Military service may end. The desire to serve others often does not.
That spirit was on full display in New York City as RBC Capital Markets’ Veterans Employee Resource Group (RVets) hosted its largest Veterans Career & Transition Symposium to date, bringing together more than 200 veterans alongside military spouses, employers, industry leaders, and members of the FourBlock community.
Months of planning went into creating the event, but its purpose was simple: bring people together around the veteran—not a single company, job opening, or recruiting objective—and give transitioning service members meaningful access to the people, perspectives, and relationships that can help shape what comes next.
It was a philosophy that could be felt throughout the day.
The 2026 symposium welcomed 202 veteran attendees, along with three military spouses, an important and growing part of the military-connected community that RBC and FourBlock are committed to supporting.
The event also brought together 44 clients and partner organizations and 36 RBC employees across Global Spread Product, creating opportunities for participants to engage directly with professionals across industries and career paths.
The veterans in the room represented a remarkable breadth of military experience, spanning branches, ranks, specialties, and stages of transition.
What connected them was not a shared career destination. It was the opportunity to learn from people who had navigated transition themselves, ask questions, build relationships, and better understand how their military experience could translate into the civilian workforce.
For FourBlock, that is an essential part of successful transition.
A meaningful career does not begin with simply matching a military occupational specialty to a civilian job title. It begins with understanding your value, exploring what is possible, building relationships, and gaining the confidence and clarity to make informed decisions about what comes next.
FourBlock was proud to play an active role throughout the symposium, with members of our team helping set the tone for a day centered on connection, career readiness, and meaningful transition.
Kristen Savee kicked off FourBlock’s participation by sharing the FourBlock story, introducing attendees to our mission and our approach to helping veterans and military spouses build meaningful careers and lives of significance. Her opening presentation helped frame the conversations ahead around the importance of preparation, relationships, and community throughout the transition process.
Later in the day, Karin Childress-Wiley served as a panel moderator, leading a candid conversation focused on the questions and challenges veterans face as they prepare for civilian careers. The discussion offered practical takeaways and perspectives designed to give the veterans in the room greater clarity and direction as they considered their next steps.
FourBlock’s community was also represented by Nick I., our New York City Chapter Advisor, who joined the event to connect with attendees and help strengthen the relationships that continue beyond a single program, event, or transition milestone.
Together, their involvement reflected what FourBlock aims to bring to every partnership: not simply a program or presentation, but a community of people committed to helping veterans and military spouses navigate what comes next.
One attendee captured FourBlock’s presence at the symposium in three words: “authentic, caring, impactful.”
Perhaps one of the clearest reflections of the day’s impact came from William Lee, a U.S. Army veteran and NYU MBA candidate:
“What stood out was how the evening was built. Inviting firms you compete with, including JPMorgan, meant it was organized around veterans rather than around recruiting, and that is rarer than it should be.”
That distinction matters.
Successful veteran transition requires collaboration. Employers, nonprofit organizations, mentors, alumni, educational institutions, and fellow veterans all have a role to play.
RBC’s willingness to bring other organizations into the room demonstrated what becomes possible when the focus shifts from individual organizations to the people the community is collectively trying to serve.
It also reflects an idea deeply embedded in FourBlock’s work: transition should not be navigated alone.
For many veterans, leaving the military means leaving more than a job.
It can mean stepping away from a team, a shared language, and a sense of belonging built through years of service alongside others.
But events like the RBC Veterans Career & Transition Symposium are a reminder that those relationships do not necessarily disappear when the uniform comes off.
Chris Hassan, an active-duty U.S. Army service member, reflected on that experience after the event:
“No matter where we are in our lives, in uniform or out, there are still brothers and sisters in arms who are willing to help and genuinely want to help.”
For Hassan, the experience offered reassurance about what waits on the other side of transition.
“The camaraderie and the desire to serve don’t disappear. They just carry forward in a different way.”
That idea captures something FourBlock sees every day.
Service changes form.
A transitioning service member becomes an alumnus. An alumnus becomes a mentor. A veteran becomes a hiring manager. A participant returns to help someone standing where they once stood.
The mission evolves, but the instinct to contribute to something larger than yourself remains.
The symposium represents one piece of a much broader commitment from RBC to the military-connected community.
Through career symposiums, campus visits, and RBC’s work as a corporate host within FourBlock’s career readiness programming, more than 600 veterans have now participated in these efforts.
RBC has also contributed $75,000 to FourBlock’s mission through the RBC Philanthropic Group, helping FourBlock expand career readiness programming and connect more veterans and military spouses with employers, mentors, and professional communities.
That commitment is producing outcomes beyond the events themselves.
Hiring partners connected to RBC’s veteran transition efforts have included Bank of America, Moelis, PJT, Chatham Asset Management, and BlackRock. Most recently, RBC learned that a participant from last year’s symposium secured a full-time investment banking position following graduation.
Those outcomes demonstrate what can happen when transition support extends beyond a single conversation or recruiting event.
It becomes an ecosystem of employers, mentors, peers, and advocates invested in helping veterans build meaningful civilian careers.
One attendee captured that idea particularly well.
U.S. Navy veteran and Fordham MBA candidate Eric Hitchings thanked the team for its outreach and described wanting to extend the same generosity to others:
“I’ll certainly try to pay forward the same generosity to others.”
That may ultimately be one of the most meaningful measures of the symposium’s success.
Not simply how many people attended.
Not simply how many conversations took place.
But whether someone walked away more prepared for their next step—and more willing to help the person coming behind them.
Nicholas McGuire, a U.S. Marine Corps veteran, described the symposium as “the most informative and well-organized networking event I’ve ever been to.”
That experience was made possible by months of work from RBC’s RVets team, participating employees, volunteers, panelists, partner firms, and the veterans and military spouses who showed up ready to engage.
FourBlock believes transition is about more than finding a job.
It is about helping veterans and military spouses find clarity, build meaningful relationships, understand their value, and continue lives of purpose and impact beyond military service.
That work cannot belong to one nonprofit, employer, or veteran service organization.
It requires a community.
We are deeply grateful to RBC Capital Markets, the RVets team, the participating firms, volunteers, panelists, and everyone who invested their time in this year’s Veterans Career & Transition Symposium.
We are equally proud of the FourBlock team and community members who helped bring our mission into the room—from Kristen Savee sharing the FourBlock story, to Karin Childress-Wiley guiding an important conversation as moderator, to Nick I. representing our New York City FourBlock community as Chapter Advisor.
Most of all, thank you to the veterans and military spouses who joined us, shared their experiences, asked questions, built new relationships, and continued a tradition familiar to anyone who has served:
Help the person next to you. Then, when you are able, turn around and help the person coming behind you.
That is how service carries forward.
And that is how a community becomes something bigger than any one organization.