“Veterans2Work provided us with highly qualified Veterans2Work was a great experience. They not only found us a great candidate but also helped us take advantage of Government programs. Leon Edwards has been a super add to our Mitchell team. His passion for the job, ability to work well with end users and team members and his constant drive to learn more is perfectly aligned with our values. Leon took on a Scrum Master position where he can leverage not only his Salesforce skills but leverage his military training as well, to lead a team.” — Cheryl Sweazy-Root, IT Program Manager Cadence Design Systems |
Contract StaffingCHALLENGE: Mitchell International was unable to fill an in-house opening for an experienced Salesforce practitioner, to configure and maintain its Salesforce implementation.
Leon Edwards had been out of work for 12 months after leaving the Marine Corps due to a combat disability. SOLUTION: Mitchell hired a Vets2Cloud program graduate and provided him the opportunity to grow into the job. RESULTS: Three veterans were placed. Cadence, with 7,600 employees, provides expertise tools, IP and hardware required for the entire electronics design chain, from chip design to chip packaging to boards and to systems. |
“Cadence was a fantastic company to work for, and the experience helped to qualify me for a career I could not have dreamed of.” — Ash Ashanti, US Army Help Desk Technician “” |
Case Study - Veteran-staffed Help Desk
Description
Project Objectives Cadence Design Systems had outsourced its help desk support and was in need of home-based desktop technology support troubleshooters who could tend to the day-to-day needs of Cadence's far-flung employees. The company needed a cost-effective solution. Strategic Objectives Cadence Design wanted to make a commitment to hiring veterans. Approach Hired veterans through Veterans2Work. Results Got low cost solution, veterans were well received (see right) |
Customer First Person
In late 2011, the idea to actively pursue recruiting military veterans within our IT department was conceived of and championed at Cadence Design Systems by Tina Jones, senior vice president of HR, and Dan Salisbury, corporate vice president of IT. Dan tasked two IT Group Directors, Sheryl Sweazey-Root and Dwayne Martin, with making this idea a reality. The team reviewed many veteran sites and organizations one of which was Veterans2Work (V2W) and John Reynolds. After finding that V2W could meet our Cadence requirements, Sheryl and John laid the groundwork for the business partnership between V2W and Cadence. Dwayne introduced John and V2W to me in March of 2012. John and I formed our working relationship and began the process of screening and interviewing potential candidates for our open positions within our internal IT Service Desk. As a USAF veteran, I quickly established a rapport with John, and together we reached an agreement on candidates we were looking to employ. We needed individuals with a technical background, who were both reliable and self-motivated team players -- all traits that can be found in abundance in our military veterans. Based on the technicians that we hired from V2W, the impact of the good work Veterans2Work does cannot be understated, in my opinion. Furthermore, Cadence and I realize the direct benefit that John and the program have had on them personally and professionally by placing them in contact with Cadence management. From our perspective, I can attest to how Cadence benefited by having talented, skilled veterans join our team. When I first became aware of the service that V2W was providing, I immediately thought just how exceptional their undertaking truly is. I know from personal experience that a veteran can feel adrift after being discharged from military service. Having an organization like V2W, with a leader like John that exists solely to help our veterans blend back into civilian life is not only heartwarming and inspirational to me personally, but this program also pays real dividends to the veterans and companies like Cadence they serve. Cadence appreciates the extraordinary talent pool that veterans represent. Every day John and his entire organization demonstrate by example the wide open vistas that are open to our veterans once their military service is completed. Every person that I have worked with along with John has been proudly introduced as follows: “…served in US Army…or Navy … or another branch of the US service”. This alone demonstrates the level of dedication that John and Veterans2Work have in their chosen mission. Jeff Lantz | Sr IT Manager- IT Service Desk - NA Field Sites P: 208.695.0175 www.cadence.com |