We Asked Veterans, They Answered

Creating a well-rounded team is important for any business. Employees with different backgrounds, perspectives, experiences, and skills can give your company an edge that others might be lacking. While considering the different types of employees that would work best with your business, make sure you’re not leaving out veterans.

According to Military.com, there are a lot of skills veterans bring to the job from leadership to integrity. But we wanted to hear from veterans. So, we asked the veterans who work at Kimball Midwest about how the military prepared them for careers outside of the service and why they think it’s important for businesses to hire veterans. Here is what they said:

“Teamwork and team building, how to conduct research, how to get teams to excel in unpleasant situations, and morale building.”

 

“My military experience was a long time ago, but I remember a lot of it very well. It makes an indelible mark on who you are and who you become. There are few jobs in the civilian world that put a young person under as much intensity, pressure, and scrutiny as the military. You learn a lot, you are forced to mature, you are forced to work as a member of a team. You must be dependable and trustworthy.

“In Basic Training, we had to be incredibly, meticulously organized. Everything had a very specific place to be in our lockers. And they needed to be perfect. No dust, no dirt. Your underwear folded into perfect six-inch squares. Your clothes pressed and clean. Your shoes and boots in a particular order under the bunk each night. It seems silly at the time, but it can be incredibly stressful. I remember our training instructor once telling us that one of the reasons for this hyper-attention to seemingly mundane details: “If I can’t even trust you to fold your underwear properly, how am I ever going to trust you to work on a multi-million-dollar jet?” The little things do matter. Do you do what you say you will do? Do you support others? Do you help your team? Do you care?”

 

“One of the biggest lessons I learned was that respect goes both ways. I would bend over backwards for officers who would do the heavy work along with us to help us get the job done faster. When they asked us to take care of a few things after the duty day, we would help them take care of it because they helped us. Take care of your people, and they will take care of you.”

“I think it is important for Kimball Midwest to seek out military veterans because they served their country and they bring a very strong sense of responsibility to our company.”

 

“When you hire a veteran, you’re hiring someone who has worked through adversity. A veteran is going to work hard because in the military you get promoted based on performance, not on seniority.”

 

“I think veterans can prove to be valuable assets in business in many ways: looking at problems more like challenges, working as a team to achieve a mission, and the ability to relate and communicate with people from all over.”

 

“Soldiers have the discipline and drive to show up and find solutions to problems because they are used to improvising, adapting, and overcoming to accomplish the mission.”

 

“Veterans understand the importance of doing their job well and their role in the machine as a whole. They tend to hold themselves to a standard that is beyond the guidelines of company policies. They tend to understand the importance of helping others and maintaining personal integrity. It’s a testament to what individuals with a common goal are capable of. If we can agree on the goal or the mission, we as a collective group can literally move mountains.”

 

Kimball Midwest is proud to employ veterans of the U.S. military who exemplify teamwork, respect, and maturity. Thank you for your service and the integrity and leadership you bring to our company and business partners across the country.