Returning veterans find job search a challenge

• Reprints

In this photo taken Feb. 1, 2012, Andy Lucido, a 30-year-old former Army captain working on his MBA at the University of Illinois, is pictured on campus in Champaign, Ill. Lucido initially interviewed with Illinois companies but wound up getting a job in Washington, D.C. (AP Photo/David Mercer)

Updated: March 14, 2012 8:10AM

CHAMPAIGN — When he was in the Army, Andy Lucido was a captain. Back home after tours in Iraq and Afghanistan, he began studying for an MBA at the University of Illinois.

The combination, he figured, was a guarantee of a great job. But that’s not what he found when he started searching in 2010.

“I thought just as a military officer, an Army officer with multiple combat tours under my belt, that some of these firms would just be itching to get me in the door. But it wasn’t like that,” said Lucido, a Lake Villa native who eventually did find a job he wanted — in Washington, D.C.

Veterans returning from Afghanistan and Iraq have some of the highest unemployment rates in the country, 12.1 percent on average through 2011, according to the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Illinois veterans are faring better than most. The average unemployment rate last year for Illinois veterans who served after the 2001 terror attacks was 9.5 percent, according to the BLS.

But they describe some of the same challenges: Struggling to translate their experience into a civilian workplace. Keeping the military jargon off their resumes. Having to rely on informal networks for job tips.

To learn more about their situations, The Associated Press spoke to Illinois vets and a soldier in Kuwait preparing to return home. Some have found work. Others still search.

A long hunt

After a months-long search, Hickory Hills native Eric Hiltner found himself in a job interview far from home, at a Lumber Liquidators store in Richmond, Va.

Most of the interview consisted of hypothetical questions about working at the hardwood-floor retailer. What would you do if this or that came up?

“Most of my responses were military experiences,” the 28-year-old said, “and how there really wasn’t anything a job like this could throw at me that I haven’t already dealt with something a millions times worse.”

He got the job, though he hadn’t expected the hunt to take so long.

Hiltner graduated from Eastern Illinois in May 2010 and had what he thought was a pretty good set of credentials: a bachelor’s degree, experience leading a campus veterans’ group, work as a school newspaper photographer and Army service in Iraq.

But all that bought him was part-time work, mowing yards and tending bar in Charleston.

“I applied for hundreds of jobs, some as lowly as a VA hospital security guard, and only received an email saying that position is no longer available six months later,” he said.

Divorced and looking for a change of scenery, Hiltner phoned an old Army friend, who talked him into moving to Richmond.

Within two weeks, Hiltner had a job as a delivery driver. Then Lumber Liquidators hired him, and he was promoted to assistant store manager.

“I had to move 800 miles and take a serious chance to maybe find work,” Hiltner said. “I had to rely on someone taking a chance.”

Coming home soon

By the beginning of summer, Sgt. Anthony Villareal plans to be home in Chicago Heights, spending time with his young son and, he hopes, starting a civilian job in information technology.

Villareal has been with the Illinois National Guard in Kuwait since August, sent there to help with the logistics of moving equipment out of Iraq.

The 22-year-old has spent the past five years working with computers and other communications equipment in the guard. Between deployments, he’s worked on an associate’s degree and other computer-related training.

“It looks nice when I can tell people, ‘Hey I’ve managed 30 work stations, I’ve managed a local network supporting 50 to 80 units,” he said in a telephone interview from Kuwait.

Villareal has looked into military programs designed to help veterans get work. He’s also talked to civilian contractors.

In one interview, he said, a potential employer promised to hold onto his application until he gets more training.

“The way I look at the unemployment rate, it’s high because nobody wants to do anything about it,” he said. “If you want a job so bad, you would meet (the job) requirements.”

——————

Two years removed from military service, Lucido still talks and acts a good bit like the Army captain he was.

He and his wife “had to strategize” when deciding where to live once he finished his MBA. And his resumes since becoming a civilian in 2010 have been sometimes thick with military speak the civilian world doesn’t much understand.

On the other hand, the talkative veteran of Iraq and Afghanistan doesn’t say much about the two times he broke a foot parachuting.

Lucido, now 30, also was surprised that his rank, experience and MBA didn’t mean much in lean economic times to Chicago-based recruiters.

He eventually found a job with a Washington, D.C., defense consulting firm, and starts later this year. But like a lot of veterans, Lucido found help with his job search on his own.

“One of my buddies’ brothers who was a special forces guy just graduated business school. He pretty much kind of took me under his wing and told me how it is,” Lucido said.

Lucido learned to subtly tailor his story in words a potential interviewer would understand. Rather than saying he led 20 soldiers on a combat mission, Lucido might say he led 20 people through an operation as a team.

“They like to see leadership positions, they like to see people working in teams,” he said. “They like to see presentation skills. ... I had to do daily presentations to generals.”

——————

Jesse Houk wasn’t overseas or even at a military base when he found out he’d be looking for work.

The 30-year-old lost his job as a recruiter for a Bloomington firm just before Thanksgiving, though his position as a National Guard sergeant — someone regularly away on guard duty — had nothing to do with it, he said.

He’s been in the guard 11 years, but with the exception of a few weeks in Malawi, all of it has been in the United States. That’s been a blessing, since he was home for the birth of his daughter five months ago and now stays at home with her as his wife heads off to work as a nurse every day.

Despite a few job interviews, Houk is still looking. He finds himself tapping some of the resources set up mainly for veterans returning from overseas.

A veterans representative from the Illinois Department of Employment Security has been in contact, Houk said, as has Melrose, the guard representative.

“It’s been a huge blessing to have him,” Houk said. “He sends emails almost every day with companies who are doing career fairs, companies who are hiring.”

His situation isn’t desperate, Houk said, but it wouldn’t take much to get there.

“We’re keeping our heads above water until something better comes along,” he said.

———

Follow David Mercer on Twitter at http://twitter.com/DavidMercerAP.