"Military experience, some find, is tough to translate on resumes" by Katie Johnston Chase, Globe Staff | September 27, 2009
Chad Brower, who served in the Marines and the Air Force for 17 years:
“You’d think that the military would be a good differentiator, that it would give you a leg up over someone who doesn’t have military experience, but that hasn’t been the case.’’
Brower, 41, of Brimfield, is one 19,000 Massachusetts veterans who have served in Iraq or Afghanistan. He worked security at a base in Saudi Arabia where insurgents’ bombs were a constant threat and oversaw day-to-day law enforcement at Hanscom Air Force Base in Bedford, among many other duties. After taking a medical retirement in 2006, he earned four degrees in three-and-a-half years: two associate’s degrees, a bachelor’s in operations management, and a master’s in business management with an emphasis in security and emergency management.
Despite his education and experience, though, Brower has found work hard to come by.
And if he can't get work with those credentials....
He’s hoping to land an industrial security gig - a government position that comes with a high level of security clearance - and has applied for about 150 jobs since graduating from Boston University in May. But the one position he’s been offered, as a security manager for a small company with little potential for growth, was a letdown. As Brower’s job search drags on into the fall, he’s getting used to being the primary caretaker for his two daughters - he and his wife are expecting a son in November - and learning to handle rejection.
Brower said that being a 25-year-old sergeant in charge of 45 troops and millions of dollars worth of equipment in life-or-death situations “grows you up fast,’’ but that responsibility doesn’t necessarily translate on paper. “When they come back, they get seen by employers as a 25-year-old kid.’’
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