October 8, 2024 – The Central Valley Veterans Employment Committee welcomed dozens of veterans to the Clovis Veterans Memorial District building on Tuesday, October 1st, and a week later, to help them find employment in the area and prepare for the job seeking process.
This is an event the committee has sought to accomplish three times a year for the last seven years, according to Veteran Service Officer Kyle Pennington, who works for the Fresno County Veteran Service Office.
“Veterans face a lot of challenges when they either come back into the workforce from being in the military or if they’re in the workforce or in the civilian sector and life happens and they’re separated from employment,” Pennington explained.
This was the inspiration behind the creation of the hiring fair – giving veterans an opportunity to find employment despite the many challenges that may arise.
However, this was no ordinary hiring fair. Attendees went to a dress rehearsal a week before to receive haircuts and clothing to look professional as well as prepare for the hiring fair, including mock interviews and resume preparation.
Going into the event itself, veterans went through a process of preparing a presentation slide about themselves, their time in the military, and the type of employment they are seeking. They presented this in front of a group of their peers going through the process themselves.
Then, after receiving feedback, they would go into a separate room where the employers awaited their presentation and make their pitch.
Following the minute-or-two-long pitch about themselves, the interviewee would exit the room, and employers would be asked who was interested in hiring them.
Interviewees would go back into the other room where they presented in front of their peers and given information about which employers were interested in hiring them. Then, the interviewee could do research about the employer and the position they are applying for.
In this room, attendees enjoyed conversations about the process with their fellow vets, talking about the experience of presenting and looking into the potential employment opportunities that awaited them.
Snowy Coleman, a former jet mechanic for the Navy, was one of those individuals, who conversed with another vet, Vennessa Lovato-Ayers, a former Civil Affairs Specialist for the Army.
Coleman excitedly spoke about how she had caught the attention of six employers while Lovato-Ayers nervously awaited her presentation.
Coleman was a five-year veteran, and she explained that her contract as a jet mechanic was a week away from ending, pushing her to pursue other areas of work.
She expressed gratitude for those putting the event together, stating, “They said that participants on both ends, employers and [interviewees] have doubled since last year, and it’s very productive. Everyone’s there working as a team and a community to help us veterans find employment.”
Lovato-Ayers agreed with Coleman, sharing, “[Veterans] have an 86% success rate with finding a job after this event…everyone gets at least one interview naturally. And then if you don’t have the apparel, [the committee] provides professional business attire for you.”
Stating this, Lovato-Ayers touched on another aspect of the help the Veterans Employment Committee offers to its’ clients – not only connecting them with employment opportunities, but giving them the supplies they might need, professional attire, and other necessities involved with the job.
The 86% success rate for interviewees was evident in the room where the employers made decisions regarding who to interview. After an interviewee exited, hands shot up in the air, with different employers expressing interest in a candidate.
After all the individuals attending the fair had presented, everyone took a break for lunch provided by the committee, and the room was changed into an interview space in which employers could speak with candidates one-on-one.
This gave veterans a chance to essentially apply to several jobs all in one day and make a good impression face-to-face with a potential employer rather than only filling out an application online.
The Veterans Employment Committee looks forward to future events, currently offering the fair about three times a year for veterans looking for employment. They hope to soon offer even more to keep a steady stream of help going to those veterans.