Our Blog

BY Joel Junker

JMOs Launch Meaningful Careers in January 2020

The Cameron-Brooks team is traveling to Chicago to help a new group of JMOs launch meaningful careers by kicking off their career search in 2020!

During the course of conversations with our candidates, I will sometimes ask them what they find most valuable about their partnership with Cameron-Brooks.  As a result, I get very similar responses whether it be the professional reading program, the face-to-face interaction, the interview preparation, etc.  All of these are great responses and valid, each and every one.  However, when I ask Cameron-Brooks Alumni what they found most valuable, the answer is unequivocally the Career Conference and the career search they were able to conduct!

Find a career that is in line with your goals — not just a job.

According to a recent WSJ article published about veteran retention, a U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation survey and a Syracuse University Veteran’s study both supported a similar conclusion: that ~40% of veterans  left their first post-military jobs within a year.   This is a pretty alarming number, but unfortunately not all that surprising.  Many companies are interested in hiring veterans but don’t really understand their value, what skills they bring the table, etc.  This often results in veterans finding work that is often not meaningful, challenging, or rewarding.

At a Cameron-Brooks Career Conference, we personally vet each company to make sure they understand the value of a JMO and bring positions that are developmental in nature and offer the opportunity to find meaningful and challenging work, capitalizing on the skills JMOs have developed in the military!  As we work to finalize all of the candidates’ interview schedules, we expect the average number of interviews to be between 12-13 per candidate!  That is 12-13 interviews across multiple industries, companies, career fields, positions, locations, etc.   This gives a Cameron-Brooks candidate the very best opportunity to find the RIGHT fit for them.  That is why, in contrast to the WSJ article, our retention rate after one year is 99%, ~97% in year two, and ~80+% in years 3-5.  The reason the retention rate is so high compared to most veterans is the opportunity to do a true career search!

What you can expect at the January Career Conference.

We have a great lineup of companies and opportunities attending the JMO Career Conference with nearly 50 hiring groups, 35 distinct companies and 5 brand new companies!  We are excited to see 20 Cameron-Brooks Alumni returning to recruit on behalf of their companies for this first Career Conference of 2020.  Some of them are alumni we helped transition fairly recently, while others we helped transition many years ago. However, all of them are currently in advanced leadership positions within their company and are ready to help JMOs launch meaningful careers also.

Here is a quick sampling of what we have in store for the January Candidates:

Sample Industries Include:

Medical Device; Professional Services; Consumer Package Goods; Facilities Services; Consulting; High Technology; Energy; Pharmaceutical; Industrial; Building Materials; and more.

Sample Companies Include:

PepsiCo; Johnson & Johnson; Corning; GlaxoSmithKline; Marathon Peroleum Company; Mars, Inc.; Boston Scientific; Protiviti; Asurion;  EMCOR; Harris Technologies; Heidrick & Struggles; DaVita Healthcare; Love’s Travel Stops; and many more.

Sample Positions Include:

Production Manager; Process Improvement Manager; Senior Quality Supervisor; Field Clinical Representative; Integration Project Manager; Senior New Product Introduction Engineer; Manufacturing Engineer; Operational Excellence Manager; Fast Track Clinical Sales Representative; Field Asset Manager; Sales Logistics Director; Six Sigma Black Belt; Warehouse Manager; Senior Financial Analyst; Consultant; Operations Manager; and many more.

Sample Locations Include:

Minneapolis, MN; Boston, MA; Chicago, IL; Nashville, TN; Charlotte, NC; Oakland, CA; Phoenix, AZ; Philadelphia, PA; Houston, TX; Kansas City, MO; San Francisco, CA; Dallas, TX; Grand Rapids, MI; Saint Louis, MO; New York, NY; Pensacola, FL; Seattle, WA; and many more.

Finally, if you haven’t already, check out our podcast on your podcast app or by clicking here. On the podcast, we interview Cameron-Brooks alumni who are making an impact in the business world. We feature alumni from different military backgrounds who launch their careers in variety of roles across companies and industries. As of this blog post, we have published our 78th podcast episode!

Stay tuned until next week – I’ll be back to post the results of the January 2020 Cameron-Brooks Career Conference!

Rob