LAKELAND, Fla. — When Susannah Wesley-Ahlschwede’s childhood friend, Justin Thomas, called her asking for help with his resume, she jumped at the chance to help the former marine.
Thomas, a decorated veteran with ample experience, was having a hard time finding work in the private sector. After taking a look at his resume, Wesley-Ahlschwede, 33, realized why he wasn’t getting the recognition he deserved.
“It might as well have been in Portuguese,” she joked about his resume.
Thomas didn’t know how to communicate his military services and accomplishments into words a civilian employer could understand. So Wesley-Ahlschwede, a Lakeland native and Lake Gibson High School graduate, fine-tuned Thomas’ resume with some business-friendly language. Soon after, Thomas, who originally couldn’t get a call back from Starbucks, began receiving interview requests and ended up getting a job as a teacher.
The success inspired Wesley-Ahlschwede, who works in public relations, to start Battlefield to Boardroom, a nonprofit that helps transitioning veterans translate military leadership skills to the business world.
“So far, we have helped place 32 veterans this year,” Wesley-Ahlschwede said of the nonprofit, which launched in May. In all, the organization has helped 74 veterans, some before it was an official nonprofit.
Veterans who have served in the military since September 2001, have an unemployment rate of 5.8 percent, which is higher than the general population, according to the United States Bureau of Labor Statistics. That means at least 150,000 veterans are unable to find work once they leave the military.
