Top real estate firm Cushman and Wakefield hires more than 1,400 veterans: ‘Best in class’

Commercial real estate firm Cushman and Wakefield has its eye on a particular type of hire: veterans.

“We do not employ veterans as charity. We hire our veterans because they are the best in class,” Chairman of Global Brokerage Bruce Mosler told The Post. “The intangibles that you get from hiring military people are the morale and the culture change.”

The company has been ranked among the top ten military friendly employers in the nation after hiring more than 1,400 veterans through their Military and Veteran Program (MVP). 

The program, which is offered to recently deployed members of the military, consists of twelve weeks of onsite training. It also provides mentorship for veterans who might be struggling to envision how their skills from military service translate to the civilian world.

“There’s a little bit of a challenge in reading resumes in some cases when somebody’s coming out of the armed forces. They’re often overlooked or a little bit undersold,” Matt Disher, Executive Director of MVP and a Marine veteran, said. “When I had to write my resume on the way out of the military, it was very challenging.”

But, with some guidance from MVP staff, most veterans find their skillset lines up with a gig on offer.

“The military is a microcosm of society, so everything you see in society, you see within the military,” Rick Cenkus, an Air Force veteran who cofounded MVP with Mosler, told The Post. “It’s just that translation is the challenge.”

Common career paths include IT, engineering, facilities management, marketing, and human resources. For many participants, the MVP program culminates in a job offer at the sought-after firm. The company plans to hire 550 veterans this year alone. 

James DeLong, an Army veteran who went through the program in 2022, said it “gave me an opportunity to prove I could succeed in [my] field and bring value by seeing problems through a different lens.”

“Instead of just making a transition, I was able to thrive in my transition while getting to experience corporate culture,” DeLong, who now works as a specialist in change management for Chushman and Wakefield, told The Post.

Cushman and Wakefield also will hire 100 military spouses through the Department of Defense’s Military Spouse Employment Partnership Program this year.

Husbands and wives of members of the military often encounter the challenge of needing to move frequently due to their spouse’s deployment. The firm can be an especially ideal employer for them because they have over 400 offices to choose from and are flexible with remote work. 

After launching such a successful program at their own firm, members at the MVP team at Cushman and Wakefield have gone on to advise more than 100 other companies in building their own veteran recruitment program to help make an even bigger impact across corporate America.

“We feel it’s important to employ veterans, not just say thank you for your service,” Mosler said.