When Airman Josh Hammons walked into the Downtown office of the Tampa Bay Chamber for Operation Partnership, he was a long way from home. The Airman from Alamogordo, New Mexico near the Holloman Air Force Base travelled here to attend Transition Tampa Bay.
“I decided to humble myself and become a student of the transition process and leverage every possible opportunity I can,” said Hammons, whose official end date in the Air Force will be in January 2024. A mentor in his American Corporate Partners (ACP) program shared a re-shared post on LinkedIn about the June 8th Transition Tampa Bay panels presented by USAA. Hammons said he knew he had to be there. “I think this might be a good thing for you to do and I completely agreed. I messaged Emily (Manco) on LinkedIn. She put me in touch with Katie (Lopez) and she helped me get registered,” recalled Hammons, grateful the team at the Chamber didn’t stop there, informing him of several events by Veterans Florida also happening in the region.
“From a personal standpoint, being able to network with people in the local area, with small and large businesses alike and Chamber professionals, is just great. I really enjoyed the panel style discussion,” said the New Mexico resident. “Today really helped fill in a lot of the gaps that TAP (Transition Assistance Program) leaves. TAP doesn’t have industry experts that come in to talk in a panel format and I think that’s a lot of value added.” The Chamber’s Transition Tampa Bay event stretching from 8AM – 3:30PM brought together 20 military veterans for four different panels and included former service members now working at Johnson & Johnson, Raymond James Financial, The Florida Aquarium, CareerSource Tampa Bay, Tampa Electric, Camaraderie Foundation, VetCor and more.
Hammons has served in the Air Force for just over 7 years and says he wasn’t aware of the programs he learned about in Tampa that are designed to help hire more military veterans. “Right now, I’m an instructor pilot and I’ve climbed the ladder of all the qualifications of instructor I can get. The passion that I thought was for flying planes, is actually for teaching people. It’s opened my eyes to what I want to pursue,” said Hammons. “I want to be in the learning and development space- whether as an internal employee, a human capital consultant or working on an HR (human resources) team where I can work on a program of learning & development (L&D).” It’s a decision he didn’t come to lightly. “I joined the Air Force when I was 19 years old and that was the last major career decision I made. My wife said ‘You really need to figure out what you really want to do, not just what you think you should do.” The couple started researching places to live, finding Tampa on the world wide web. Neither had set foot in Tampa until Hammons arrived for the Chamber event.
“We watched some YouTube videos of the best places to live. Looked at our list and started to narrow it down,” said Hammons with a smile. “The sunshine…the people are really friendly…and now I’ve experienced it firsthand.” It may have started out as a half-vacation, admits Hammons, before heading back to the hotel to meet up with his wife. “Now I’ve stacked things and turned it into attending events like this, job searching and apartment hunting!”
For Paul Huszar, CEO of VetCor, that’s music to his ears. “Our Tampa Bay community has so much to offer for all, but particularly our transitioning service men and women. We’re a welcoming community with a rich history supporting the military and our veterans, strong ties to defense contracting, and a keen understanding of the value veterans can bring to any team,” says the Army veteran, who serves as a guest speaker for the Chamber each year.
The Transition Tampa Bay series is part of Operation Partnership, which is the Chamber’s 4-part initiative strengthening ties between Tampa Bay’s military and civilian communities. The program prepares transitioning service members and military spouses to enter the Tampa Bay region’s business sector and helps retain local military talent in the community. Since 2015, Operation Partnership has helped approximately 800 military veterans.
Transition Tampa Bay’s interactive employability workshops also include Civilian Career Day, where service members and military spouses shadow a civilian mentor on location at the worksite. Another component is the Recruit and Retain Military Talent event highlighting best practices for companies recruiting, retaining, and growing military talent in their organizations. Veterans, active-duty service members and military spouses also have access to the Chamber’s network of members during specific Business After Hours event helping employers increase their ranks with military affiliated talent. To date, 346 military veterans have participated in Transition Tampa Bay and more than 700 businesses and organizations have been involved in these transition events and offerings since 2015.
“It’s a true honor and pleasure to give back to the men and women who served in the U.S. military, what I believe to be the Nation’s greatest leadership laboratory,” added Huszar. “Now that I’m on the other side of my personal transition, I try to encourage them to perhaps see their experiences a bit differently, and realize how their knowledge, skills and abilities gained from military service actually translate, and can make tremendous impacts in civilian businesses, so they can more effectively integrate into fulfilling careers and continue to serve, just in a different form.”
In 2018, the Tampa Bay Chamber’s Operation Partnership Series was recognized nationally among our peers as a best practice in helping prepare transitioning service members and military spouses to enter the local business community. To learn more, visit https://www.tampabaychamber.com/pages/military/.
