I Do Not Need Another Resume Workshop.

I Need a Job.

I have been working with military-community employment nonprofits for years.

Some serve veterans. Some serve military spouses. Some serve surviving families. Some serve the entire military-connected community.

And after all these years of employment programs, resume reviews, mentorships, workshops, webinars, networking events, and career coaching, I have an important update:

I am still looking for a job.

At some point, we need to have an uncomfortable conversation about the job-hunt industry.

Because unemployed people do not need an endless supply of programs teaching us how to look for work.

We need employers willing to hire us.

Yes, I Know How to Write a Resume

I take the job listing along with the company information and tailor my resume for each listing with matching up the key words by rewriting my resume for each job to try to get through the algorithm/Applicant Tracking System (ATS). (Thank you AI for your assistance)

I cannot count how many times I have been offered resume assistance.

Tailor your resume to the position.

Use keywords from the job description.

Make sure your resume can get through the ATS.

Quantify your accomplishments.

Change this bullet.

Move that section.

Use this format.

Optimize your LinkedIn profile.

I know.

I have known for years.

These services can be extremely useful for someone leaving the military, returning to the workforce, or writing a civilian resume for the first time.

But there comes a point when rewriting the same person's resume for the twelfth time is not workforce development.

It is rearranging the furniture.

If someone has been through multiple employment programs and still cannot get hired, perhaps we should stop assuming the resume is the problem. And I do not think it is a jobseeker issue if they never get past the ATS to a live person. But that is an entirely different topic.

Then Comes the Mentors

Another popular solution is mentorship.

Sometimes you meet with someone once.

Sometimes it becomes a six-month or year-long "mentorship."

That can be valuable if the mentor understands your industry, career goals, employment barriers, or professional network.

But sometimes the match is...creative.

One of my last mentors was an accountant from way up north who had been at the same job and company for almost 30 years.

I am interested in three primary areas:

IT. Customer Service. Advocacy.

She had no professional background in IT, customer service, or legislative advocacy. She had previously operated a nonprofit that was no longer operating due to funding issues.

Her big networking recommendation?

Spend roughly $500 to attend a women's conference for two days.

I was unemployed.

So the career advice for an unemployed person trying to find work was essentially:

Spend $500 you do not have for the opportunity to meet people who might someday know someone who might have a job.

That is not a realistic employment strategy for someone who needs a paycheck.

Networking matters. Conferences can be valuable.

But unemployed people cannot endlessly spend money trying to gain "access" to employment.

At some point, somebody has to actually hire us.

Military Spouse Employment Problems Did Not Magically Disappear

We have been discussing military spouse unemployment and underemployment for years.

Military spouses deal with PCS moves, disrupted careers, licensing problems, employment gaps, caregiving responsibilities, deployments, childcare challenges, and repeatedly starting over.

There are entire organizations dedicated to addressing those problems.

But there is another group that receives considerably less attention:

Surviving spouses.

Death does not magically repair the career damage created during military life.

In many cases, it makes the problem worse.

A surviving spouse may have spent years moving around the country or world supporting a service member's career. They may have stepped away from their own career to raise children, manage deployments, care for an injured or ill service member, or become a full-time caregiver.

Then the service member dies.

The military paycheck stops.

The household changes overnight.

And the surviving spouse may suddenly become the primary or only income earner for the family left behind.

Yet somehow the employment solution is often:

Have you tried another resume workshop?

Yes.

Yes, we have.

We Do Not Need to Be Fixed

This is the part of the military employment conversation that I think we are missing.

Many employment programs are built around changing the job seeker.

Fix the resume.

Improve the LinkedIn profile.

Practice the interview.

Find a mentor.

Attend the webinar.

Build the elevator pitch.

Learn to network.

Optimize the keywords.

Take another course.

Earn another certificate.

At what point do we start working on the other side of the equation?

The employers.

I do not need another organization to teach me how to turn myself into a more appealing applicant.

I need organizations willing to use their relationships with corporations, nonprofits, government agencies, and military-community partners to create actual pathways into paid employment.

Not another webinar.

Not another mentorship badge.

Not another "career readiness" certificate.

A job.

I Want to Work in the Military Community

This is not complicated for me.

I want to work.

I would particularly like to work within the military and veteran community.

I want to be a paid advocate.

I have spent years learning legislation, regulations, survivor benefits, military policy, toxic exposure issues, Title 10, Title 38, federal rulemaking, state policy, nonprofit advocacy, and how government actually moves when someone keeps poking it with a sufficiently sharp stick.

I have done the work.

Most of it unpaid.

That experience apparently makes me qualified enough to volunteer my expertise, review policy, advocate for legislation, sit on committees, help organizations, and educate other people.

But turning that experience into a paycheck has proven considerably more difficult.

There is something fundamentally wrong with a system that constantly tells military spouses and surviving spouses how valuable their experience is while simultaneously expecting them to provide that experience for free.

Measure Jobs, Not Workshops

Maybe it is time to change how we measure military-community employment programs.

Do not tell me how many resumes were reviewed.

Tell me how many people were hired.

Do not tell me how many people completed your mentorship program.

Tell me how many were still employed twelve months later.

Do not tell me how many attended your webinar.

Tell me how many employers changed their hiring practices.

Do not tell me how many corporate partners are listed on your website.

Tell me how many military spouses and surviving spouses those partners actually hired into sustainable, appropriately paid positions.

Because participation is not employment.

Training is not employment.

Mentorship is not employment.

Networking is not employment.

And "career ready" does not pay the electric bill.

Maybe the Applicant Is Not the Problem

There will always be people who need resume assistance, interview coaching, education, certifications, or mentorship. Those programs absolutely have a place.

But when someone has spent years cycling through employment programs and is still unemployed or underemployed, perhaps we should stop automatically sending them back through another version of the same program.

Maybe they do not need another lesson on how to find a job.

Maybe the military employment community needs to spend less time preparing people to knock on doors and more time convincing employers to open the damn door.

Because after years of workshops, resume optimization, mentorships, networking advice, and being told how valuable military-connected experience is, I can assure you:

I know how to hunt for a job.

I need employers willing to hire.

What I need now is a job.