“The accountability, the attention to detail, the expectations, the initiative – I think those are all great attributes to carry into any position.” 

 

HR Strategic Partner Stacy-Nedry Johnson graduated from OSU in the early 1990s with a history degree, facing a problem that would sound familiar to many students and young adults today. The economy was in a recession, the job market was tight and grad school was expensive. Her original plan had been to continue her education and become a lawyer.
 
“But I didn't want the student debt associated with that,” she explained. “I knew that the army had great college programs and I'd also had some family members that had served in the military. So it wasn't a huge stretch and I just went for it.”
 
Nedry-Johnson enlisted in the Army and served for four years. She finished her service as Corporal and a squad leader. During her time in the Army, she worked in electronics, testing and repairing weapons systems.
 
After leaving the Army in 1996, Nedry-Johnson was hired to work as an electronics maintenance technician with Hewlett-Packard in Corvallis. At the time, Hewlett-Packard was attempting to recruit more veterans specifically because of their experience and training. Nedry-Johnson’s military service and interest in serving on hiring committees led to new opportunities.
 
“I kind of fell into HR work because I started to be the one that they picked to go to job fairs and do some recruitment,” she said. “And then I started to chair some search committees and got involved with HR kind of by accident. I ended up switching full time to an HR job there at HP.” 

After 13 years with Hewlett-Packard, the company went through a difficult transition that led to employee layoffs and Nedry-Johnson’s position was eliminated. That shift led to her current role with University Human Resources at OSU. 

Nedry-Johnson said that certain aspects of military service continue to guide her work and the work of other veterans, even after they enter civilian careers. Being willing to step into leadership roles when the need arises, for example, and the ability to navigate high-pressure situations successfully.
 
Despite all of the in-demand skills that they bring to the civilian workforce, veterans continue to be an underrepresented group and many report that explaining their relevant experience is difficult. Nedry-Johnson said that she has seen this to be true in her HR work and that search committees need to be prepared to dig a bit deeper when evaluating veteran candidates for jobs. 

“Learning to write a resume is an art,” she explained. “And learning to fill out an application is an art and a lot of times there are many transferable skills that do not get articulated from military to civilian world. Knowing how to dig is an art … to ask the right questions and pull that information out of someone.” 

Out of the nine HR Strategic Partners at OSU, four have served in the military – an unusually high percentage for a single group. Nedry-Johnson said that having so many fellow veterans in her unit has definitely changed how they approach challenges and tackle projects together. 

“The four of us have talked before about ‘What’s the mission? Give us the mission and we can try to figure it out.’ It's just a different way to talk and a different way to focus your intent and how you’re going to work. I absolutely got that from military training.”