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Cheri had a successful 24-year career in the Army before deciding to return to civilian life. Her tours in the Middle East and various deployments at home earned her a set of skills that would be the envy of most workers.
Key points:
- Many veterans struggle with employment in their transition to civilian life
- Veteran unemployment rates are far higher than those for civilians
- Many veterans have valuable skills and are viewed as an untapped resource
Now, as well as an admirable record of service, she has 30 job rejection letters to her name.
Finding the right job outside of the Army, after she voluntarily discharged in 2010, has proven far more difficult than signing on the dotted line to enlist.
"I think unfortunately in recent times, we've all been tarred with the same brush — that a lot employers and even just members of the public … think that all Defence Force people suffer from PTSD [post-traumatic stress disorder]," said Cheri, who did not want her surname published.
"We're all 'broken down old crocks'. We're 'has-beens', we've 'got a lot of baggage'. Therefore we're unemployable … they don't want to touch us.
"It's unfortunate, because not everyone has those issues. Certainly I don't."
Her experience mirrors that of former combat systems operator Leading Seaman Paul Dickson, who has applied for more than 50 jobs since retiring from the Navy in January with no success.
"After receiving rejection letter after rejection letter, you start thinking, 'What's wrong with my CV?'" Mr Dickson said.
"Then after a month of rejection letters you start thinking, 'Is something wrong with me?'
"Recently I have written [on my resume] that I was in a government department rather than say I was in the Navy, because I was less likely to be stereotyped as an ex-service personnel.
"It's very difficult to sell yourself as someone outside of that (military) stereotype."
The end of a way of life
Cheri was 18 when she joined the Australian Army in search of adventure outside the small South Australian country town where she was born and bred.
But it quickly became more than that.
"It's not just a job. It's a career. It's your life. It becomes you," she said.
"That's why I am finding it difficult now because it meant a lot to me. It was everything."
Her rapid rise through Army ranks was acknowledged and celebrated.
"I put a lot of pressure on myself to succeed and to keep striving just to reach those goals," she said.
But after nearly a quarter of a century, she was burnt out and tired of living out of a suitcase.
"I pride myself in sticking it out for as long as I did, serving Queen and country," Cheri said.
"[But] there was a lot of responsibility … I just thought, 'I've done my bit, I've made my sacrifices, there has to be life after the Army now and it's time to move on.'"
Her first job in the public sector was not the right fit and she found little satisfaction during a brief stint sorting mail at her local post office.
"[I want a job] that I can be passionate about again, like I was when I was in the Army," she said.
Now aged 50, Cheri has been applying, mainly within the public sector, for that elusive job for two years.
There are about 30 positions for which she has applied, and she has been knocked back from all of them.
'The dominoes start falling down'
At 27, Mr Dickson left his career as a travel consultant and freelance web designer for the challenge, adventure and financial stability of the Navy.
He signed up for six years and, in 2011, was deployed to the Middle East for six months.
During that deployment two of his colleagues took their lives, an experience which sent shockwaves through his shipmates.
"It definitely did have an impact on me," he said.
"Even though I didn't know them personally I just thought, 'What have I signed up for?'
"Thankfully my next sea posting the following year was within Australian waters and we had a really supported crew."
Mr Dickson was transferred to shore after two-and-a-half years at sea. He was promoted twice and enjoyed being closer to home while forming strong relationships with his colleagues.
"I was given a lot of opportunities in the Defence Force and I would always go above and beyond what was expected of me," Mr Dickson said.
But when it was time to commit to another three-, six- or nine-month deployment at sea last year, he decided he'd had enough.
"I needed to start focusing on being there in the future for my friends and family, and I couldn't do that if I had to go away all the time," he said.
But the 10-month search for his first civilian job in eight years has been tough.
"The hardest part about when you transition is you're really built up to be special," Mr Dickson said.
"But then when we're taken out of it, I can see where all the dominoes start falling down."
The reality of rejection
Mr Dickson has made some money as a freelance web designer this year, but it was never his long-term goal to work in that industry.
Instead he's been searching for a 9-to-5 administrative or IT position based in an office and has to date applied for more than 50 jobs, most within other government departments and private enterprise.
Apart from one unsuccessful interview and an offer of a temporary contract at a hospital switchboard, it has been knockback after knockback.
Financially, he said his situation was getting tough. He has been forced to cancel his insurance policies, gym membership and has put off setting a date for his wedding.
"Even if you're trying to get something basic, it's hard to get an interview," he said.
"Life is about being around people and community, just being in some sort of structured work environment where you feel needed."
Mr Dickson said he now felt as though he had exhausted every avenue trying to find a full-time job.
"Excitement leads to disappointment, which leads to frustration, which leads to feelings that things are totally out of your control," he said.
"I have many transferable and valuable skills from my time in and out of Defence.
"I've just got to find that company that's willing to listen or bring me in for an interview and I can say, 'Well these are the skills I've got, what are you looking for? How I can I be of value to your organisation?'"
Both Cheri and Mr Dickson acknowledged the WA employment landscape was tough for everyone as the state slowly recovers from an economic downturn brought on by the end of the mining construction boom.
But the stream of rejection letters and very little feedback from employers was taking its toll.
"They have to be ruthless when it comes to sorting the sheep from the goats, but for me not to be shortlisted, or even get to the interview stage, that's very disappointing and quite demoralising," Cheri said.
"It does eat away at your self-confidence and your self-esteem."
Cheri could list the skills she could offer an employer with military precision. It's a list she has had to repeat many times over the past two years.
"I have a high work ethic," she said.
"I am very dedicated. I am reliable. If you want me to do something by a certain time, I will have it done. I'm big on punctuality."
But these are skills that can often be overlooked by employers.
'Under-utilised and misunderstood'
A recent report commissioned by WA Opposition Veterans Issues spokesman Tjorn Sibma found veterans can be under-utilised and misunderstood in the workforce.
The report found the rate of WA veteran unemployment was more than 30 per cent — five times the general WA unemployment rate — and the rate of under-employment was 19 per cent.
But Defence disputes those figures and says just 8 per cent of ex-serving personnel are unemployed 13 months after transitioning from the ADF.
"There are about 500 veterans in Western Australia that transition out every year," Mr Sibma said.
"Of that group around 250 are either unemployed or under-employed, and I think that's a massive shame and a waste of human talent."
The report by employment and workplace research firm Conrad Liveris found there was almost no consideration given to veterans when assessing workplace diversity and there were "many negative assumptions made about them".
"Concerns regarding employing veterans are primarily regarding mental health issues," the report found.
Mr Sibma said businesses needed to start thinking about veterans like an "untapped resource".
"This is not about charity," he said.
"They are a phenomenal resource, a phenomenally highly trained, competent, team-based people who just want to achieve results."
Veterans stumble at the sales pitch
Karyn Hinder, an Army and Air Force veteran herself, has tried to help WA's workforce connect with this untapped resource.
She noticed some of her colleagues were struggling to find employment when they left the military and founded an organisation called Working Spirit in 2016 to help veterans find a job.
"Veterans can be misunderstood or undervalued," Ms Hinder said.
"With Working Spirit, my goal is to stop that gap and really showcase the employment talent that a veteran can bring to a company or business."
She compared the first job out of the military to the first job a person gets out of high school.
Veterans were not always good at "selling" themselves, having been out of practice with job interviews and not used to translating their skill sets to civilian jobs.
"They apply for job after job and get nothing," she said.
"They don't know how to network or meet company representatives."
But she said if their abilities were considered properly, veterans were an asset to many areas of the workforce.
"[They exhibit] teamwork, leadership, loyalty, management training," she said.
"They can think on their feet. They are all-rounders. They get on well with people and they like to achieve the end goal."
Untangling the red tape
Ms Hinder's goal was to find 25 veterans work this year. She has already passed that and is aiming for 40 by Christmas.
One of the key employers that helped her meet that goal was WA's MACA Mining.
The company's area manager, Leon Taylor, reached out to Working Spirit five months ago and the company has already employed eight veterans.
Mr Taylor said that from an employer's point of view, there was a lot of red tape involved in trying to connect and hire veterans.
"I've tried for months and months and months to find out how I can recruit ex-service men and women through government agencies, programs, and it was so difficult to navigate," he said.
"[Karyn] showed me and helped me deliver on what we're doing now."
MACA Mining held a Working Spirit "meet and greet" session with veterans last week and hopes to soon hire another handful.
"We don't question whether they're capable to go and look after us, but we question whether they're good enough to work for us, which is wrong," Mr Taylor said.
"They have sacrificed so much to make us feel safe so we can sleep at night, the least we can do is to help them sleep at night by having secure employment."
While neither Cheri nor Mr Dickson wanted to commit themselves to a fly-in, fly-out lifestyle similar to their old military lives, they did want to find employers who would give them the same chance.
"The Government has spent big dollars training us and equipping us with these skills and it would be such a shame to waste the talent out there," Cheri said.
Topics: defence-and-national-security, defence-forces, work, industrial-relations, business-economics-and-finance, perth-6000, wa
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