Army Nurse Corp Reserves discloser at job interviews

[BChach]

(Sorry, I spelled disclosure wrong in the title and cannot edit it!)

Does anyone here--either already in the Army Nurse Corp Reserves or looking into it--know how to handle disclosing your reserve status during a job interview or when completing a job app? Do you just "leave it blank" when an application asks your affiliation? Are nurse managers or recruiters less likely to hire a reservist for fear of the person being deployed or not wanting to handle the hassle of juggling the weekend time commitments? When you applied for a job, did you disclose you are a reservist to the employer at the interview or on the job app?

I already know it is illegal to discriminate when it comes to asking for time off for training, etc. This question deals more with what to disclose/not to disclose or how to best handle disclosing that you are in the reserves when looking for a new job. I am not sure I want give the perception of being "handicapped" by military commitments during any interviews.

[jeckrn, BSN, RN]

No you do not. But with that being said it is best to be up front and honest with them. From what I have seen from every application for employment that I have seen r/t military has been for active duty.

[rghbsn, BSN, RN]

Let's just say you "leave it blank" and then you get orders...you are "protected" because they can't fire you for military service, but you can be canned because you didn't disclose the information on your application.

They way I look at it is this: it should not be a deciding factor in whether or not you get hired, but if it is, do you really want to work for them anyway? If you can only get the job by omitting it, do you really think they'll be supportive of you? The law states you have to have a job when you come back and that you can't be demoted...it doesn't have to be the same job. You get a job as an ICU nurse by leaving it blank, go on a mission, come home working on the rehab floor or something.

I wouldn't hide it. Be proud of it.

[jleathers]

I have had job offers yanked out from underneath me after figuring out I was a reservist...it's justh hard to prove. I find that most managers think of nurses as expendible....most recently my boss just tried to make me use vacation for my AT training. Good Luck it is hard.....Its also hard to prove and hard to figure out if you want to burn that bridge or try to play nice.

[79Tango]

This is a very hard one as many times its your military experience that provided you the skills you are now show-casing to this future employer.

Do not leave the application blank. Be honest on paper. Most of them will not ask "Are you a drilling Reservist?" You can just put the dates 98May15--Present

Or if you are a reservists from AD, just put your Active Duty dates.

In my experience the manager does not get your application...Just your Resume/CV.

During the interview speak of your experiences, leadership, training, selfless Service etc. Talk about it in past tense. Do not let on that you will be needing (*as little as) 1-weekend a month, 2weeks a year during your first interview if you can help it.

Some managers will apreciate hiring you and feel they are doing a service to our country. Others will find another reason to disqualify you. Discrimination is everywhere and hard to prove.

I am Prior-Service and I have a hard time hiring reservists. The first thing I ask is- what is your status and the what unit are you in? I do this so i can check their last deployment. If we end up hiring the person it turns into a group effort as the schedule will now have special accomodations forcing the whole team to contribute or give up a weekend.