News and Awards

Amerit Celebrates Military Appreciation Month with its “Veterans First” Initiative

WALNUT CREEK, CALIF. – In celebration of Military Appreciation Month, Amerit Consulting, California’s largest Disabled Veteran Business Enterprise, announced today the launch of its new initiative, Veterans First.

Veterans First is Amerit’s promise to continue their search for top tier talent by starting with qualified military veterans from their database to fill open positions.

Amerit is asking companies to join them in helping our country overcome the alarming 29 percent¹ unemployment rate among veterans by hiring them for positions that utilize their strength of leadership, work ethic and technical training that were developed during their time in the military.

“We believe veterans are the best candidate to hire,” said Gary Herbold, founder of Amerit Consulting. “Their world-class technical training and education make them an asset to all companies seeking to strengthen their future. Veterans First is about doing the right thing by placing veterans in careers where their unique skills and character will be valued after serving.”

Companies that hire veterans also benefit by realizing up to $9,600 in tax credits per veteran can be earned during this calendar year. Amerit Consulting’s Veterans First initiative is designed to quickly find the best-qualified, top tier veterans that fit their partners’ needs.

To find out how hiring a veteran would benefit your company, contact Eve Nasby, Vice President of Sales, at enasby@ameritconsulting.com.

Veterans, please send resumes to veterans@ameritconsulting.com for career opportunities nationwide.

Join the conversation online! Follow @VetsFirst2012 on Twitter and Like “Veterans First 2012” on Facebook.

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Amerit Consulting is proud to be a certified DVBE Staffing, Recruiting and Business Process Outsourcing Company. Through the partnership and success of our clients we are able to continue our support of America’s Military Heroes who are in need. For more information about Amerit Consulting please visit http://ameritconsulting.com/

Sources

¹ Employment Situation of Veterans Summary . (n.d.). U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Retrieved May 10, 2012, from http://www.bls.gov/news.release/vet.nr0.htm.

By David Brophy, Director of Recruiting

Have you ever wondered what happens to your resume when you submit it to a company? Ever wonder why no one calls you when you think you are exactly the right person for the job? You may be the right person for the job, but in reality, the hiring manager never saw your resume and probably never will. Drafting your resume correctly will get you past obstacles you never knew were there and get you that interview!

You already know this, but you don’t have just one resume. Every time you apply to a position you are making small changes to highlight where your skills match the job description. But how you do this is the key. When you apply directly though a company website a few things happen that will determine where your resume ends up, how you rank and if your phone will ever ring.

The Dreaded Parser

You may be under the impression that when you submit a resume, a recruiter will look at it and shoot it off to the hiring manager.  Not so fast! When you come across a posting on a job board or submit directly to a company site, your resume must be parsed, or loaded, into the companies ATS (Applicant Tracking System). The parser’s goal is to take the information from the resume and populate fields in the ATS (Name, address, job history, etc). If you’re lucky, the company will actually index your whole resume meaning everything in the resume itself is searchable. But, some companies cannot search the whole resume, only the information it’s able to parse. What does this mean to you? You better have a clean, well formatted resume that is not overly wordy. Less is more!

A successful resume will be on a Word doc (although parsers say they are able to load multiple formats, Word is most successful). You should have a single first and last name, long names confuse the parser and can land you in the unsuccessful pile (more on that later!). Include a phone number and a professional email address (not hotchic@hotmail.com) and leave off your home address (you don’t want assumptions made by your address). Also, leave out an objective, that is so 20 years ago!

If you had an unclear or made up fun title, change it to something practical and standard. In addition, limit yourself to only a few bullets of specific accomplishments, not your duties. If your title is Accountant or Java Programmer, we pretty much know what you do. Your bullets need to show your greatness and successes! Additionally, you need to clearly bullet your technical skills and systems (e.g. JavaScript, AJAX, MS SQL, Great Plains, SAP, FASB 109, SOP 97-2, etc.). When a recruiter does a keyword search, this is what they are looking for.

Now about that unsuccessful pile. Sometimes a parser gets “stuck” while reading your resume and puts you in the unsuccessful or junk box. This often happens for a few reasons:  your resume has been faxed to often; when you scanned it into PDF it became blurry; or the brutal truth, your resume is an unclear mess! If you are lucky, someone at the company will manually “push” your resume in. Unfortunately, more often than not, that person just deletes that folder to clean it out. So when they say they will hold onto your resume for future openings, don’t hold your breathe.

The bottom line is keeping your resume short and specific. No one has time to read about all you have done, they just want to see if you have the skills that warrant them picking up the phone to call you. You have two obstacles from the start: first, you need your resume to parse when you apply; and second you may have a sourcer who just wants to quickly connect the dots of your skills to the job description and pass you along. If they can’t see you have the specific skills in the first 15 seconds, they are moving on. Stay tuned for more articles on the three basic resume layouts and how to show up first on a Boolean search!

Click on the photo for a larger version.

By Eve Nasby, VP Business Development, Amerit Consulting

Gary and Kathy Herbold, and I had the distinct pleasure of meeting with the Executive Director of Operation Reboot, Maurice Wilson, last Thursday.

Maurice is a highly energized and energizing visionary whose passion for transitioning veterans is contagious.

He co-founded NVTS, Inc. with a purpose to help transitioning veterans successfully acclimate to civilian life.  Here is an excerpt from their website:

NVTS, Inc. is an emerging San Diego-based 501 (c)(3) organization dedicated to assisting veterans in adjusting to civilian life and securing meaningful employment by combining best-practice performance social solutions and techniques. The organization was established by a group of retired high-ranking Naval and Marine Corps officers and workforce development professionals who seek to fill a tremendous gap in the continuum of veteran services.

Our mission is to assist veterans in making a successful transition from military service to civilian life, with all veterans achieving, within their potential, their goals in the transition domains of employment and career, education, living situation, personal effectiveness/wellbeing, and community-life functioning.

We do this by:

• Providing early-stage cognitive-behavioral educational intervention, to help veterans “re-boot” from military programming;
• Helping veterans transition successfully from the battle front to the home front;
• Assisting veterans in developing a successful reentry plan;
• Minimizing the effects of stress associated with service;
• Addressing social problems at their root cause;
• Helping transfer military training to California’s labor force;
• Creating an effective model that can be replicated nationally that complements existing services

Maurice explained that the remarkable success of their program has resulted in a waiting list of over 300 veterans.  For $2,500.00 per veteran, you can “sponsor” a veteran to go through this 21 day program.  Companies like Union Bank have donated $100,000 to support the efforts. Other leaders in the community have committed to writing a monthly person check to sponsor just one veteran.  As this program continues to grow Operation Reboot seeks partners who are as passionate about this cause as they are.  To learn more about them, click here:

http://www.nvtsi.org/

Amerit Consulting is proud to be a certified DVBE Staffing, Recruiting and Business Process Outsourcing Company. For more information about Amerit Consulting please visit http://ameritconsulting.com/.

Amerit Consulting is honored to be included in the Top 20 issue of Black EOE Journal–Celebrating 20 years of diversity.

Today, The Amerit Family of Companies includes two DVBE companies, Amerit Consulting, Inc., and KelleyAmerit Fleet Services, Inc. as well as two non-DVBE companies: Suna Solutions, and Zempleo, a certified Minority Business.  Amerit has offices in San Diego and the San Francisco Bay Area.

Read the full feature on Amerit in the Black EOE Journal’s Celebrating 20 Years of Diversity Issue.

By Eve Nasby, VP, Business Development, Amerit Consulting

On February 7, 2012 I had the distinguished honor of listening to and meeting Captain Claude Rowe at an event sponsored by the Veterans Employee Group at Carefusion.

Claude Rowe was born and raised in the Detroit area with an aspiration to fly. During WWII though, opportunities for African-Americans in the U.S. armed forces were almost non-existent. Unless you were fortunate enough to get a slot at the Tuskegee Institute in Alabama, there were no other options in the States.

Rowe, however, knew there was another option in Canada. There were over 8,000 Americans trained as pilots in Canada and a fraction of them were black.  After rigorous training, Rowe received his wings and graduated as a sergeant pilot in late 1944.  He went back to Detroit where he was accepted for pilot training. In 1946, Rowe qualified as a twin-engine pilot and was commissioned as a second lieutenant in the last pilot training class to graduate at Tuskegee.

The Tuskegee Airman had many noteworthy accomplishments including 16,000 combat sorties with 115 German aircraft destroyed in the air and another 150 on the ground, and 950 German vehicles destroyed. Their commendations include three Distinguished Unit Citations, about 150 Distinguished Flying Crosses, at least one Silver Star, 14 Bronze Stars, 748 Air Medals and eight Purple Hearts.

With a surplus of pilots at the end of World War II – many with long and distinguished combat records – anyone who wanted to stay in had to expand their skill-set. So, Lieutenant Rowe trained as a weather officer at Keesler Air Force Base, Miss., and then at Chanute Air Force Base, Ill.

The weather officer school was one of the most difficult in the service, with coursework at the first-year graduate school level. Serving as a weather officer and flying when possible, Rowe served mostly overseas, including Austria and twice in the United Kingdom, first as a weather officer at the Burtonwood Depot and later as a WB-50 pilot with the 53rd Weather Reconnaissance Squadron.

By 1958, with no combat time or college degree, Rowe was passed over for promotion to Major, thus he enlisted as a weather forecaster and retired in 1964 as a Captain.

Captain Rowe is now 93 years old and is a delight to all who meet him. I was drawn by his humility and awed by his courage.  Through a time when this country was entrenched in segregation, Captain Rowe rose above adversity and fought valiantly for her.

Thank you Captain Rowe and all of those with whom you served as part of the Tuskagee Airman. You are a great example of courage, strength and integrity.  Thank you for your service in  defending this great nation.

Amerit Consulting is proud to be a certified DVBE Staffing, Recruiting and Business Process Outsourcing Company. For more information about Amerit Consulting please visit http://ameritconsulting.com/.

It isn’t every day that we get to touch the lives and hearts of complete strangers, to warm their holidays with cheer and hope where little existed before. During a time when family and togetherness are the biggest gifts, two deserving military families in California showed us that even the smallest gesture could make a huge difference.

Both families will be without Dad this Christmas and both were unsure if they would be able to celebrate.Deployed in Korea, an Army soldier from Northern California will be missing his youngest of three sons’ first Christmas. In Southern California, a Navy soldier will be leaving his wife and two young daughters for his third deployment; it will be his first deployment to Afghanistan.

Through the National Military Family Association, The Amerit Family of Companies was able to help the twofamilies make this holiday season one that none of us will forget. It was truly a blessing to help make this Christmas a joyous holiday in the midst of such difficult circumstances.

The offices of the Amerit Family of Companies came together to grant these families all of their Christmas gift wishes. The amount of joy and happiness we were able to give them was a gift in itself. The children were elated when Amerit’s Santa and elves arrived with arms full of gifts. Something as small as a book, diapers, or shoes may seem miniscule to many Christmas wishes. But these small gifts, together, became a reason to smile and celebrate when hope was lost.

“Words cannot express how thankful my family is for you and your elves,” said one of the families. “Because of you and your elves, my children will have beautiful memories of this Christmas. Thank you very much.”

We proudly support our country’s military forces and are thankful for the many sacrifices each soldier makes in protecting us. We feel blessed to have been able to help make this Christmas a cheerful one to remember. We wish these and all military families a happy holiday season filled with love and warmth. To help make another military family’s wishes come true, visit www.adusa.com/FamNeeds.htm.

Anybody who has met Gary Herbold will no doubt tell you that he is a person of great compassion and generosity. His kindness, caring and business savvy are legendary not only among those involved in veterans programs but also among the hallowed halls of America’s greatest corporations.

Gary’s latest act of kindness is in assistance to his fellow disabled veterans at The Freedom Station, A Home for Heroes. The Freedom Station in San Diego is a place for our Nation’s injured and disabled military heroes, who are medically retired or discharged, to receive temporary lodging, education and career services as well as continue their physical rehabilitation from their injuries.

Knowing first hand how important physical rehabilitation is to overcoming injuries and easing the transition to civilian life, Gary has generously donated the funds to fully equip the exercise facility on the grounds at the Freedom Station. Through this generous gift, Gary will be able to draw a full circle around his own service as a HM3 Marine Corps Corpsman with the 1^st Marine Division, 3/26 Marines.

In celebration of this year’s Veterans Day, please take a moment to honor those who have sacrificed so much in service to our country. 

Amerit Consulting is proud to be a certified DVBE Staffing, Recruiting and Business Process Outsourcing Company. Through the partnership and success of our clients we are able to continue our support of America’s Military Heroes who are in need. For more information about Amerit Consulting please visit http://ameritconsulting.com/

After 46 years Gary Herbold, former Navy-Marine Combat Corpsman, has returned to San Diego to help other Disabled Veterans with employment.

Amerit Consulting was founded in 2002 but one could say Amerit started when Gary Herbold joined the Navy in 1965 in San Diego and enlisted in Medical Corps School at Balboa Naval Hospital. Following two more hospital assignments, Gary was back in San Diego again in early 1968 at Camp Pendleton for additional FMF (Fleet Marine Force) training to prepare him for duty in Viet Nam with the 1st Marine Corps Division, 3/26 Marines, as a combat medic.

Gary served on the ground during the TET Offensive in Viet Nam, and while helping fellow Marines injured during a series of land mine blasts, was injured himself in both legs and spent the next year recuperating in Naval hospitals.

His heroic acts earned him a Purple Heart, and modern medicine allowed him to keep both legs.

Unknowingly, his disability instantly threw him into a different kind of life changing experience equally as difficult and challenging as serving with the Marines, but with land mines of a different sort. He had to find a job! But who was going to hire a disabled veteran?

These life-changing events shaped the rest of Gary’s life and set the table for him to become a successful Disabled Veteran Business owner. In 2002 Gary started his own business, Amerit Consulting, under the state mandated DVBE program. Gary’s experiences continue to fuel his desire to provide support and outreach to other disabled veterans and are the backbone of the culture and values that the company operates by today.

Currently, Gary serves in both local and statewide positions with roles that support the DVBE process. Most recently Gary was elected as the President of the California DVBE Alliance. The Alliance was formed in response to California’s 1989 establishment of the Disabled Veteran Business Enterprise (DVBE) program. The Alliance continues work with the California state government to help pass and maintain legislation in favor of DVBEs. Through these roles and outreach, Gary continues to encourage entrepreneurial-minded disabled veterans and assist them in building their businesses.

Eve Nasby, Amerit’s Vice President of Business Development, is passionately involved with the local San Diego DVBE Alliance Network, VANC and Operation Re-Boot for the purpose of helping returning veterans launch their civilian careers.

About Amerit

Founded in 2002 in the San Francisco Bay Area, today Amerit Consulting has grown to become a part of The Amerit Family of Companies, which includes two DVBE companies, Amerit Consulting, Inc., and KelleyAmerit Fleet Services, Inc. as well as two non- DVBE companies: Suna Solutions, and Zempleo, a certified Minority Business.

The Amerit Family of Companies currently operates in 46 states, with over 2,000 contractors; approximately 325 on assignment with San Diego clients. In 2011 The Amerit Family of Companies was ranked as the 13^th fastest growing staffing firm in the United States and one of the Top Ten Diversity Staffing Firms by Staffing Industry Analysts.

Other awards include Diversity Supplier of the Year from Mckesson Corporation, award for outstanding support of Operation Hand Salute by AT&T and ongoing support of Keeping the Promise, a California DVBE Alliance initiative. 

This year The Amerit Family of Companies positioned themselves for continued growth by opening two new offices- new corporate headquarters in Walnut Creek, California and a new recruiting and sales center in San Diego California. With these locations and their best-in-class human capital management professionals, The Amerit Family of Companies has positioned themselves nationally and internationally to strategically support a wide variety of companies including those in industries with unique needs like Defense, Life Science, Manufacturing, Utilities and more.