Jobless Veteran, Tom Perez, Finds Work By Opening Meineke Car Care Center Franchise

By Janean Chun, Huffington Post


Tom Perez didn't expect to have any problem finding a job. He spent a decade as a police officer in the Navy, serving in four tours in Iraq, working his way up to supervisor of the police unit, earning numerous medals and getting a business degree.

But after he was honorably discharged from the military in late 2011, he applied for more than 100 police and government jobs around the country, and faced rejection after rejection. "I thought it would be easy to walk out with 10 years in military service into a police officer job, but that was untrue," Perez said. "I felt like I did everything for this country and they didn't want to help me out."