I graduated from boot camp in June. When I joined I was a student on a leave of absence.
I decided that I need to get a job and work a little bit before finishing my 2nd degree.
So as I go through the interview process, I want to get a job, but I don’t want to be dishonest. I go to HS A School in June '09. If I mention it during the initial interview, i don’t want it to affect whether or not they’ll hire me (without being able to effectively prove I was denied employment because of military obligations).
Do I wait until the beginning of the year and let them know it’s on the horizon, giving them plenty of time to find a temp?
How have all of you dealt with this, if at all. Or if you just have some knowledge.
Tell them the truth up front. Chances are, it won’t be an issue, but if it is, you’ll only make it more of an issue if you keep it a secret. You’ll have a much better chance of being able to come back to a job after training if you put it on the table from the beginning. You can’t be fired for military obligations but you CAN be fired for lying during your application process.
From my experience in HR, I would advise you not to mention it, especially if you are applying to a company of any size. You won’t be lying about anything in the application process, because they won’t be asking about it. Just like whether, if you were female, you were planning to get pregnant soon and would be out of work in 9 months, or you knew you were going to need to be out for back surgery sometime next year. Many companies would just as soon not know this kind of TMI stuff because, if they don’t hire you, it raises the specter of discrimination. If you are applying to be something like the “right hand man” to the owner of a very small company, I can see how you might feel some ethical obligation to disclose your plans to him. It wouldn’t be a legal obligation, though. However, your current or past military service should appear on the application. Applications usually have wording that you sign indicating information is complete and correct.
That’s veterans status, probably - and it’s there for a number of reasons. There are preference systems in place for certain classes of veterans, and dishonorably discharged military members can’t be hired by federal contractors.
Asking you to list service is absolutely OK. That’s employment, and applications ask you to list all employment. But employers are advised not to ask about military reserve obligations - see here http://www.hrworld.com/features/30-interview-questions-111507/
It’s not illegal to ask for reserve status on the application, but it can create a legal risk to the company of being accused of discrimination, so definitely not all applications ask that question.
I had one interview yesterday. I wasn’t asked to fill out a formal resume, but I do have United States Coast Guard Reserve on my resume as one of a few of my current jobs.
I bring up the fact that I am in the Coast Guard because I like to point out that in boot camp we were forced to learn how to work as a team and pay attention to detail under extreme stress.
When asked about my availability, I told them that I was wide open with the exception of the first weekend of every month or the following weekend if a holiday falls on the first weekend because it is my drill weekend.
I left it at that. The first interview I had after deciding to return to work full time, I brought up having to leave for 3-month training next summer and the interviewer respected my candor, but advised me to use caution in bringing it up on other interviews.
So I’ve remained tight lipped for the most part. I may have mentioned that I’d be going to corpsman school once, but they either didn’t catch it, care, or put two and two together.
Thank you for the link to the law, I really appreciate it. As well as all of the other advice. Seriously, all the military message boards I checked with kept repeating that they can’t fire me or deny me anything based on being in the military, which everyone one knows, but I was really just trying to gauge the best time to bring it up without bringing discrimination that I wouldn’t be able to prove into it.
Congrats on your completion of boot. I’m a Cape May grad of '91 myself. First off, it looks like you’re getting good answers here already. Always remember this, however: you’re unlikely to encounter issues, questions, or problems that have not been encountered before by someone in your situation. Seek the advice of those that have gone before you.
You are a part of some Sector somewhere, and that Sector has a Senior Reserve Officer and a Reserve Command Master Chief. Talk to your fellow reservists about any of these issues and they should have the answers. If not, request the answer from higher up in the chain. You can talk to the active duty at your unit, but they may or may not know the ins and outs of the reserve program and how that affects civilian employment. Your RCMC, however, will definitely know. Do not be afraid to seek these people out, but make sure your command knows.
As an aside, be weary of the military message boards. The signal to noise ratio is normally pretty bad.
