GI Jobs currently has a wealth of resources that guides military men and women towards answering these questions and ultimately finding a job in the civilian world. California Career School supports these efforts and would like to remind our students that any help needed for job placement is easily a phone call away.

Visit the GI Jobs – Military Friendly Schools website!

Chris Zimmerman was stationed at the 32nd Street Naval Station in San Diego, but when faced with staying in the US Navy or getting out, he was not sure what he wanted to do next in his life.  Tired of being away from his family he spoke with another US Navy Sailor who had success getting his truck driving career off the ground after he got his Commercial Truck Driving License through California Career School. Chris then took the next step of enrolling at California Career School in Southern California, near the  Naval Station on 32^nd St in San Diego California, in January while on active duty.  When he transitioned out of the military, he already had a job at FedEx waiting for him.  Shortly after, he saw the opportunity to make $100,000 plus as a team driving with his wife.

This was a great opportunity for his wife Leslie to spend some time with him as well as have her own career.  She decided to attend California Career School, got her Commercial Truck Driving License, and is now driving a big rig  with her husband as a team.

A Perfect Plan comes together with help from California Career School!

Congrats!!

Chuck!

“The reason I decided to go to California Career School is because my husband had attended the school and really enjoyed it! California Career School also has the best reputation we found, it has great job placement opportunities, awesome instructors and professional atmosphere. As a woman coming into a “man’s world”
I was nervous but everyone made me feel just like another student. It was refreshing on the nerves!

Now my husband and I have great jobs and get to be together.
We love it!”

Leslie Zimmerman

Roland (right) making joking remarks with Kirk (left).

Before coming to California Career School, Mr. Wahrman was in the health and safety industry working happily and enjoying his duties. However, an unexpected discovery with his own health had forced him out of the job—he was diagnosed with cancer in March 2009. After several months of testing and various visits to hospitals, he returned to his work place only to find that he was relieved of his position.

This devastating news forced him to turn to the Employment Development Department (EDD) for the next step. “They kept telling me,” Kirk recalled, “You have good experience but you don’t have a degree.” Having been in the industry for years, Kirk’s experience level was high but a school background was lacking. After more dead ends and little progress in his search, Kirk changed his focus and decided to look into the security field. From 1975 to about 1995, Mr. Wahrman served in the Navy . “I was in security many years ago. Getting back into the business, being post 9/11, I knew there were going to be many changes,” he expressed.

“And that’s how I found California Career School,” Kirk said. Various aspects of security needed to be looked at in very different ways than what had been done in the past. “Roland,” said Kirk, “was very supportive and flexible, very knowledgeable, very thorough, generally takes an interest in the students and wants to see them succeed.” Roland Esquivel is our course instructor for the Homeland Security and Investigations course.

We asked Kirk about his favorite part of the course. “Graduation day,” he exclaimed, “with all the food and festivities. No, I’m just teasing. But the sense of accomplishment was there, that I completed a huge 500 hours of training.”

“We studied a lot of real life security issues, things in the news, things that were current.” Students would read these articles and the class would break them down into what laws were applied in those given situations, what procedures were taken, correct and incorrect actions taken towards a suspect, and other types of observations. “It really helped me learn the right way to look at a situation and be a better security officer.”

“Once I finished California Career School, I was considered for higher than entry level positions.” His military background played a huge part in that. Since then, the California Career School placement office has helped Kirk obtain offers from Securitas and Allied Barton. Kirk worked for both of these companies but as of this writing, he will hopefully be returning to Chicago to pursue an opportunity that he recently found in the industry he was originally in: health and safety.

We hope that Kirk will make it into this job as it is the one that he was originally looking for before reaching out to California Career School. It is indeed in his own health and his own safety that we wish him well. We would like to thank Mr. Kirk Wahrman for repeatedly taking the time to come in to visit with big smiles and always something funny to share.

“He’s got a lot of talent—he was a great student,” said Roland, our instructor. “[He] had a lot of fun experiences to share with the class, made the class more interesting… he had a great sense of humor, he will do great at whatever he puts his mind to.”

Author: Sarah Bantay

In commemoration of Veteran’s Day, our Yuma trucking students decided to share a few words:

– Saul Solis

– Carlos Lopez

– Alberto Sotelo

Today is one of many days to take the time to thank our troops for the innumerable sacrifices that they have made throughout all of these years. Thanks to all who gave their all and more. We support our troops.

– California Career School