Recalling the moment when I submitted my resume at a virtual career fair, I realize that more than three months have passed. After I secured my internship opportunity, I tried to envision my tasks in the future, but the fact is that since the start of this internship, my experience has been truly unexpected and interesting.
The organization I am working for is Brave For Veterans Inc. It is a non-profit organization whose core mission is to contribute to veterans’ well-being by helping them secure self-sustaining employment. Brave closely collaborates with the state government, research institutions and other organizations to identify and provide career resources and services. Brave is also planning to launch business projects that gather funding to better support its own sustainability and fulfillment of its mission.
When I applied for this position at Brave, I was unsure about whether I could be offered the chance to work. However, I was pretty sure about why I wanted to give it a try. I have always wanted to apply what I learn to making an impact on society. Not only are veterans honorable individuals who I would like to support, but I can also relate the work at Brave to my major, which is economics. Researching the employment market can be meaningful and educational to me. In fact, as the virus continues to cause job losses across the country, finding employment has become a growing challenge for many, and it can be especially hard for veterans. Therefore, I hope what I am doing now with my colleagues at Brave can be helpful in this special time.
Currently, Brave is taking actions and trying to restructure its strategies according to the situations that are continuing to change due to the virus. We are looking at various data and statistics to predict the future and prepare for it. One thing we see is that as the economy starts to reopen, there will likely be an increasing demand of labor from the employers, but the competition in the labor market can be fierce. Many branches of Brave are working to further our mission in different areas of focus, including legislation, research, and communications etc.
My main task is to connect with potential employers that may be interested in hiring veterans, learn about their needs, and identify mutual benefits, while marketing the employment services that Brave provides. Through my work, I hope to help Brave form long-term strategic affiliations with employers. My other task at the moment is, as Brave plans to rebuild its current website as a major platform for resources and promotional materials, I will help select information that will be posted on the website to maximize the marketing effect, which includes information about employers and strategic partners. We hope that this can assist in Brave’s core mission of helping veterans secure jobs.