Latest Unemployment Figures

This from the VA:

"The BLS employment statistics were released today.  Attached is our ‘cheat sheet’ for your use and information.  We have also included the 2nd quarter 2015 statistic report. The national unemployment rate decreased from 5.5% to 5.3% and the Veteran unemployment numbers decreased from 5.0% to 4.4%.  Thanks to all of you who are working directly or indirectly, to ensure our Veterans have meaningful employment."

Let's take a look at the details.

This chart shows the last twelve months unemployment rate by month.  Civilians are the blue line, all male veterans the red line, all male era I (Desert Storm) the green line, and post 9/11 male veterans purple.

Male Unemployment Comparison Chart

Note the overall downward trend of the post 9/11 male veterans.  This is a good thing and kudo's to all who have worked to bring this trend about.  We have to stay vigilant, however because when the twelve month average is considered, post 9/11 male veterans remain much higher than non veterans, and double the rate of Desert Storm veterans.

Male Unemployment twelve month average comparison

Females are a different story, with a sharp dip to the good but then a return back to the levels of a year ago.  This is a very small population segment, a few numbers skew the ratio.

Female Unemployment Comparison Chart

Overall this month a post 9/11 veteran is 18.5% more likely to be unemployed than a non-veteran.  On a twelve month average, 37.75% more likely unemployed.  The trend is going the right way, keep it up!

v/r  Karl

Pride In Professionalism

You know, I've been thinking and have had this conversation with a lot of different people over the years.  More so recently.

Do you really take pride in what you do?  Personally, I take pride in everything I do.  Why?  Because it's professionalism.  A job worth doing is a job worth doing well.  What I do, what I build, how I act is a direct reflection on me.  It doesn't matter if the customer or whoever ever even sees my face or knows my name.

Everyone wants to be a doctor, lawyer, millionaire.  They want to be engineers, computer technicians.  Everyone wants to be the CEO.  What about the folks that make that company run?  Who's gonna do that?  Is it glamorous, no.  Does it need to be done?  You bet.

Now lets look at some discussions I've had with some fired up young Soldiers and NCOs who wanted to become an Officer.  The first thing I asked them was if they hated what they were doing right now or if they genuinely liked it.  Based on that answer, I asked them why they wanted to be an Officer.  Usual response?  More money and Officer's don't work as hard.  So I made a few of them shadow me for a while to show them what "we" really did.  Usual response?  Yeah, no thanks, I'll stick to this.  NCOs and young Soldiers ARE the Army and as an Officer, I needed every last one of them.  But they saw something shiny and lost sight of how important they were and what they were doing.  They lost sight of what they enjoyed about what they did.  They were proud of being an NCO, but not so proud to not look elsewhere.  The grass is always greener on the other side.

A caveat to that is some of them had put a lot of thought into it and gave me solid answers.  Some of them became Officers and some of them stayed NCOs, damn good ones at that.  No matter what route they took.

This country was founded on the notion that you can make your own way, with your own hands and better yourself.  Education was valued because it makes you a better person who is more capable or making a contribution to society.  Trades were valued and craftsmen were respected.  Be honest, who do you think is more successful, the guy with the big house who works in a bank or a guy with a big enough house and probably built that huge house?  My how times have changed.  What's funny is, that guy outside my office welding?  He goes home tired and dirty but he's smarter and makes way more than you think.

You are basically moving to another country where they speak a different language and have a completely foreign culture when you get out.  So yeah, to a degree, you have to step back and start over.  You have to learn so much and once you do, if you're boss doesn't wear a special helmet, they'll see it and you're moving on up the ladder.  All those things that you have been dying to show everyone that you were capable of, what the Army taught you, will finally get put to use.  Be patient.  Be diligent.

Another way to look at it is, you are trying to figure out what you want to be when you grow up.  Except now, you are jam packed with skills and experience and you more than likely have a lot more responsibility (like a family).  So there's more risk involved.  Work hard and constantly educate yourself (college, trades, certifications, READING THE NEWS, etc) and make that impact.  Don't forget to look at the long term.  Seek improvement at every opportunity and take pride in what you're doing and where you're going.  Everything you do, every job you have or course you take is a stepping stone to something better.

There truly is a lot of work to be done out there.  There are a lot of jobs, good jobs.  But for whatever reason, a lot of people look down on those jobs.  I see a lot of people that are unhappy at work and they constantly make mistakes and honestly, it seems like they don't care.  They do care; it's not that they come into work and say "I can't wait to mess something up again."  It's simply because they don't take pride in the work that they are doing.  They aren't realizing that what they do, what they make, is them.  The man isn't keeping them down; they're keeping themselves down.

As we speak, I'm hand stamping steel plates that are going into a new nuclear facility's floor.  Ok, well not right now, but you get the point.  Not very exciting but it's a part of a huge project that will benefit a lot of people for a long time.  When you look at the big picture, it's pretty cool.  I'm a college educated, world traveled, Commissioned Officer in the US Army and I'm swinging a hammer, all day.  I should be up front, learning sales, making spreadsheets and taking that next step to run the company right?  Maybe I am and don't know it.  But it's an honest day's work, it's kinda fun, it pays the bills and somewhere down the line, it'll make a difference.  So who cares.  In the not too distant future, folks are going to have hot water and be able to turn their lights on because I made a lot of noise swinging that hammer.

The point here is that it needs to be done and I'm the man for the job.  I'm proud of that.

Job Announcements as of Aug 26 2011

These job openings were sent to me - please review the announcements for the points of contact.  Good luck!

SOCOM Course Coordinator

DESCRIPTION Spectrum is seeking qualified, highly skilled individuals to perform as Language Course Coordinators for Special Operations Forces  personnel which may cover multiple languages. The instruction will include language courses using communicative, student-centered, and/or task-based foreign or second language teaching strategies for adults. This is a supervision and management position for multiple courses and instructors. Full time positions are available in multiple locations. Qualified candidates at large sites will report to an on-site manager and at smaller sites may report to a remote manager.  RESPONSIBILITIES AND DUTIES •         In charge of the day-to-day management of training, supervision of classes, monitoring, and counseling/guidance of students. •         Responsible for oversight of the language and cultural training classes, including overall supervision and coordination of work. •         Responsible for frequent monitoring of classroom instruction (weekly or more often for instructors assigned) and evaluation of instructors, managing the classroom and teaching methodology.  Recommends and implements corrective action as needed. •         Responsible for researching, evaluating and ordering of new curriculum materials, supplies and equipment. •         Coordinates curriculum committees and advisory boards to relate curriculum materials to specific subject area and student needs, and to maintain continuity of instruction. •         Work with USG POCs as required insuring training agendas are achieved.  •         Serve as teacher trainers, helping teachers become experts in their subject areas and selecting what areas to concentrate on in their classes. •         Establish and maintain a working relationship with military POCs to insure future development of the program. •         Oversee personnel providing technical support for language labs and admin support for records. •         Provide counseling and guidance to students and interface with the local military POCs to resolve issues. •         Responsible for tracking class metrics and produce weekly and monthly reports for consolidation. Responsible for evaluating and tracking metrics on enrollments, attendance, student progress, scheduling, and other weekly and monthly reports, etc.  •         Assists in monitoring and implementation of a “quality assurance” program which includes periodic monitoring, assessment and corrective action.  ADDITIONAL DUTIES  •         Stays abreast of trends in curriculum development and instructional aids and methods, serving as a resource for teachers. •         Become experts on training standards set by the USG, the Defense Language Institute and the U.S. Army John F. Kennedy Special Warfare Center and School. •         Represents the company as required on-site with appropriate government personnel. •         Qualified candidates may be required to observe and travel of off-site training. •         Assists the Site Manager to maintain accountability of all expenses, company and Government Furnished Equipment and other resources. •         Assists the Site Manager with all Task Orders, requirements determination, and invoicing procedures within the program. •         Assists the Site Manager and Instructors with development and conduct of training.   WORKING LOCATIONS  Main locations are:  Fort Bragg, NC; San Diego, CA; Norfolk, VA; Hurlbert Field, FL; Camp LeJeune, NC; and Camp Pendleton, CA.  Required QUALIFICATIONS •         Associates Degree in a Humanities discipline. •         Must be eligible to obtain a DoD Secret Clearance •         Working proficiency in a second language desired with (a language rating of Interagency Language Roundtable level 2 / 2 /2 or ACTFL Advanced-High) in speaking, reading and listening modalities. •         Must have completed formal study of the English Language with sufficient proficiency of at least level 2 as measured by the Test of English as a Foreign Language or a score of no less than 79 on the English Comprehension Level (ECL) test. •         At least 2 yrs recent of experience with instruction; or training management.   •         2 years of related Served as a Staff NCO or an Company Grade Officer in the US Armed Forces (with an Honorable Discharge) •         Live within 60 miles of the Military Installation •         Experience with developing, coaching, and mentoring staff  Desired QUALIFICATIONS •         Bachelor's Degree •         Current Top Secret Clearance •         Graduate of a Service School Instructor Certification Course •         Proficiency in a second language acquired in an academic environment GENERAL QUALIFICATIONS  •         Ability to show an inspirational leadership style that promotes innovation and collaboration and fosters commitment •         Possession of excellent influencing and problem-solving •         Able to work with culturally diverse and sensitive populations •         Able to deal with diverse personalities and requests on a large and fast paced environment •         Ability to perform as a results-oriented individual •         Proficiency in Microsoft Office applications (intermediate to expert) – to include Outlook Please contact: Capt. (USN Ret) David Jones djones@spectrumgrp.com 703-683-4222

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Two locations:  Damn Neck and Whidbey Island WA.  Preference to Ranger/SOF veterans, then veterans.  Contact scott_higgins1635@msn.com for information.



Position Duties:


* Perform system administration on Windows and Linux systems in a Virtual and physical environment with hands on approach supporting production resources.
* Install, maintain, and support all variants of Windows, Red Hat, Fedora, Debian, CentOS, servers and workstations and applications loaded on them.
* Specific applications and services that are supported but not limited to; Squid proxy, Apache, IIS, WSUS, Active Directory, DHCP, DNS, MYSQL, PHP, AutoFS, SSH, NFS, SAMBA, and LVM.
* Troubleshoot basic end to end networking problems involving switches, routers, workstations, servers, VLANS, and other IT devices and or services.
* Create, update and maintain documentation related to system administration processes and procedures.
* Creating and management of users and groups in a Microsoft Active Directory and Exchange 2003 environment.
* Tracking and resolving local user hardware and software issues.
* Performing regular maintenance duties such as patching, upgrades, and migrations.
* Maintaining inventory of organizational hardware and software assets.
* Working with low voltage cabling to include pulling, terminating, and testing CAT 5 cable.
* Testing and implementation of new hardware and/ or software features and services.
* Focus on IA and DIACAP requirements to maintain AO and IAO status of systems
* Knowledge of DoD 8500 Series, NIST and certification requirements required to keep systems in compliance



Position Requirements:


* Ability to obtain and maintain a Department of Defense (DoD) Secret level Security Clearance
* Must be a United States Citizen
* Able to integrate with new technology and find better avenues to improve current IT services and or hardware.
* Must be highly motivated and possess a mid-level skill set in Windows Systems Administration
* Must possess strong troubleshooting, analytical and communication skills.
* Excellent written and verbal communication skills
* Strong attention to details
* Strong work ethic and commitment to quality
* Ability to write or work with Technical writers to create testing documents and/or procedure manuals
* Strong organizational skills, ability to self govern and multi-task
* Ability to work in a fast paced environment, multi-task and balance multiple goals and priorities.
* Ability to work with others in a highly collaborative environment
* Willingness to work overtime on an as needed basis
* Possible Travel (less than 15%)



Education and Experience:


* Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Engineering or a related field preferred
* Minimum of three years of relevant experience
* DoD 8570.1M IAT / IAM level 3 certification
* Strong computer hardware and software background
* Knowledge of Open Source IT technology alternatives a plus

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Procter & Gamble's Iowa City Beauty & Grooming facility has posted a requisition on its external P&G website for a very limited number of Production Technician positions.  This posting will be used to fill immediate opportunities in November/December 2011.  If you have friends/relatives interested in P&G employment, please share the following information with them in order to apply on-line.

Production Technician - Job Number    MFG00003088

 PROCTER & GAMBLE MANUFACTURING POSITIONS AVAILABLE

P&G is seeking applicants to fill the following positions at its Iowa City facility:

Production Technician - Job Number MFG00003088
A high school diploma or GED is required. Starting wage is $16.68/hr.

Production technicians work rotating shifts. Production occurs on all 7 days of the week.  P&G offers competitive compensation and an outstanding benefits package. For a more detailed job description and to apply, go to www.pg.com  Carefully read information posted on each screen as you follow the steps listed below:

1) Select "Careers" from tab at top of screen
2) Locate "Find Apply for a Job" on right side of screen
3) Click on "Enter Here"
4) Under "Find and Apply for Jobs" locate "OR Enter Job Number," enter MFG00003088, click on "Search"
5) Click on "Search for Jobs" toward bottom of screen, then "Manufacturing-Production Technician-Iowa City, IA
6) Read the Job Description. Click on "Apply Online"
7) Click on "New User"
8) Enter information, click on "Register", follow prompts

Applications are accepted via the Internet ONLY at www.pg.com Communication with applicants is via e-mail, so please use an active account.  NO phone calls please.

Women, Minorities, Veterans and the Disabled are encouraged to apply.
Procter & Gamble is an Equal Opportunity Employer.


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Deputy Manager of Aviation Operations at Denver International Airport (DIA, Extended)


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