Missouri Small Business and Technology Development Centers Blog

In our last post, we mentioned the possible advantages of considering an applicant’s veteran status when hiring. Here are a few more reasons it may be good to give a veteran your highest consideration:

These are tough times. Resilience is an attribute, and few people possess as much resilience as veterans. As a result of their training, they can adjust to changing conditions, meet challenges with confidence and problem solve a variety of situations. In addition, their values of honor and integrity are important in today’s “what’s in it for me” environment.

By virtue of their experience, veterans are good planners. Whether setting up a supply depot or engaging the enemy or designing a training program for your employees, members of the military achieve the desired outcomes through a variety of carefully designed and implemented plans.

Running a business requires making tough choices, particularly these days when resources are slim and competition is always growing. Military personnel make tough calls every day. They learn to live with the outcomes of those choices, and they learn how to improve their decision making from their experience. That’s invaluable when remaining agile and responsive sometimes means having to make adjustments later. (more…)

We’ll be hiring some new staff in our program in the coming weeks, and I’ve been thinking about new ways to consider candidates beyond the traditional combination of education, experience and attitude. In other words, what kind of intangibles should I screen for in looking at our applicants?

As I’ve done some reading on the topic, I’ve identified a few themes that are interesting and, perhaps, promising in terms of looking at applicants with fresh eyes.

TIME magazine had an article not too long ago about the skills that returning veterans have acquired in our most recent conflicts. Due to the nature of the combat in Iraq and Afghanistan, members of the military have had to employ a more direct, more personal and more community- and project-based approach, which has literally forced the acquisition of leadership, negotiation and problem-solving skills. Veterans have been trained to see a task through to completion, a quality that is always valuable, regardless of the job. And military experience is a great background for teaching a worker how to follow as well as lead as the task demands. (more…)

I volunteer for a local non-profit that has raised nearly $1 million in the past three years. One of my responsibilities is to check the mail a few times a week and write acknowledgement letters for donations before turning the proceeds over to our treasurer for processing and deposit.

Recently, I received a frantic email from a local business owner stating that he had mistakenly mailed us a check that was meant for his commercial landlord. He was alerted to this after receiving our acknowledgement letter. He was emailing us to chastise us for cashing a check that was clearly meant for someone else.

Fortunately, our treasurer keeps very good records, including scanning each check we receive. A third volunteer enters the information into a comprehensive spreadsheet. We keep these duplicate records because we feel it’s particularly important that we are transparent and absolutely correct in handling these very generous donations. In several cases, our back-up system has saved us much time and effort, as well as confusion, so we are glad we do it. (more…)