Fort Leonard Wood personnel made military spouse employment a special topic at Wednesday’s meeting of Woodworks, a monthly briefing and information-sharing meeting of service organizations at Fort Leonard Wood.
Sue Halter, Fort Leonard Wood’s deputy garrison commander, said explaining options for spousal employment has become a concern for the command staff due to repeated questions.
“We get questions all the time about where do you go to get jobs; there is no employment here,” Halter said. “Well, there is employment here; you just need to know where to look.”
Dan Danzo, the supervisor of the Fort Leonard Wood office of the Missouri Career Center, said his office exists to provide help with many functions including resume drafting help, cover letters and referrals to employers. The state-funded office is available to anyone in the area but is located on Fort Leonard Wood with the intent of helping military spouses, children and other family members.
“Whatever your needs are, we’re here to help you,” Danzo said. “You don’t even need to be a U.S. citizen; anybody who walks in the door, we’re here to help.”
The Missouri Career Center provides referrals to many employers both on- and off-post, he said.
“We know the Department of the Army is the largest employer in the area, and the best-paying, too,” Danzo said, noting that veterans, people with service-connected disabilities, and military spouses have preferential consideration for employment.
Getting recognized as a disabled veteran can be important, Danzo said.
“A lot of people have eligibility and don’t realize it,” Danzo said. “It doesn’t have to be life-threatening; it just has to impact your life in one or more areas.”
Danzo noted that in his own situation, he “blew his back out” on a civilian job after leaving the military and provided a list of recognized disabilities.
“If you have one of these issues, contact the Missouri Department of Vocational Rehab in Rolla, bring in medical documentation, and you’re pretty much rubber-stamped,” Danzo said.
It’s often easier to get Fort Leonard Wood jobs supported by non-appropriated funds or to obtain contractor positions with on-post contractors than to obtain traditional civil service positions, Danzo said, but other options are available as well.
“Not everyone can work for civil service, not everyone can get a NAF job, not everyone can get a government contractor job, so there are also off-post jobs,” Danzo said.
Obtaining an off-post job requires significantly different strategies than traditional resumes and applications. Danzo said nearly 85 percent of employers don’t advertise job openings at all, and only 20 to 40 percent of available jobs are filled through traditional methods such as newspaper ads or web sites; most are filled by other methods. Statistics show about 35 percent of job-seekers heard about the job they obtained from someone else and 30 percent were found by an applicant contacting an employer directly, he said.
Joyce Waybright of the Army Career and Alumni Program said she urges those who aren’t yet ready for her program to contact the Missouri Career Center.
“Dan does a stellar job of putting our military spouses to work,” Waybright said. “Use them; they do a tremendous job for us.”
For service members who are within 12 months of leaving the military, or for 24 months in the case of retirees, the ACAP program can help build the job-hunting and resume-writing skills needed for civilian employment.
The program is also available to spouses, Waybright said.
“Even if a service member is deployed, their spouses can come and use our services,” Waybright said.
ACAP puts on job fairs at Fort Leonard Wood for major employers with nationwide subsidiaries, she said.
However, Waybright said non-traditional employment is becoming an increasingly viable option for military retirees and former service members. Other jobs could include virtual work-at-home options and obtaining contracts with the government, and Waybright said her agency is putting on a special seminars in July on winning contracts with the government.