M E M B E R S P O T L I G H T
“Employers want to attract the
best and the brightest qualified
candidates – exactly who
transitioning military members
are. They are at the high end
of the labour market.”
barriers to employment many faced
when they left the Forces.
The Forces@WORK service is free to
anyone who has served in the Canadian
Armed Forces or their family members.
The only two principal prerequisites
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for eligibility is a person must possess a
resume prior to enrolling and be ready,
willing and able to commit to a job
within 90 days.
Blackburn says one of the first things
Forces@WORK staff help people who
enrol in the program with is to work
with them on shifting their perspective
to match the civilian culture. That
can include putting their individual
experiences forward first, rather
than that of the team they worked
within, because this is what civilian
hiring managers want to hear during
interviews, he explains. Next, they offer
a series of pre-employment supports
including tips on resume writing,
coaching on how to prepare for a job
interview and reference checks.
Once all of that preliminary work
is completed, program staff will then
help match individuals with prospec-tive
employers and assist in setting up
job interviews. Following the interview,
staff then conduct a “debrief” with the
individual to help them get a sense
of how they did. In some cases, they
will ask for an employer’s feedback
on what went right or wrong in the
interview. Another key element is that
the program staff will offer specialized
assistance, such as individual employer
hiring events targeted to the Forces@
WORK job seekers to help employers
– David Blackburn
16 www.albertaheavy.ca
/www.albertaheavy.ca
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