Become a Boot Camp volunteer!

As the military drawdown in Iraq and Afghanistan continues, 300,000 veterans will return to the civilian workforce each year over the next four years.

While unemployment rates for veterans have come down since their highs of over 12% last year, joblessness among this group remains high — well above the national unemployment rate of 7.8%. “About 205,000 of those who served in or during the Iraq and Afghanistan wars are now without work,” according to a recent USA Today report.

Now there is something that you can do to take action in response to this challenge. We are providing intensive training for veterans in a four-week, virtual “Boot Camp” experience at absolutely no charge for veterans or supporting volunteers. 

All we are asking you to do as a leader is to fully participate in the Boot Camp “Live” experience.

Coming Home

As the United States continues to draw down forces in Afghanistan and Iraq, the White House estimates that over one million veterans with great leadership skills will return to the civilian workforce over the next five years. 

In this second of this two-part series, author Kirk Hallowell explains the main interview process and gives you specific tips on how you can achieve the highest score possible by anticipating the format and scoring pattern of the interview.

Have you ever wondered what happens after you complete a job interview?

The fact is that people sit around and talk about you and then make a decision based on how you compare to other candidates.

In this month's 2-part video blog, career expert Dr. Kirk Hallowell explains exactly how companies rate candidates based on his 15 years of experience in designing executive selection programs.

In this brief video, Kirk Hallowell, author of the Million Dollar Race explains how social networks grow or die based on his personal experience with his Hibiscus.

In this video blog, author Kirk Hallowell warns you about Deep Dark Doogy Doodoo and how you too can avoid “stepping in it” with your job search.

Over the years, Kirk has seen many capable job candidates, with great leadership skills and qualities, make messy missteps in their job campaigns simply because they failed to follow some basic, sound practices in preparation. 

This video tells you about three big piles of it that are just waiting for you unless you pay attention.  

Leadership Skills Video Series

One of the greatest challenges, for all leaders, is to take action in the face of fear driven by tough situations.

In this brief video blog, Kirk Hallowell offers a simple three-step process that enables leaders to confront and overcome their fears in a daily discipline. By using this simple method, leaders can override their brain’s natural hard-wiring to consciously take action and yield a superior outcome.

The video concludes with an example of applying this technique for people in job transition.

True leaders are leaders 24 hours a day and with everyone with whom they interact. This includes people in job transition, who may reach out to you for your support, or simply people you interact with in everyday conversations.

In this video, author Kirk Hallowell offers three ways you can quickly and effectively support people in job transition without taking significant time and energy from your own schedule.

Please share what you have found useful for supporting people in transition through this blog discussion. 

Leaders have great ideas. If you have a great idea – why don’t you write a book? How hard could it be? You wrote long papers in college – perhaps you write extended reports in your current job. How hard could it be to string a few of these efforts together and write a book? Wouldn’t it be rewarding and deeply meaningful to finally get your thoughts on paper? Wouldn’t the world be a better place if you shared your passion and insights?

You're looking for a job and you get that big interview. Your natural tendency is to focus on what you see as the most important factor: YOU.

Most job candidates prepare for interviews by focusing on themselves, their past performance, their achievements, their success stories. By the time of the interview, these candidates are like a balloon blown up to capacity. The moment the interviewer opens the balloon with a question, he or she is hit in the face by a stream of uncontrolled, hot “you” air. If not handled correctly, that release of air is about as inviting as the blast from an actual balloon.

You might not think this this scenario is typical, but I've seen this dynamic happened time and again, particularly with less experienced job candidates or with job candidates who are reentering the workforce after a long dry spell.