HOWELL – Transitions in life can be difficult. When one goes from high school to college, college to the workforce, or single life to married, a period of apprehension and adjustment is normal. But when someone moves from the military to the private sector, the difficulties can be monumental. Often, the transition from carrying a rifle to carrying a briefcase or lunch pail can be a daunting and challenging ordeal.
Helping veterans cross this chasm of uncertainty is the goal of an organization known as Bridging the Gap For Veterans, whose mission is to assist America’s service men and women find jobs in the modern economy. Started in February 2016 by former Air Force veteran and Howell native Mike Ferraro, Bridging the Gap For Veterans operates out of its offices in Wall, but aims to help military men and women from coast to coast.
“Since I retired, I felt like I had to give back in a way where I can help the military communities get a door open and get jobs,” says Ferraro on why he started the foundation. Seeing a need, Ferraro looked for ways to get veterans who were leaving the service into job vacancies that employers had readily available. During their time in the military, service men and women will acquire useful, valuable skills, but don’t know the practical application of those tools when they are ready to enter the private sector.
“A lot of times they don’t know because they don’t know what’s out there,” explains Ferraro. “They don’t know how they transfer their skills, so we kind of do a matching.”
Ferraro’s team will often give the veteran a self-assessment test to help focus on careers that may be of interest to the individual. While many candidates may have a general idea, Bridging the Gap looks to best pinpoint areas of opportunity.
If veterans are struggling with post-traumatic stress disorder, the foundation seeks to get those individuals help so that they can assimilate into not only the job market, but society as well. Pet ownership has been scientifically shown to reduce stress levels, and towards this end the Bridging the Gap Pet Adoption program partners with the Monmouth County S.P.C.A., paying 50 percent of the adoption costs for qualified veterans.
Ferraro’s team then works to identify the skill set and motivations of each candidate to determine their strengths and the jobs best suited for the veteran. “We ask those kinds of questions that get [the veteran] profiled,” says Ferraro. “Then we build a career action plan, which is basically matching them up to companies that would be in line of what they want to be, and then doing some mock interviewing with them so they’re ready to go. Our main mission is to get jobs for veterans, and that’s what I’m really most proud of.”
Many veterans do not have resumés and do not even know how to construct one, but Ferraro’s organization can assist there, too. Veterans often have useful skills that they have acquired during their time in service to our country, but don’t know how to articulate those talents into written form in either a resumé or cover letter.
“We actually prefer to write the resumé for them for free,” says Ferraro, “because a lot of times they’ll write it up and they don’t know what a good resumé looks like. We’re very experienced in that area, and we know it from the military perspective as well. Really, translating their military experience into quantitative and qualitative bullet statements so that they can shine, showcasing what they’ve done in the military, and how it translates to a civilian world.”
In addition to assistance with resumés, cover letters, and practice interviews, Ferraro’s outfit will put veterans in job fairs to get them in front of potential employers. Borrowing the idea from “speed dating” events, veterans who attend the job fairs meet with prospective employers, seven minutes at a time, in the hopes of making a favorable first impression that can lead to a follow-up interview or possible employment.
“They get a chance to meet these companies using speed interviewing, so I’ve been doing speed interviews for about six years now,” explains Ferraro. “We typically would do that on military bases but now we’re doing it off base, as well. We get 25 to 30 companies at a time [as] a part of that speed interviewing process.” According to Ferraro, Bridging the Gap has helped to place over 700 veterans into the workforce.
Many corporations make donations to Bridging the Gap, and in exchange for this, they will participate in the job fairs, and can utilize Ferraro’s foundation as a direct feeding system that allows those companies to cherry-pick the best candidates before competitors can snatch them up.
Because they function as a 501(c)(3) charity, Bridging the Gap For Veterans is eligible for grants at the county, state and federal levels that help to fund their important work. But they also have another unique fundraiser which not only provides operating revenue for the non-profit, but also helped them secure their marketing manager.
Under a program called The Coffee Platoon, Ferraro’s firm sells dark, mild, and decaffeinated coffee blends in whole bean or ground bags, as well as K-cups in 12 or 24 count boxes. The coffee is roasted locally in Brick and Hoboken, and appears in Foodtown and ShopRite supermarkets, and is also available on the firm’s website (bridgingthegap.vet).
“I’ve known Mike a long time and did some stand-up [comedy] work for military installation dinners,” says Howell resident Joseph A. Grisanzio, the firm’s Marketing Manager. Grisanzio, who performs stand-up comedy under the stage name Joseph Anthony, has only been with the foundation for a few weeks.
“Fast forward, I stumbled upon the coffee, and liked the coffee,” says Grisanzio about his unusual journey to his current position. As he explains it, during the pandemic while performing arts were on hold, Grisanzio got back into freelance writing and copywriting.
“Mike was running a campaign called the Hometown Hero program,” Grisanzio explains. “I put together some [presentations] for him, [and] he had me in mind for a position. As of this past August first, I’m his new marketing manager.”
Locally, the foundation offers a twice yearly “Back The Blue” Scholarship Award to an outstanding veteran enrolled as a law enforcement officer candidate who attends the police academy in Monmouth County.
Beginning September 15, Ferraro’s outfit will roll out yet another program called “Operation Suit Up,” which provides veterans with business attire that the candidates can use for interviews and keep afterwards.
“I’ve seen over my time that a lot of the men and women who interviewed don’t know how to dress properly for an initial interview,” explains Ferraro. “I always [said] I’ve got to figure out how to fix that.”
America’s service men and women are used to following orders, strategizing, and leading others in order to reach an objective. Now, thanks to the help of Bridging the Gap For Veterans, they can achieve that all-important objective, namely, securing jobs that help them move seamlessly from the battlefield to the service field or from the front lines to the front office.
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