FourBlock is shaping the future of veteran transition and veteran career readiness by inspiring veterans to achieve more after their military service. Our community brings together top companies and high-potential veterans to foster better understanding of veterans in our nation’s leading employers and ensure that veterans are ready to pursue the best careers possible.
The FourBlock Career Readiness Program is a semester-long, university-accredited program that provides the professional development, career exploration, and network that today’s generation of veterans need to be competitive for great careers. It is offered at no cost to veterans.
We offer our program twice a year in major metropolitan cities across the country during each fall and spring academic semester. Our veterans join a cohort and meet once a week for ten weeks to receive over thirty hours of in-person lectures, networking events, and practical application. Furthermore, one-on-one mentorship is provided to each veteran in order to address personal transition and career search strategies.
Our Career Readiness Program is taught by associate instructors and guest lecturers who are professionals and senior executives from leading companies. This ensures that our veterans can begin building their professional network during the program, while also ensuring that they are receiving course content that is current with the latest career readiness and hiring practices.
Upon completion of the program, our veterans emerge with a personalized career search strategy, an improved ability to communicate their military experiences, a better understanding of corporate culture, and a professional network to build upon. All FourBlock alumni are offered follow-on support in the form of continued FourBlock career counseling and access to all FourBlock networking events nation-wide.
For veterans who do not have a program near their city, FourBlock provides career counseling services on a case-by-case basis.
FourBlock has created a comprehensive transition program that is engaging, insightful, and effective. They are essential for veterans seeking new career opportunities.
— Michael Burten, FourBlock Alumni, Columbia University
In partnership with Columbia University, we have developed a world-class professional development curriculum for veterans that is delivered in a hybrid learning model, consisting of online assignments, in-person meetings, lectures, and practical application. Over the course of a semester, our veterans are taken through lessons meant to enhance their personal and professional understanding of themselves and their careers as they make the transition to professional civilian careers.
We have adopted the Experiential Learning and Community of Inquiry theories into our method in order to be as impactful as possible. Our lessons and assignments are delivered online through Columbia University, while our in-person meetings consist of lectures and practical application at various host locations.
Each week, our cohorts visit different companies and organizations throughout their city, offering a real-world, corporate learning environment. Prior to these in-person classes, the cohorts will have participated in weekly assignments and online discussions with their instructors in order to practice and reinforce lessons, as well as share best practices with each other. During the class, lecturers are given by senior executives from leading industries in that city, allowing veterans to learn from today’s leaders how the week’s lesson applies in the real-world. Furthermore, exposure to companies and the guest lecturers allow veterans to discover how their interests might align with an industry they may never have considered previously. After each lecture, the remainder of each meeting is devoted to practical application, such as networking events, resume workshops, and mock interviews, all involving professionals from the host company.
Other programs just seem to repeat the same information but FourBlock contains a vast array of information designed to better market yourself to employers.
— Evan Barker, FourBlock Alumni, NYC Emergency Mgmt Dept
Veterans who complete our program will be able to:
Furthermore, our veterans will have:
FourBlock puts veterans in front of the right people and is designed to give veterans willing to put forth the extra effort an opportunity.
— Chase Magann, FourBlock Alumni, Auburn University
We integrate companies throughout the entire program, which helps our transitioning veterans make better career choices and our participating organizations build a better veteran pipeline. Each week, our cohorts visit different companies throughout their city, offering a real-world, corporate learning environment. Prior to these in-person classes, the cohorts will have participated in weekly assignments and online discussions with their instructors in order to practice and reinforce lessons, as well as share best practices with each other. Then in class, lecturers are given by senior executives from major companies, allowing veterans to learn from today’s leaders how the week’s lesson applies in the real-world. Furthermore, exposure to companies and the guest lecturers allow veterans to build their network; learn latest insights into corporate culture, executive leadership; and discover how their interests might align with an industry they may never have considered previously. After each lecture, the remainder of each meeting is devoted to practical application, such as networking events, resume workshops, and mock interviews, all involving professionals from the host company.
We have teamed up with these companies to be their principal partner to introduce great careers to veterans and build a pipeline for introducing high-potential veterans to companies:
FourBlock is our competitive advantage.
— Dan Baulig, Senior Vice President, Marsh Global
Our associate instructors and guest lecturers are accomplished professionals and senior executives from some of the best companies in the world. They have been selected from the following companies:
Thank you FourBlock for giving me these opportunities. The engagements we had were like no other classes I have taken before.
— Lyon Henry, FourBlock Alumni, Amazon
Our cohorts are made up of Post-9/11 veterans from all branches of the military. They are both enlisted and officers, and have predominantly served four to six years in combat arms, intelligence, logistics, and IT specialities. Our veterans are in above-average academic standing, typically in their junior year of undergraduate studies or first year of their graduate studies, and have decided to use Four Block as a principal partner in the development of their professional careers.
Our typical cohort is roughly 75% former enlisted and 25% former officers. The majority are pursuing a bachelors or MBA degree. Roughly 60% of our veterans are interested in the finance, international affairs, and consulting careers, with the remainder interested in accounting, cybersecurity, engineering, intelligence, IT, journalism, and marketing careers. They come from top universities across the country, including:
The impact of FourBlock is evident. Their program helps better prepare veterans to be leaders at every level in the respective industries they chose to join.
— Michael Donoghue, Partner, PwC
FourBlock is improving the military transition process. 94% of our alumni feel FourBlock improved their transition from military to corporate life. 80% of our alumni say FourBlock inspired them to pursue more challenging careers. 87% say new career paths opened up as a result of participating in our Career Readiness Program.
FourBlock is impacting the workforce. Nearly 78% of our alumni have remained at their first employer for over 12 months, and many for over 18 months – the opposite of the average veteran retention rate across America. Furthermore, many feel their full potential is being maximized and have a visible path for career progression.
FourBlock is helping corporate America understand veterans. 96% of our partners, including Veterans and non-Veterans, believe they have gained a better understanding of military skills and expeirences after their participation in Four Block events. 100% of our partners feel more confident in hiring Veterans after participating in Four Block events.
FourBlock has proven results. To date, over 80% of our alumni have received full-time and internship offers, while the remaining are pursuing additional degrees. Our alumni have received full-time and internship offers at:
*Alumni results from 2016 Alumni Survey
