On Monday the 24th of October I was invited back to my alma mater - Colorado State University - to address their 2nd Annual Veterans Symposium focusing on the transition from college into careers. If you were not aware, CSU has one of the best and most robust veteran services programs in the county regularly being in the top lists of most veteran supportive schools in the nation. Monday's event was evidence of them getting in front of challenges facing today's veterans - in this instance the need to transition veterans from higher ed and into careers. Further, once transitioned into careers, how do companies retain these valuable employees. Companies are finding the value in hiring former service members for their leadership, adaptability, communication skills and interpersonal skills (highly desirable traits as identified by GMAC studies) and given that it costs an equivalent of 4-6 months of salary to fully on-board a new employee, not only is attracting veteran hires important but so too is retaining them. After making a short presentation to the group, we had a great group discussion with folks from both industry and student vets. Companies included Xcel Energy (my good friend Lacey), Deloitte and Novation Broadband and we had students from a number of universities.