakland va, and I'm like, go, enroll, Enroll and also apply for your service connected disabilities. Put in an application first. Very, very, very first. Because voc, the voc, Rehab and employment, they have a new rule. Well, it's not really a new rule. They reinterpreted an old rule. But it's super valuable as it relates to education and employment. And you can utilize if you qualify. So you have to have a Service Connected Disability, 10% rating or higher. And then you put your application in. You talk with Evoke, rehab counselor. Counselor talks about what you want to be when you grow up. And then. Yeah, and then they help you build a plan. And that plan includes your education. It includes a stipend for a laptop, maybe if you need one. It includes books, Right? Includes how we can get you from you, who you are today to the job of your dreams. Right? You have to take all these skills tests. And they say, okay, it looks like you'd be really great in this particular field. So first and foremost, enroll in the va. Find out your service connection, if you have one, and then apply for VR and E that you will get 40. It's A, it's again with the numbers and the rules. With the VA, it's the 48 month rule. And that would allow you to utilize your VR and E benefits and then you maintain your GI Bill benefits for afterwards. So that means you can potentially get a master's degree or utilize additional benefit when you get out. And I'd also like to say too, I think another really important component of this is your dependence. So you've got, you maybe served 4, 8 years, 12 years, maybe you retired. Um, and you've got kids. I got four. Right. Um, yeah. But you can you with the, with a GI Bill, with post 911 GI Bill, you can authorize your dependents to utilize your GI Bill, but you have to make that determination before you get out. If you make, you can't elect to do it after, after the fact. So I tell folks, just do it. If you have a dependent make that determination before you get out, you actually don't have to do it when you get out, but it at least puts that marker in your file. Right. To say, yes, I did make this election.

So you could say, hey, and you have to pick which dependent. So you have four kids, you have to pick which one gets it. You can put all four, you can list all four. But say you do that and a year later when you're out, you decide to use it yourself. You can do that.

Yeah.

Also everybody should do it.

Everybody should do it. Yeah, do it.

Everybody put independence.

Yeah. Put your dependence on there. Because let's say you do qualify for VOC rehab.

Yep.

Now you've got your, your education, your degree and you already added your, your dependents onto your post 911 GI bill. Now your, your dependents can utilize your GI bill if you want them to.

And the VOC rehab, you have to have a disability status. 10% or above, correct?

Yeah.

Or is it 15? 10.

I believe it's 10 the last time I had the conversation with a representative. I will say for all of the things I've said to you today, the regulations and rules from the VA are constantly changing. So that's part of the job is like trying to stay on top of all of these rules and regulations. So double check me if I'm wrong. I'm sorry, but you know those are absolutely. Double check with the VA, but as far as I know it's 10% or higher.

That was a good disclaimer statement. Well done. The no, I'm blown away by this because I wasn't aware of it. So you have that you qualify for voc rehab and then you could get your entire degree, earn a bachelor's degree. Then you still have that GI Bill sitting.

Yes. And it wasn't always that case. That was a recent change, either this year or last year. It used to be that they were the same bucket of like money and time, but now it's not. It's two separate buckets. And so it just opens up so much more for our veterans and their dependents and families.

Okay. The. Yeah, I was going to say it had to be new. Ish.

Yeah.

You know, because I try to stay on top of this stuff. I think that covers most of what we wanted to talk about. Was there any closing thoughts that you had that we haven't covered yet? Anything you wanted to bring up?

The only thing I'll bring up is that use me as a resource, all of you. Like my email address is my first name and my last name@pitt edu. Reach out if you have a question, even if you don't come to Pitt. Right. I think that that's the. For me, that's the most important part of my job is making sure that we are placing veterans in the university or institution that best supports them, that they're utilizing their benefit to the best that they can. I don't want to see anyone get the run around. So I'm happy to help in any way.

So no, thank you so much for volunteering. I did one other thing popped up because the VOC rehab or vocational readiness and employment program.

Yeah.

And if you're not. If this isn't something that you're comfortable answering, I get it. But we're seeing a huge shift towards the trades and earning certificates and it could be technology, could be electricians, you know, and again, those are education platforms.

Oh yeah.

Do you have any awareness, does the GI Bill transfer to those type of. I guess as long as it's accredited, right?

Absolutely. So Pitt has a manufacturing assistance center up in Bradford at our Bradford campus. And it is a degree program. It's like 18 months you can go and you become a manufacturing engineer. You know, like you get a certificate to be able to go do that. It's great. Do it. Absolutely. I think utilize your GI Bill. GI Bill benefits for those trade programs as well. They're highly beneficial. You get employed really quick. Right. Start, finish, done, working.

Yep. It's speed. Right. I keep going back to that. Go ahead. It's like that whole. What was that old thing as a. You know, you go to a car dealers, car maintenance, they'd say, you want it done right fast or cheap. You know, pick the three. And we're just like, we want it done right and fast like. And we'll use the GI Bill for the third one, you know, so that's great. No, I just wanted to say thanks again, you know, for spending 30 minutes with us to talk about this. The comment section has been going. I know you and I have been focused on this, but Sean has been answering some questions as they go on, and it sounds like it's been very engaging. So thank you so much. I would think that talking. What stood out for me is if you're looking to further your education, talk to the veterans department at the university you're thinking about or Arianna, talk to her. But do it early, a year out. If you're less than a year out, do it today, Monday, call her, hit her up over the weekend on LinkedIn, because it's not too soon to do that. Plan two, accreditation. If it's not a public school, make sure it's accredited. And three, is that VR and E? If you have a disability status or if you're going through that process and you want to further your education, make sure that you connect. And that's at the va, right? They go to the VA or they call the VA and say, hey, I want to talk to whoever's in charge,

get enrolled, and then. And then sign up for their, their service connected disability, and you can apply right online@va.gov for your VR and E benefit.

That's phenomenal. And then there was one other thing that you mentioned, too.

Get your dependence on your GI Bill. Yeah, that's the big one.

Like right now, go down to the admin shop, say, I want to put my dependence on my GI Bill. Do that Monday at lunch, and then that way you'll be happy when you get out that you have that option. I think that's why that's huge. So. Well, hey, thank you again so much for spending the time. It's been a lot of fun. Hopefully it was educational to everybody watching. Hopefully you enjoyed it. I did.

Thanks so much for having me, Justin.

Yeah, this is great. Have a great weekend, everybody. Bye.