Randall Coon is a Program Administrator for the Oklahoma Department of Veterans Affairs, which works with the Oklahoma Employment Security Commission and other agencies through a joint venture called Oklahoma Military Connect.

Coon tells KRMG his own transition from a long military career back into civilian life proved much more difficult than he’d anticipated.

[Hear the KRMG In Depth Report on Randall Coon and the transition from military to civilian employment HERE]

“It was a total nightmare,” Coon said, “because here I am, a 20-year Air Force veteran getting out of the service with a degree, taking on the world. You know, I can do anything, I’ve worked on billion dollar aircraft, you know, I’ve done impossible repairs and stuff in aircraft maintenance. And I get out and I take and beat the pavement, and I can’t find a job one.”

He says even trying to work for the military - as a civilian - doing the same work he’d done in the service didn’t pan out.

“I even tried to go to work at Tinker (Air Force Base), and work on the aircraft that I actually taught most of those individuals how to do these repairs, and I get told I’m not qualified. And it’s because I was not prepared enough to take and transition from that military style, lifestyle, to the civilian lifestyle.”

Now, his mission is to help train his fellow vets on how best to make that transition.

“How do I do a resume? How do I dress? How do you take an interview? Those things right there are the ones that - the key factors that were really not taught to us,” he told KRMG.

He offers advice on all those aspects of a job hunt, and more - for example, he highly recommends having a brief sales pitch prepared.

“You need to have a thirty second to a minute speech about yourself,” he advises. “I use a third about my personal life, a third about my work history, and a third about my community involvement.”

He will be at a hiring event Thursday, September 5th at the Tulsa Tech Riverside Campus, from 10:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m.

He says at least 32 employers will be on site, and they’re all hiring - they have to have job openings in order to participate.

Visit the Oklahoma Military Connect Facebook page for more details on the hiring event.

Vets and employers can also register for the event on the Oklahoma Employment Security Commission website.