As of September 2014, there were around 500,000 unemployed vets, and Penn Johnakin was one of them. He was medically discharged with a heart condition and had no where to turn. He had applied to hundreds of places, only to hear back from a few but then he caught Starbucks’ eye. Starbucks is proud to employ veterans and military spouses and when they met Penn, they saw something special. Watch his journey as he is offered a job on Good Morning America.
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Starbucks is a company dedicated to hiring veterans and personnel who are going through military transitioning.
The initiative is to help transitioning military gain employment and connect with others, while supporting the military community. The initiative plans to hire at least 10,000 vets and military spouses by 2018.
Transitioning U.S. veterans and military spouses share our mission-driven sensibility and work ethic and can build long-term careers at Starbucks as they return home.” – Howard Schultz, Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer
As an employee, veterans will connect with fellow partners and others with a military background through the Armed Forces Network (AFN), a community of Starbucks partners who are active duty, veterans or supporters. There are also other benefits like an online university program with tuition fully paid, health and dental, stock options and a lot of other perks as a Starbucks employee.
Starbucks is just one of the many companies setting up veterans initiatives. The skills vets gain are a valuable assets to any company and more and more places are realizing that. For more information or to apply with online, please visit the Starbucks site.