The Tracks to Success job fair for veterans will be held at Union Station on Thursday, September 19. The event will focus exclusively on opportunities in the rail transportation industry for veterans, active duty military members, guard and reserve members and military spouses.
September 19, 2013
11:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m.
Los Angeles Union Station
800 N. Alameda St.
Los Angeles, CA
The job fair will take place in the old Harvey House Resaurant.
Metro has a pretty good track record when it comes to hiring those with military status. Currently, there are 600 employees at Metro who have identified with military status, and 100 of them were hired between January 2012 to June 2013.
Many veterans have been hired to work in Metro’s Wayside Systems Department, which oversees all maintenance of rail electrical systems such as maintaining power to passenger trains and stations. Positions in this department require very responsible personnel who are safety conscious because of the highly dangerous work and risks, and military veterans have been a great fit for these positions due to their training and skill sets.
Among the new hires to Wayside Systems include Robert Garcia, Ken Gaeta and Salvador Sanchez. Garcia served in the U.S. Marine Corps working on CH-53E helicopters and was able to transition the skills he learned in the service to the skills required to work on the trains. Gaeta entered the Army with an MOS 52C doing air conditioning and small utility repair, which led to him working as an electrician before joining up with Metro. Sanchez served with the Army’s 3rd Infantry Division as MOS 92F, Fuel Supply Specialist, and worked in aerospace prior to coming to Metro.
Technicians aren’t the only positions open to those with military status. Nancy Felix, who currently serves in the Army Reserves, works in Procurement. Felix attended a veteran’s job fair after returning from her last deployment and was hired by Metro due to the experience she had acquired during her military service working in finance and acquisition.
Metro supports the transportation industry goal to increase veteran hiring to 10% – 12% over the next three years. For more information on a careers with Metro, visit metro.net/about/jobs.
Categories: Best Practices
Steve,
Can a public agency like LA Metro discriminate like this? It means that those who cannot join the military are seemingly locked out of these job opportunities, no?
That would mean members of certain religions, pacifists, homosexuals and other members of the LGBTQ community (who couldn’t serve in the U.S military until very recently), those with disabilties and others unable to serve are not being actively recruited by Metro, yes?
Erik;
Are you serious? Are you really serious? You really believe what you just wrote? It’s a disgusting allegation and quite frankly more than a little desperate. I guess you couldn’t find anything else to criticize about Metro today, eh?
Metro welcomes applications from people from all walks of life and the agency has never said anything to the contrary.
The agency has also — for several years now — tried to reach out to the community of veterans to try to raise awareness of job opportunities at Metro. I think it’s a great thing, especially given that veterans in America have not always been given the respect, benefits and help that they have earned.
Steve Hymon
Editor, The Source