Today as we observe Veterans Day, I’m proud to share with you a great opportunity to leverage the impressive, diverse talent pool coming out of military service every year. Early-stage ventures need mission-driven teammates who persist in the face of hardship and are adept at transferring skills and experiences across roles -- and that’s exactly what veterans provide.
The US Department of Defense (DOD) has established a program called SkillBridge whereby your company or startups you work with can take on military interns during the final 6 months of their military service, with their full normal pay and benefits provided to them by DOD. At the end of the DOD-funded internship, if it’s not a fit you can part ways amicably like you would with any other intern, but historically 85% convert to full-time hires.
At Alpha Bridge we have worked with a number of Skillbridge participants and my current Chief of Staff is a skillbridger. My experience with these folks has been nothing short of amazing.
Our friends and portfolio company at Shift.org have built a subscription service to a regularly refreshed pipeline of eligible candidates. For $10,000, you can hire as many SkillBridge participants as you’d like and give access to the hiring platform to unlimited members of your team. Shift handles the paperwork and coordination with DOD -- all you have to do is select the candidates you like and run them through your normal process. Learn more about Shift’s SkillBridge offering here and help us spread the word with any companies you know of who may be interested.
P.S. Please also check out and share this article highlighting why startups should hire veterans to learn more about this community and help us spread the word on Twitter!
The men and women of our armed services have given much for our freedoms and I am proud and honored to have the opportunity to give something back by making sure they have quality career opportunities when they leave the service. I invite you to look into hiring skillbridgers for your needs or for the needs of companies with whom you work.
Jake