Veterans in the Media: Term Paper

Veterans Are Working, but Not in Jobs That Match Their Advanced Training
Name of Student
The New York Times
/2020/03/07/us/politics/veterans-jobs-employment.html
18/05/2021
Abstract
The article delves into veterans' intricacies and challenges while transitioning to civilian roles from their overseas duties. Veterans usually possess high combat skills vital on battlefields; however, transitioning their skills into the private sector has been the most significant hurdle in acquiring employment. It has become a blame game between the government and the private sector; the private sector is unwilling to offer any training to the veterans while the government demands the industry to train them. In most cases, the result has been high unemployment rates among veterans, depression, and in unfortunate circumstances, suicide cases.
Veterans Are Working, but Not in Jobs That Match Their Advanced Training
Veterans, like most Americans, have profited from the country's vibrant economic growth and broad labor market. However, the main challenges the group has been facing are; translating their military skills into the labor force, being treated as charity cases, and lack of robust professional networks. In this article, Jennifer Steinhauer of The New York Times explores the challenges veterans face in securing jobs that match their advanced skills acquired in the military.
In her findings, Steinhauer interviews Erica Uleski, a former US Army medic veteran in Iraq. The latter worked under duress to treat and save the lives of her fellow soldiers on the battlefield but could not find a civilian job back home! A simple reason was that she lacked the required licenses. In their conversation, Uleski is quoted saying, "you can tell all the stories you want, but if you don't have the credentials, you don't get work." Her response was instigated by her experience after returning from Iraq three tours mission to Virginia Beach in 2007. To her shock, her enviable combat medical skills had minor significance in the public health care system due to the lack of the necessary practicing licenses. Nonetheless, she expanded her language skills to venture into a different career path instead.
Steinhauer positively portrays Erica's situation while accurately capturing the bigger picture of returning veterans' tribulations in transitioning into civilian life. Through the veteran's voluntary admission of the red tapes she encountered in securing a job, it is a clear indication of what other veterans suffer in silence. In the article, the author notes that underemployment is the greatest vice usually faced by returning veterans and their families, who often lose touch because of ongoing relocations while searching for jobs. Acco...