Veteran Career Development

Four Block Foundation is a 501c3, direct service organization committed to providing career development and transition support services to returning veterans and their families.

The Four Block career development programprovides transitioning Post 9/11 veterans with the essential tools needed tojumpstart civilian careers. The goal of the program is to empower veterans to obtain competitive internships and full-time positions at companies ororganizations that match their interests, attributes and strengths. One of the difficulties that veterans and employers face during the hiring process iseffectively communicating and understanding one another.

- Top 3 reasons companies don’t hire vets: Skills translation, Negative stereotype, Skills mismatch (Center for New American Security)

 - 76% of service members are unable to effectively translate their skills, 61% ofemployers do not understand military qualifications (Military.com survey)

Program Details: Our program is designed to bring both veteran career seekers and corporate executives together in a supportive, learning environment so that our veterans make better career choices and ourcorporate partners make the right hiring decisions.

Program participants meet once a weekover the course of a semester and receiveover thirtyhours of classroom instruction, practical application and one-on-one mentorship. All classroom instruction is taught at a corporation, providing a “work-day” type experience for the participants. The practical application portion of the course is a series of networking events hosted by participating corporations where hiring managers,senior executives and veteran employees teachour veterans about their industry, company, aswell as various career paths. All veteransare offered follow-on support and mentorship after completing the course andmany return to the program to mentor and support the next cohort of transitioning veterans. 

Veterans emerge from our program equipped with:

- A community of veteran colleagues and industry professionals that will support them in beginning a new career

- Personalized career search strategy and execution plan

- Language to communicate military experiences and qualifications into business relevant contexts

- Proficiency and confidence in writing targeted resumes and conducting successful interviews

- Corporate cultural competency and networking strategies for building professional relationships

Participants: Our participants are Post 9/11 veteransfrom all branches of the military. They are predominantly enlisted servicemembers who served our country honorable around the globe and are now utilizingthe Post 9/11 G.I. Bill to obtain an undergraduate degree. Our veterans are typically in their sophomore or junior year, have a declared major with above average academic standing and have decided to use Four Block as a principle partner in the development of their professional careers. Their interests include business management, nuclear engineering, information technology, journalism, finance, sports marketing and political science. They attend top universities such as Fordham, Columbia, NYU, Northeastern, University ofWashington and Baruch College.

Clinical Support: Nearly half of our participants arerecovering warriors. Through our partnership with NYU Langone Medical Center,all Four Block participants and their family members in New York receive free andanonymous post-traumatic stress counseling and clinicalservicesthroughout their career transition and beyond. 

Program Successes: To date, over 80% of our participants secure competitive internships or full-time positions after completing our program. We continue to work and support with all veterans in our program to ensure they successfully begin new, full-time careers. Four Block veterans have been hired for internships or full-time positions at the following organizations:

JPMorgan Chase, Goldman Sachs, Citigroup, National Football League, NBCUniversal, The White House, Guggenheim Partners, State Street Bank, AT&T, Drexel Hamilton, Sirius XM, New York StockExchange, Bank of America, MetLife, Northwestern Mutual

University Accreditation: Our curriculum has gained university accreditation at Fordham University and we are in the process of expanding accreditation opportunities to additional colleges and universities. However, veterans from all universities are welcome to attend our program.

Program Locations: We have programs running in New York City, Boston and Seattle and we have plans to launch to additional cities throughout the country. Veterans from other locations will be able access our course online in the coming months.