Berkeley Lab has a proud tradition of supporting veterans from the U.S. armed forces. We help our veterans by actively engaging with those interested in working at the Lab and providing support as they transition from military service to non-military roles.

Towards this goal, representatives from across the Lab attended the Travis Air Force Base Career Fair. The event was held at the base, which is located near Fairfield, California, on June 22, 2023.

“This is the second career fair at Travis AFB that the Lab has participated in,” says Stephany Tone, a senior administrator in the Physical Sciences Area at the Lab and co-chair of the Lab’s Veterans Employee Resource Group. “It is an essential piece of our outreach efforts to recruit veterans.”

Tone noted that the four Lab Ambassadors participating in the event “were from different areas of technical expertise, which made interacting with job seekers even more engaging,” adding that one of her biggest takeaways from the event “was not just engaging in conversation with veterans but networking with my Lab colleagues.”

According to Mohammad Rasool Yousufzai, the Lab’s talent acquisition partner, it was “my first time recruiting at a military base. The turnout was extremely high, with a lot of enthusiasm and interest from the veterans in the Lab and the work we do.”

He says the Lab invests a lot in recruitment and is especially interested in recruiting veterans, who “often have the technical, engineering, administrative, and project management skills essential to many of our division’s operations and activities.”

The Lab is keen to recruit suitable veterans as they bring a “unique perspective to the team,” explains Yousufzai, which he says “allows us to expand the diversity of people we hire as well as supporting our goals on inclusion when recruiting.”

Mike Naus, a senior scientific engineering associate in ATAP’s Superconducting Magnet Program, says he was “the ‘person on the floor,’ who could give the veterans an idea of what day-to-day life is like working in the Lab.”

“I also wanted to explain how it may provide them with a more relaxed, collegial environment compared to their experience in industry, which was my experience joining the Lab after over twenty years working in industry.”

He added that a former partner helped military service people transition to civilian life. “This gave me an appreciation of how difficult it can be for veterans to move to a work environment that may be less rigid or structured than what they are used to. I was very proud to be part of the team that could help them with this transition.”

Yousufzai says the event “was a great success for us, and I now have about twenty resumes sitting on my desk encompassing many of the skills and experience the Lab is always looking for, which I will follow up on over the coming weeks.”

Joining the others at the event was Jason Bush, a computer lifecycle program coordinator and co-chair of the Veterans Employee Resource Group, who also served in the military.

For more information on recruitment at Berkeley Lab, go to Talent Outreach, and for information on resources for veterans, go to Veterans Employee Resource Group.