Just over 11 years ago, when veteran Ted Daywalt was running a recruiting company, he got a call from a Sgt. Master who was looking for job now that his military career was ending. He told Daywalt that he had paid another recruiter $5,000 to find him a job and Daywalt was enraged. So rather than get angry, Daywalt decided to do something.

"When some job boards look at you, they say you're worth say $500. We look at a candidate and say you need help and we question how we can help them get a job," Daywalt explained when describing his site, www.VetJobs.com. Daywalt, who spent seven years in the active duty Army and then another 21 in the teserves, was ready to change things.

The site's biggest rivals were Career Builder and Monster, but as Daywalt didn't have the financial resources to compete with those two established companies, he did so through strategic alliances.

"We are the only speculative investment the VFW has made in 100 years," said Daywalt. "We couldn't ask for a better partner."

The VFW not only fully endorsed vetjobs.com, but also took on partial ownership by buying 10 percent.

"The VFW wanted to get involved in helping veterans find employment in a more direct way, but we didn't have the resources to do it," said Joe Davis, Director of Public Affairs for the VFW. "Then Ted Daywalt came along. VetJobs gives us that direct involvement and provides us a resource to refer veterans to."

"I wanted a site that went from E-1 to O-10, covered every branch of the military and was also there for the spouses and DoD civilians," described Daywalt. That meant vetjobs.com would cover a 40,000 million-person market.

The site currently hosts 125,000 to 150,000 visitors a month and on a daily basis, there are close to 37,500 open jobs listed. Since its inception, the site has been favorably cited in Business Week, and listed as a top site on both Workforce Management and the CareerXroads lists. It also boasts a renewal rate of over 90 percent with the employers who routinely list jobs, like Home Depot or BNSF Railway Company.

VetJobs.com is more than just a job-posting site, however. It offers education and guidance, like the Career Advisor test, which is typically a $250 expense that analyzes a person's behavioral and technical aptitude, at no charge to its users.

"Many don't have anyone to explain how the civilian working world works," DeWalt said. "We got together with the test creators, Candidate Resources, Inc., and worked out a way to offer this to everyone."

Daywalt's staff is small, consisting of just 10 people, all of who are associated with the military. In fact, Daywalt has never hired someone non-military since he feels they couldn't relate to the clients in the same way.

"The bottom line here is getting people jobs," Daywalt stated. "We have a mission and we believe it can be accomplished."