An Unexpected Job Offer - Being Given the Benefit of the Doubt Renews My Faith in Myself

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It all happened about a month ago.  February 28th, to be exact.  Mike Hawkins, Founder and CEO of Netizen Corporation reached out to me by direct message over Twitter.  I had met him a few years back at an event held by the local startup community.  He had a problem that he thought I could help him with.  It went like this:

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Hi there - how have you been? I have a quick question for you: would you be interested in some on-the-side, as needed work helping me...in my new company with some technical proposal writing work? I'm going after a number of federal contracts and am deluged with writing work Figured you have a background in Intel and college degree(s) so you may be able to help me put these things together if interested. Thanks.

Well, we met at a local diner a few days later and he explained to me what he was looking for.  He explained that even though I didn't have technical writing experience, he thought that my military background and my degree positioned me well for this kind of work.  He also said that it was obvious from my blog (yep, he reads this blog) that I have a very solid command of the English language.  He really wanted to give me the opportunity to try my hand at it.  He offered me part-time contract work at a very competitive hourly rate with the strong potential for it to turn into full-time work with benefits.

Talk about a no-brainer.  I took him up on his offer, incredibly grateful that someone, after seven years of holding a degree, saw my potential and was willing to give me the benefit of the doubt.  I recently asked Mike via email if he minded me writing about all of this in my blog and he said he had no problem with it at all.

MIKE:  ...companies that aren't hiring veterans because of the stereotypes or a lack of understanding are missing out. There is massive untapped resource pool of highly disciplined, educated and motivated vets in this country and those companies which are willing to reach out and give them a chance are going to come out ahead by finding themselves some of the most loyal, dedicated people to work with. It isn't a charity thing, either - it's genuinely smart business to hire veterans who, many times, are unfortunately not able to find work befitting their potential because of the stereotypes of PTSD and military service. 

Today was a special day for me.  We submitted the first proposal that I effectively wrote.  That's no small thing, either.  These proposals are what garner contracts for the company.  If Mike wouldn't have gone out of his way to provide me this opportunity...Well, I'd still be working full-time in retail, not using my degree and losing confidence in myself with every passing day.

Thanks, Mike, for taking that chance.  You have my loyalty and dedication.  I look forward to working with you to make what happened to me a common occurrence for veterans everywhere.