JobOppO Chat
 

What a year to kick start a business. But we continue to turn challenges into OppOrtunities for our growing community! 

Since January this year, as the world began to emerge from under the Covid rock, we have worked hard to engage veterans and service leavers and let them know who JobOppO are, what we are up to - and why. As importantly, as we strive to change the narrative around veteran employment, we have been vocal about our desire to work more closely with employers who understand the benefit veterans bring, as well as offering to "educate" those employers who may not (yet) appreciate the skills, knowledge and attitude they/we offer.

We make no apologies for being noisy, posting the odd grenade or disrupting a space heavily influenced by some big and lazy players and others who's motivations and priorities are questionable.

Without doubt, while we want to and will build strong mutually beneficial relationships with our clients, veterans are at the centre of everything we do.
Thanks for joining the JobOppO Community if you have and thanks again if you're about to! 
And please don't forget to #TellYourOppO

 

Engagement

To grow, and maximise our investment at the end of a global pandemic, we have had to be innovative in the way we engage veterans and service leavers, employers and other individuals and organisations of influence.
We have worked with other veterans to help achieve our aims are very grateful for the tight knit and supportive veteran community. We have hit social media channels hard, offering insight, humour, education and a novel, veteran focused approach. We are not in recruitment, we are building an Employment Community and to ensure as many people know about us as possible, we need to communicate and collaborate. 
Over the last few months JobOppO has featured in The Sun during Armed Forces Week, Soldier Magazine, Easy Resettlement Magazine (twice) among others - with more to come!
We have plenty of blogs that we hope are of interest and Garrath Williams, our Dir of Veteran Engagement & Development has been on the NAAFI Break Podcast series talking about transition, JobOppO and the need to bin some of the unhelpful rhetoric surrounding veteran employment.
We will continue to talk, listen and act we hope you will do the same. Much has been said, strategically, about veteran employment, and we hope to be part of the team able and willing to roll our sleeves up and lean in.

 

Development 

A big and recent piece of work is the completion of our exclusive and extensive Veterans' Employability Skills Development Series that we are sure will be of huge benefit to those looking for a new or a better job or career. 
Follow Johnny, a former Infantry WO2 and Jane, an RAF service leaver, through their own transition. You will find six modules covering the following  topics; Your Career Direction, Your Skills, Your CV, Your Job Search, Your Interview and Our Network. They include short animated videos designed, developed an delivered by veterans supported by downloadable documents that will help you land the job not just a job. 
If you scroll to the end of this newsletter you will be able to watch a short animated video about what we are trying to achieve, and why. 

 

 

Community

This quarter has been JobOppO's most successful yet seeing another 15 veteran friendly employers joining the JobOppO community ranging from small and medium sized organisations to some recognisable national and global brands including Ingeus, Whitbread, The Aspinall Foundation and Asda.
With such high demand to get onto the platform, we have seen a slight delay with jobs being listed on the site. We recognise this, appreciate the associated frustrations, and have worked hard to rectify this situation.
Our site currently show over 1600 live jobs with an expectation to have over 3000 opportunities by the middle of August. We are dedicated to working with employers from the most attractive and receptive sectors, and currently are most popular sectors are Logistics, IT, Retail, Engineering and Education/Training.
Don’t forget, having the job board at the centre of our employment community and not being a recruitment agency means our employers regularly upload new jobs. We currently feature jobs from sectors proven to want and welcome veterans with roles ranging from Telecoms Engineers to Delivery Drivers, from Retail Managers to IT Consultants, Golf Instructors to Mobile Mechanics - and even a Gorilla Keeper!

 

Our OppOs 

Collaboration is not a dirty word and JobOppO are keen to work with like-minded teams or organisations who share our values and desire to bring about change.
We have recently announced a relationship with This Week in FM who will plan and host 3 events over the next 10 months shining a light on the diverse opportunities the Facilities Management sector offers our community. More info coming soon. 
We have partnered with the likes TX-Net and see huge merits in veterans registering for this network as a part of their move into meaningful work and Heropreneurs and are proud to sponsor their 2021 Employer of the Year Award.
We will also try "Veteran First" and Scott Johnson's Veteran Owned UK is always our go-to for any suppliers etc and endorse the work of organisation such as RBLI LifeWorks. Forces Families Jobs and Positive Transition. And finally, we are very proud of the work of the OppO Foundation who in turn provide support to military personnel who have left or are about to leave the services.

 

And finally

There is plenty more to come! We have exciting news about a new partnered Podcast Series, we'll be adding to our Employability Skills Programme and encouraging interaction through a JobOppO Community forum.
Thank you for listening, for sharing, for registering, for supporting the veteran community and for helping us change the narrative. We are truly only as strong as our community, so continue to help us build and please #TellYourOppO