Wednesday, 08 January 2025 Issue#013
Quote of the week: "Do not follow where the path may lead. Go instead where there is no path and leave a trail." – Ralph Waldo Emerson
Happy New Year! Welcome back to Honor & Purpose. We hope you had an outstanding Holiday season and got to take some time to relax and spend time with family & friends.
There will be a lot to keep track of in 2025 and our aim is to help you stay focused on the issues and developments that impact Veterans and military transition.
We'll begin this year by looking at how you could be eligible for 12 more months of GI Bill benefits, the disconnect between what hiring managers are saying and the experience of job seekers, and some platforms to use for upskilling. Here we go...
Back to School
Sharpen your pencils! The Department of Veterans Affairs announced that, following the 2024 Supreme Court decision, it has updated the process for awarding GI Bill benefits
This essentially means that many Veterans that were previously limited to 36 months of benefits could now be eligible for an additional 12 months. This could impact as many as 1.04 million Veterans and beneficiaries, and VA is launching a targeted outreach campaign to make sure that every Veteran gets the additional benefits they deserve.
Access to these additional months of education benefits mostly applies to Veterans who served multiple periods of military service. In layman's terms that means you would have had to have reenlisted at least once. These two periods are now treated differently. One qualified you for either Montgomery GI Bill or Post 9/11 GI Bill, the next now qualifies you for the additional 12 months.
Now all that's left is determining how you may use your additional benefits. If your about to or in the midst of a transition, this may be a great opportunity to upskill or earn a certificate.
Source: VA
Hiring Optimism vs. Ghosting - Job Market Outlook
If you were to ask hiring managers about their outlook for 2025, you'd likely be filled with optimism. A full 84% of hiring managers said they have a positive outlook for 2025, according to a recent survey. This sounds great, especially if you'll be looking for a job in 2025.
As optimistic as those hiring professionals are, the actual in real life experience of many job seekers seems to tell a different story. Just over 60% of workers report that they have been ghosted by a potential employer. Ghosted in this sense is being contacted by a company and starting the review process and then never hearing from them again. In fact many of these workers reported being ghosted even after they had multiple interviews. So, are companies hiring?
The general consensus is yes, hiring remains pretty strong. The uptick in being ghosted though seems to be linked to changes in the hiring landscape. First, many companies are doing thier best to just avoid saying anything negative to candidates. They could be doing that to avoid negative reviews or just beacuse they don't like confrontation. Another reason is that the increase in use of AI in the job market has made it very easy and quick to produce job ads and resumes. This increase may be overwhelming many hiring departments and it could be they just haven't made it back to you yet. Is ghosting a new norm?
Hopefully not, as more and more companies figure out how to better incorporate new AI tools in their hiring departments things should improve. In addition, as ghosting is increasing reputable companies will want to be sure they are not associated with that practice in order to be able to attract top talent. Bottom line is that ghosting can and does happen, but take it as a sign that their could be cultural and structure problems at that company and maybe they did you a favor.
Source: Hoodline
How to Upskill in today's enviornment
One trend that will likely be more prevalent in 2025 is the need to Upskill, especially in the tech related fields. For someone who is transitioning this should be looked at seriously as a way to round out or bolster the skill set carried over from the military. One of the reasons that this trend will be more prevalent is that it's relatively easy to gain or grow skills in many areas. Many employers almost expect candidates to have used some sort of platform to improve their skills.
So how do you pick which platform to use? Is there one clear leader? Well, the answer to those questions is really dependent on what skills you are after. A platform like Coursera for example is partnered with Google and you can earn Google certificates through their programs. Coursera also partners with many prominent Universities to offer individual classes and programs that are popular in the job market. Coursera does have a subscription model and you can pay a yearly fee to start taking courses through them.
Another platform that is closely related to Coursera is Udemy. Where it differs from Coursera is pricing and course content. Anyone can create a course and upload it to Udemy for people to take. This means that many subject areas have individuals that offer courses on sometimes very specific things. There are courses designed to get you to pass a certification exam like the PMP for instance. With this design you do have to be sure your signing up for a course from a credible source, so it does require a bit more vetting and research. The nice thing is that you can buy courses individually and don't have to subscribe to get access.
One lesser discussed platform worth checking out is Pluralsight. This platform is geared for the tech industry with their library of offerings all vetted by industry experts. Pluralsight has certification exam prep courses and courses on IT support, software development, and programming. They aim to keep pace with the ever changing tech world and offer a great way to stay current with and add to tech skills you may already have. Like Coursera they are a subscription based platform, however there are monthly plans so if you are just wanting to get one course you wouldn't have to pay for a year of access.
All of these platforms have their strengths and weaknesses, many people end up combining courses from all of them. Being current on hard skills will be key in 2025 so factoring some sort of skill upgrade should be a part of your transition plan. You may even find a whole new career path that you hadn't even thought of yet. Key is, never stop learning!
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