Author: Kayla Walker

Geared for the military community, Hope For The Warriors will present a series of free, virtual career workshops with Robert Half, a talent solutions and business consulting firm.

The four-part series begins Thursday, April 23, at 11 a.m. EDT. Led by career coaches from Hope For The Warriors and Robert Half, the one-hour interactive workshops are designed for veterans, service members and military spouses navigating the civilian job market.

Participants will receive guidance on job-search skills, including resume development, interview preparation, networking strategies and exploring civilian career options during the transition from military service.

The following are the topics of the four-part series:

• Thursday, April 23 – How to Ace the Interview (Without Sounding Scripted): Designed for first-time interviewees and those returning to the job market after an extended gap, this session focuses on confident communication and effective interview techniques.
• Thursday, July 23  – National Hire a Veteran Day – Employer Spotlight Panel: Employers will discuss the skills they seek in veteran candidates, how veterans can stand out in a competitive job market, and common misconceptions — and how to overcome them.
• Thursday, September 17 – Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS) – How to Get Seen: This workshop will explore why applications can disappear into the “black hole” and provide strategies for improving resume visibility within ATS platforms
• Thursday, November 19 – Salary Negotiation & Compensation Confidence: Participants will learn how to discuss pay, understand market value, navigate civilian compensation structures and performance reviews and determine when and how to negotiate.

For the first 15 participants that attend any of the events for its entirety, Robert Half will provide 30-day access to its Percipio learning platform. Percipio features thousands of career development resources, including courses on resume writing, interview prep, leadership, Microsoft Office skills, and more. The goal of the self-guided program is to help users sharpen their skills and explore new interests to help take the next step in their career journey.

As a part of Hope For The Warriors’ Warrior’s Compass transition program, the free, virtual career workshop series provides training to help prepare those in the military landscape for a job search in today’s civilian climate. The workshops offer tools and tips, as well as opportunities to network with other service members, military spouses, and companies committed to hiring those with military backgrounds.

“Service members and veterans bring strong skills to the workforce, however the transition from military service to civilian employment can be challenging for some. These workshops are designed to make that process clearer and more accessible,” said Brian Papakie, director of transition services and life roles for Hope For The Warriors and a retired U.S. Marine.

To register for the free, virtual career workshops, visit hopeforthewarriors.org.

• LinkedIn

The Arty Paty +1 recently released a new podcast called “Well, That Was Hard.”  We chatted about the kinds of hard things Marine Corps spouses go through all the time. The moves that go wrong. Trying to go back to work – or keep working. What it’s like to make new friends at new duty stations. The moments that are frustrating enough to laugh about later, but not always funny while we’re living them. 

The point of the podcast was pretty simple: We do hard things. 

Today I have been thinking about hard in a different way. 

Maybe it was fate or maybe it was the internet algorithms, but I came across a clip from Duke women’s basketball coach Kara Lawson where she talked about hard things in a way that stuck with me. She basically said that so many of us are waiting for things to get easier, when really, the goal is to become someone who handles hard better. 

Well, okay then. 

If I’m honest, I probably spend a lot of my life thinking that if I could just get through this one thing, then things would settle down. If I could just make it through this move, this season, this challenge, then maybe life would finally feel easier. 

But that is not really how it works. 

The hard stuff does not  go away. Sometimes it changes shape. Sometimes it lets up for a little while. Sometimes a new kind of hard stuff takes its place. But what I realized is that the real growth is not in waiting for life to get easier. It’s in becoming a person who can carry hard things better than she used to. 

I don’t mean that hard stuff stops being hard. I don’t mean I have some magical mindset where everything rolls off my back. I don’t mean I enjoy the hard parts or welcome them. I do not. 

But I can look back on my life and see that the things that once would have completely undone me don’t hit me the same way anymore. Not because life got softer, but because I got better at doing hard things. 

I think this life teaches that lesson whether we ask for it or not. 

There is always some version of hard. A goodbye. A move. A missed holiday. A changed plan. A season of loneliness. A season of uncertainty. A moment where you realize no one is coming to make it easier, and somehow, you have to figure out how to move through it anyway. 

And over time, I think that does something to a person. 

It builds grit. It builds perspective. It builds a kind of confidence that doesn’t come from having an easy life, but from knowing you have already done hard things before. 

I can do hard things. 

Not always gracefully. Not always with a great attitude. Not always without tears or frustration or a little bit of sarcasm. But I have done them. And when I look back, I can see that the greatest change was not always in my circumstances. The greatest change was in me. 

I handled it better than I used to. 

I’m not waiting for life to get easier. I’ll just try to handle hard better than I did the last time. 

---