Veterans in the Central Valley are getting a chance to take advantage of the Work for Warriors program, a state and federally funded job placement program in California. The employment initiative assists veterans in finding civilian employment in various regions of California.
On Wednesday, March 20, the Work for Warriors program led the Warriors Connections Veterans Career event at the Clovis Veterans Memorial District. Veterans brought their resumes to the job fair and had a chance to get hired on the spot after doing face-to-face interviews with employers.
Greg Fillebrown, Work for Warriors Regional Coordinator/Fresno, said he was happy with the success of the event.
“At the end of the day, we had two hires and 12 follow-up interviews with other candidates,” Fillebrown said. “We conducted 75 interviews that day.”
Fillebrown said Work for Warriors has regional coordinators all over the state, but the Central Valley was forgotten for a long time. When Fillebrown finally got hired as the regional coordinator in Fresno, he said he noticed a tremendous amount of unemployed current soldiers, veterans, spouses and children of veterans in the Central Valley.
“The goal right now is to get our name out there and to continue these training and hiring events,” Fillebrown said.
Fillebrown said it takes a lot of work to put together the events, but it’s always worth it when he sees a veteran get hired.
Fillebrown added that the program is important for teaching veterans how to interview, how to dress for an interview and how to present a decent resume.
“We’re not just feeding them to the wolves,” Fillebrown said. “We’re preparing them and we’re helping them become successful before they even interview.”
Fillebrown said the veterans have various skills, but they don’t always know how to word it on a resume or realize how their skills carry over into jobs.
“That’s where my team of instructors come in and helps veterans create a resume,” Fillebrown said. “It’s not just me that created this event. I had three other guys that helped.”