Veterans good enough for Wall Street, why not your company?

They know what it is like to work well as a team. They had to because it kept them alive. They know what it is like to finish the job no matter how tired they are. They did it without sleep for most of the year they were deployed. They spent it working everyday and didn't even think about calling in sick. Devoted? You bet. Focused on the task? Yep, that too. So while some companies won't consider hiring a veteran, Wall Street is.

Wall Street recruits war veterans as financial jobs decline

By William McQuillen, Published: June 24
Updated: Sunday, June 26, 8:58 PM

June 24 (Bloomberg) — Veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars are being recruited by banks such as Citigroup Inc. and Goldman Sachs Group Inc. as Wall Street jobs wane.

The New York-based banks joined Credit Suisse Group AG, Bank of America Corp. and Deutsche Bank AG at a job fair hosted yesterday by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce for service personnel aboard the USS Intrepid, a museum in the Hudson River.

“We’re looking for the right talent at the right time,” Suni Harford, Citigroup’s head of markets for North America, said while gripping a stack of resumes collected at the fair.

The veterans are aiming to work in an industry where jobs fell in 2010 for a fourth straight year to an average 7.63 million, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, or 8.4 percent below a 2006 peak. For veterans, unemployment rose to 12.1 percent in May from 10.6 percent a year ago. President Barack Obama said on June 22 he will withdraw 33,000 troops from Afghanistan by September 2012.
Wall Street recruits war veterans as financial jobs decline