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FOX 7 Care Force: Helping Special Forces veterans in the civilian job market
A veteran get-together at Cuvee Coffee Bar was put together by Elite Meet, a group that connects veteran special operators.
AUSTIN, Texas - Green Berets, Navy SEALs, special operators and pilots all have the same transition challenges as your average soldier, but for a handful of Special Forces veterans in Austin, finding career successes is simply the next mission.
Brandon Shambach was a Green Beret; now he's a project manager at TD Industries. While he was at a local veterans meet-up looking for talent and connections, he explained the Special Forces mission.
"You're put into small teams in tough situations and your biggest resource is people," Shambach said. "They call us force multipliers for a reason they send 12 guys in to do a job of 300, so that's applicable to a lot of companies especially small companies that don't have a lot of resources they're looking to maximize the talent they have."
The get-together at Cuvee Coffee Bar was put together by Elite Meet, a group that connects veteran special operators.
Joel Carpenter, a Special Ops vet, organized it and shared his message.
"So many deals or connections, or the next big thing was from one individual I met and that opened the door to somebody else, so it only takes one, it only takes one, that's my philosophy," Carpenter said.
The talking at the meet-up wasn't so much about what technical skills or what is or isn't on one's resume, it was more about building relationships, learning what's out there and searching out opportunities.
While most civilians might call this meet-up a networking session, it was more like intelligence gathering and analysis for special operators. In the Special Forces, the general mission is to find the problem and come up with solutions, something that applies to the military and the working world.
"It's all about community and teamwork," Carpenter said. "It's all about working for those guys next to you figuring the problem, finding a way to get it done, there's no excuses you have to do it and working with people is a big part of that."