Monster and Military Advantage:
Bringing Veterans To You

by Will Kilburn
Monster Government Solutions

With Monster’s March acquisition of Military Advantage, Monster Government Solutions is continuing expanding its reach into a growing and increasingly important group of job seekers.

“Government has become such an important sector for us, so consequently what we’ve been looking at is how we’re going to grow government organically, and how we’re going to grow government through an acquisition,” says Andrew McKelvey, chairman and chief executive officer of Monster Worldwide, who cites the September 2003 acquisition of QuickHire as another key component of Monster Government Solutions’ strategy. “This is a phenomenal vertical, and the military’s a big deal. So consequently, when I talk to some of the guys at the Veterans Administration, they were ecstatic, they thought this was phenomenal.”

The sheer numbers alone-- 4 million people with military experience and their families—are only part of the picture.

“One of the things we hear is that there are certain types of skills that are in huge demand,” says Brent Pearson, senior vice President and general manager of Monster Government Solutions. “For example, job seekers with security clearances. There’s a huge number of people on Military.com who have active clearances right now, so it’s a great pool for reaching in and getting people like that. Also, there’s a lot of pros to hiring military people: drug-free, highly trained, highly motivated, et cetera. So the big picture is it really gives us just another pool to go in and get talent for specific positions in the government.”

And fill those positions quickly: 42% of those job seekers have current security clearances, while 70% have either current clearances or clearances that can be reactivated relatively quickly. Additionally, Military.com brings with it a unique understanding of its own members.

“Their members give demographic information in order to get customized content, which allows Military.com to actually know their subscriber base, and target recruitment messages and advertising messages into that base,” says Pearson. “These guys are experts in database marketing. I think that what we bring to the government is we can help them and show them how to use some of the techniques that Military.com has to recruit on our other properties as well.”

Another part of the Monster/Military.com integration is a continuation of Monster’s mission to educate both job seekers and employers about matches which might not be immediately apparent to either.

“The folks at Military.com are experts in understanding the challenges facing those transitioning from the military into civilian careers, particularly around benefits, knowing their rights as to what steps that they can take to push forward and become viable citizens,” says Dan Miller, Monster’s vice president of content. “At Monster, our editorial team certainly understands careers, and I think that by providing the career content—how to write a good resume, how to interview successfully, how to understand your value in the marketplace—combined with the resources that Military.com has been providing is a perfect match, and I think that’s why it works.”

As for the future, Monster Government Solutions is already looking for ways to increase the value of its offerings for both Federal employers and job seekers alike.

“We’re already talking to our customers about how to use Military.com, and some of them have already started working with Military.com, or thinking about working with Military.com on recruitment campaigns. So immediately, as we look at campaigns we can start targeting into that base, and help bolster the candidate pool—that’s the short term,” says Pearson. “Longer term, I think helping the transitioning servicemen, improving their chances of getting a job, helping them to assimilate into private-sector employment after their tour of duty will be something that will help the private sector and help them. We’re doing changes on core Monster to specifically serve the veterans, so now when veterans create their profile on Monster, we can actually identify them specifically as veterans, and those with clearances, and that’s going to create a better match between the veteran and the employer.”