U.S. Marines Prepare for Life after the Military with Bloomberg

Active military personnel kept up with the markets while on duty in Yemen this summer courtesy of the Bloomberg Professional service. Marine Lieutenant Will Minor was stationed in Yemen when he connected with his college buddy Kevin Donahue of Sales to arrange access to the iconic news, analysis, and data network. Lieutenant Minor, who holds a Master of Science in Accounting and a Bachelor’s in Economics, took advantage of his squad’s downtime by using his finance skills and knowledge of the terminal to teach them about the markets and providing instruction on investing money, analyzing securities, and 401k options.

“Most of these guys have no experience with this,” says Minor. “Nineteen- and 20-year-old Marines who chose to serve their country before going to college know how to make money just by earning a paycheck. This broadened their prospective.

”Minor and his platoon used the terminal to track global indexes, look at stocks, and follow along with analysts’ recommendations. “It definitely had value to Marines who are transitioning to the civilian world,” says Minor. “It’s something they can talk about during interviews.

News From Yemen and ‘Real World Stuff’

In addition to expanding their finance knowledge, the squad benefited from the country-specific news, research, and data available over Bloomberg. Specifically, using the service as a way of easily accessing news, such as translated versions of The Yemen Times, to follow what was happening in the country. For example, they could closely follow the rising price of groceries and how it was affecting locals during the time they were stationed there.

Providing soldiers overseas access to the Bloomberg network was an opportunity for the company to give back to military personnel for their important service. “It doesn’t always have to be care packages with teddy bears and sunglasses,” says Minor. “There are Marines interested in real world stuff who benefit from access to something like this.”

The Military & Veteran Community

Minor points out that the skills learned in the military are especially transferable to the finance industry, particularly the ability to process information and react quickly in stressful situations. Bloomberg recognizes the value that service members add to the company. The Bloomberg Military & Veteran Community strives to create a thriving environment for future and current military and veteran employees.

Contributed by Andrea Posner, staff writer of On Bloomberg, Bloomberg LP’s internal newswire.