Up Close: Military experience doesn’t help in job hunt

Up Close: Military experience doesn’t help in job hunt

Photo at  left– Archie Advincula was a Marine for nine years.

Some young veterans are finding out that military experience doesn’t always help in the difficult search for a job. This battle might just be their toughest fight yet.

Archie Advincula’s days are now centered around the women in his life, his wife and daughters. It’s a vast difference from the job he used to have.

“I actually toured most of Asia,” he says.

Advincula is a former Marine and at age 28, already a veteran. He enlisted in military a few months after graduating from Crosby High School in 1996. He spent the next nine years serving his country.

“The reason why I didn’t go to college, we just couldn’t afford it. My other choice is go to service. That’s what I did. I joined the Marines,” he says.

In his military career he served tours of duty in Thailand, Okinawa, Korea and Iraq. He rose to the rank of sergeant and was trained as a Maintenance Specialist.

“The military actually taught me how to prepare myself and basically be a good person,” Advincula says.

A medical condition changed the course of his life. Medically discharged this summer he returned home for good in July tired, weary and in need of a job.

“I thought it was going to be easy, being in the military, being in the service. I thought it was going to be easy for me to get a job because of my prior service,” he says.

Many young veterans are finding themselves in the same predicament. Having left the military, they are learning that finding a job that can support a family is anything but easy.

“It’s hard though, because I’ve been supporting them for like for five years,” says Advincula.

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics the unemployment rate for vets ages 20 to 24 has spiked to 20 percent.

Young men seem to have the hardest time.

About 86,000 vets in that age group left the military last year. Many of them took only their military experience into the real world and they have now learned that it’s just not enough.

At the WorkSource in Houston, Jose Valiz is a former veteran who helps younger vets make the transition to civilian life.

“Sometimes it’s difficult, depending on the type of work we as military people have done in the military. A lot of these jobs don’t actually transition to civilian jobs ok,” says Valiz.

There is hope, though, in the person of Greg Leboeuf. He is a Marine Reservist who spent seven months in Iraq. His tour ended in April. He landed his job as salesman for Neon Enterprise Software in July.

“I also felt there would employers out there that would value the skills that I’d obtained, especially with the military,” Leboeuf says.

He had no experience and no college degree. He says he found his job by networking through contacts from other Marines.

That’s how he met his boss. “It turns out I actually served with her son overseas,” he says.

A program called Marine for Life connects current Marines with veterans.

Archie Advincula says he’s going to the next luncheon later this month.

“I know I’m going to find a job. It just takes time,” he says.

Marine for Life operates around the country by connecting marines who have jobs with those who are still looking.