LinkedIn Co-Founder Mentors Former Marine Helicopter Crew Chief - East Idaho News
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LinkedIn Co-Founder Mentors Former Marine Helicopter Crew Chief

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GETTY B 101512 LinkedIn?  SQUARESPACE CACHEVERSION=1350296519258Jin Lee/Bloomberg via Getty Images(NEW YORK) — As the war in Afghanistan begins to wind down, hundreds of thousands of troops are transferring quickly from the military world to the civilian world.  

Fewer than 1 percent of American citizens have served in Iraq and Afghanistan, so when they get home it takes time for them to restore their relationships with the people of their neighborhoods and the companies who could hire them.  It has been years since they deployed overseas so they need to relearn how to find a job and plan their longer term career.

As part of its Standing Up For Heroes Series, ABC News is pairing veterans with mentors who can help them achieve their professional goals, and perhaps at the same time, help ease this transition.  As you know, many of them have been physically or mentally wounded.  There are also hundreds of thousands who return home healthy and safe but they are also facing a very quick change in direction.

One of these veterans is former U.S. Marine Corps helicopter crew chief and mechanic Jennifer Vollbrecht, who ABC News met through American Corporate Partners, a nonprofit organization dedicated to assisting veterans in their transition from the armed services to the civilian workforce.

Vollbrecht, 26, served in the Marines for five years.  She was stationed in Al Anbar Province in Iraq from 2005 to 2006, where her job as part of a helicopter crew was to transport injured military civilians and others to the hospital.  Vollbrecht was in charge of the back of the helicopter and of the door gun in the rear.

She is currently working as an integration and test engineer and hopes to move up within the corporate structure.

With this in mind, ABC News was able to reveal to Vollbrecht that her mentor would be renowned businessman and tech entrepreneur Reid Hoffman, the co-founder of LinkedIn.

With Reid as her mentor, she will be able to pick the brain of one of the country’s top businessmen about professional development and getting ahead in the business world.

Reid, 45, has also played key roles in the development of a number of now-dominant companies.  He was an early investor in Facebook and a founding board member at PayPal.  He currently sits on the board of directors of online game company Zynga and at the Mozilla Corporation, among others.

Copyright 2012 ABC News Radio

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