Wiser Worker Blog

You served your country with honor…Thank You.

Did you know there are services and places for you to learn and grow into a new life, life after service?  It’s our hope that with the Veteran’s transition Guide we can help make the transition smoother and perhaps easier. Please use this list of resources as a starting point in your search for life after military service.

Community of Veterans a place to swap stores and learn from people just like you. Community of Veterans is designed for people who have shared who need to talk about their experiences and meet new people. 

Veterans Helping Veterans A resource tool built to serve veterans in crisis management, information and referral needs. It’s their hope that public awareness programs shine a consistent spotlight on the needs of America veteran.

WiserWorker.com: dedicated to providing quality employment opportunities and resources to the largest demographic group in the country, the Baby Boomers.  

Camp Patriot Program that takes disabled U.S. veterans on outdoor adventures, they can provide a range of outdoor activities, and will be equipped to accommodate Veterans with an array of disabilities. There’s no cost to the veteran.

American Veteran: Monthly video magazine featuring important veteran’s issues.

VA’s Benefits Delivery at Discharge: The program, which allows service members to apply for disability compensation benefits from VA before retiring or separating, has a goal of providing benefits within 60 days after release or discharge from active duty.

Getting Your Degree: After you have finished serving your county findyour new place in life with a degree.

Vocational Rehabilitation and Employment Service provides vocational-educational counseling to veterans and certain dependents.  

Enable America: Vet Connect: Designed to enhance existing rehabilitation programs for wounded veterans and prepare them with the resources and practical knowledge to help facilitate their re-acclimation to their communities and, ultimately, to the workforce.

VA News: Weekly video featuring news and information about the Department of Veterans Affairs.

VetFriends.com: VetFriends.com helps you to reunite with friends and family who are veterans of or are currently serving in the Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines, and Coast Guard!

Military Financial Help: The financial strain that affects so many military families when they’re required to move in a bad housing market may soon be alleviated in the newly passed $787 billion stimulus bill.

From time to time I come across a new tool that I think is exciting enough to share with my fellow WiserWorker.com followers. Today I came across a new feature form our friends over at Grandparents.com and the best part is this IT’S FREE!  That’s right folks I said FREE.

It’s called Story Teller; the program allows you to record a message for a grandchild who can listen to it at their convenience from a computer.  It’s great for saying good-night, telling a story, connecting long-distance or in the next room! And you can use it as many times as you wish – even on a daily basis!

It’s easy:

1.    Click on the link

2.    Click on “Try it Now”

3.    Dial the phone number that will appear on your screen, and then enter the pin number provided.

4.    Record your message, story, song or simply say “I love you” — and send it to as many grandchildren as you want!  An email with a link to your recording will be sent to the email addresses you provide and your grandchildren will be able to listen to your voice as many times as they’d like!

What a great way to stay in touch with your loves ones. Try it out and tell me what you think!

Believe it or not I only recently started drinking traditional plain black coffee, it wasn’t something that I enjoyed (or at least I didn’t know I enjoyed). I was however a Starbucks junkie….total typical customer and you can bet I ordered the most ridiculous forms of coffee and you can even get coffee that doesn’t taste like coffee…score!   I realized that I liked the idea or the lifestyle of coffee more than the actual drink. How do coffee and job search fit together?  It’s all about networking and it today’s tough economy you better get good at networking and a lot of coffee have been enjoyed while in the passion of networking.  

The coffee lifestyle is so much more interesting than the actual drink, businesses all over the globe have made hills of money in coffee by glamorizing the lifestyle.  Over the years I have used coffee as the ice breaker in many business deals as way to open the conversation. I have never been to a networking event that didn’t at one point have coffee and the conversations that have happened around the coffee station are ones to remember. Those are the ones that are important and lead to better days and relationships.  

When you start your day tomorrow over a cup of coffee and you visiting wiserworker.com looking for a job think about how you can use your skills to network and find a better opportunity. Regardless where you are from Starbucks to McDonalds you can start up a conversation while you are getting a refill or adding some sugar.  Utilize a coffee break to interact with your co-workers and learn how you can grow as an employee. You can learn so much while enjoying the age old friend your favorite cup of joe.

Let’s face coffee’s not only is it a lifestyle it’s a tool!

Day after day the news outlets report on companies that are joining the ranks by laying employees off. Believe me it’s hard not to get sucked into the stress of it…I’m there!  In the coming days and weeks I expect we will continue to hear more news on layoffs and change in company practice.  Often if you read past the first paragraph which usually describes who, what and how you might find just what I found.

Many of those same companies that laying valuable employees off are the same companies that are cutting back to avoid waste.  The most interesting is what I read was from a very popular maker coffee in addition to the announcement of laying off 7,000 people they also announced that they were going to stop  brewing decaffeinated coffee after noon as part of a drive to save $400 million by September.  How much money (or people) they would have saved if they had instituted this cost saving measure MONTHS ago? Would they have been able to avoid such a huge layoff? 

Don’t get me wrong it’s not a bad thing to eliminate waste…heck I wish we all could and would it’s the when that boggles me. If this company knew they were wasting money by creating a product that wouldn’t get used they WHY did they ever do it?  Better yet while I was writing this blog I received a email about a bank who took a substantial amount of money from the federal government in bailout and are planning a VERY expensive corporate outing to Las Vegas.

I guess their mother didn’t teach them Waste Not, Want Not? Don’t worry at WiserWorker.com we deliver the jobs you need when you need them.

While President Obama has been busy at working on a new stimulus package….scam artists have been working on a way to scam people on out of their hard earned money.  BE SMART and don’t fall victim to this newest trick that won’t leave you with a treat.

The latest scam looks like this…..you receive in the mail what looks like a “stimulus” check but watch out it’s not from the government. The South Carolina Department of Consumer Affairs recently uncovered a scam in which potential victims receive an official-looking fake check in the mail along with the promise of thousands of dollars in the form of a “secondary stimulus check” if they register by calling the provided toll-free number.   Don’t call that number……and as I have advised in many prior blog entries…..don’t ever give your social security number to someone on the other end of the phone.

From Scambusters….What information NOT to give on the phone
Con artists tend to rely on the Internet and the U.S. Postal Service, but, according to data compiled by the Federal Trade Commission, more than 31,000 scams were initiated by phone in 2007. 

You never know who you’re going to get a call from, however you should know that there are some things that you never tell anyone by phone. Here are a few:

·         Social Security numbers.  Your social security number allows criminals to apply for credit cards in using your name. Keeping that information under your hat will help keep your identity (and your credit score) safe.

·         Bank account numbers.  When you give your bank account number to a stranger, you risk being wiped out by thieves. Anyone who asks for it may be up to no good.

·         Maiden names or birthdates.  Con artists can use even the most innocuous information to bilk people out of their money. You may use your mother’s maiden name or a birthdates to confirm your identity, but criminals can do the same thing.

How will you know if you are getting a stimulus check? 

Generally you may want to wait until you receive notification from the IRS, last year when we were due refund check you may remember about a 60 days before they were deposited you received a letter. If all else fails check out the IRS website or AARP.  Also you can be sure that if we were to be receiving a large stimulus check in the mail it would be announced on just about every news outlet. Be smart if it seems too good to be true then it probably is…..