Imagine day one in your first unit. Bright eyed, ready to learn and take on the world. Maybe you think you will be a lifer, maybe you are planning on the minimum, maybe you just don't know. Any way you shake it, you should start planning your transition that day.
If there is one constant, it is that things change. Plans change, interests change, life changes. Example, I went from being a professional baseball player, to a history teacher, to a principal, to an army helicopter pilot, to a retail manager, to a manufacturing production leader. I am here to tell you that this is common and okay. If you have spent a day in the army, you know that plans change. They change on missions and they change in life. Here is my advice. First and foremost, network, network, network. Do not let military life be your only life. Search for opportunities to network. It could be with the contractor who works in your battalion. Maybe it is with the local Starbucks manager. Maybe your interest is sports, so you network with the local college. Maybe you know, or think you know, what you want. Go connect with people in that industry, that company. Cast a wide net, you can afford to, because you have time. If you wait until that 6 months out, a year out, two years, whatever, it will not be as valuable since networking on day one. Second, training, schooling, certifications. Consider this a plan A or B. It is your plan A if you can align our skills with your interests. It is your plan B if your plan A isn't set in stone, or is a far reaching goal, or it simply makes the most logic. My plan B was to go become a commercial pilot. It is not my primary plan or goal in life, but it is the most logical one given my flight experience. My plan C is to use my GI Bill to get an MBA. My plan A is what I really want, to get into Human Resources, but this is my longest shot since I do not currently have any formal training or experience. However, I made this decision post military, and now I am trying to play catch up. Third, personal brand. Use social media and your voice to your advantage. Continue to build and focus your brand. What you stand for, want you want, what you offer, etc. Look no further than The Rock. Find something you are passionate about and relentlessly share that vision. Sometimes it may mean taking risks. But be strategic about how you are going to brand yourself. Are you a servant, are you a go-getter, can you make people money, whatever the case is, take the time to build your personal brand. Start with these three simple tips day one. Network, training, and personal brand. The time will eventually come that you depart the military, whether that is 3 years or 33 years. Follow these three simple steps starting day one and you will have done a great majority of the transition work...and well in advance over most.
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So I alluded to this in a microblog recently and it has since blown up. I stated the following "No one cares. #truth it’s tough, maybe a personally the do, but business $, they don’t. Find your #passion and tie that to what you learned in the military rather than taking your military skills and looking for where they fit!" Now tie this in with my latest leadership blog. Belichick's fifth principle is don't rest on your laurels.
It is not that people or businesses do or do not care. There are a lot of grateful people out there, there are business who understand military folks more and prefer to hire them, businesses also get tax advantages for hiring veterans, so they do care in some sense. What I am alluding to here is that they don't care what you did in the past, no different if you were a warehouse forklift driver, a window washer, a school teacher, a store manager, etc. It is about translating the skills you learned at your previous role to show how they fit in this potential role, and most importantly, what impact it is going to have on the organization. Your VA card may get you into the local VFW, but that is where it ends, so get the chip off your shoulder. Yes you selflessly served your country, but no body owes you anything for that, that is a choice you made, therefore, you don't get a special line to move to the front of the hiring process, those days are gone. Here are some thoughts from Christopher Caley, retired Army Military Intelligence Analyst.
Herb Thompson, retired Army Special Forces leader states, "No one really cares that you were a Green Beret, SEAL, Ranger, or Raider. No one really cares that you flew fighter jets or helicopters. No one really cares that you commanded a number of tanks, artillery guns, or infantryman. Nobody cares that you led a Battalion, Squadron, or Flight. No one really cares how many times you engaged the enemy or trained to do it. No one cares which countries you deployed to or prepared to go to. The list goes on and on and on and on... What value are you going to bring to a company? How are you reducing the risk of them hiring you? These are the only things that matter. Translate your skills into context and capabilities that they understand. Lessen the risk they will assume!" It is business decision, a financial decision. It is not about bodies (Infantry 3 to 1 attack ratio), it is about money. A business is here to make money and it's number one expense item is most likely payroll. Most business cannot afford to just give you a shot, however, each value different things. Some may value education, some may value leadership experience, some may value personality, etc. This is why it is important to network, to find what a company looks for and see if you are a match. And if you love a company, just get in. Once you are for 1-3 years and people see you perform, people understand what you do by reading a job title, etc, it becomes much easier to sell yourself and move throughout the business and industry. After I did some real sole searching and narrowed down my skill list to what I could confidentiality say were my strengths (you know, because I thought I was good at everything having been an Army Aviation pilot and commander), I generated that list on top of my master resume. As I read through job descriptions, I tally the terms from the JD on my resume. If I have enough matches, I then tailor my resume. If I do not, I don't and I move on. Additionally, I take those skills along with my goals to have my elevator pitch on hand for whenever the occasion occurs to sell myself. Because perhaps the best advice I have received is to never stop interviewing. And I mean ever, not just during the interview, but in every interaction you have, because you don't know where it will lead! Stop trying to fit you (the square peg) in every hole you come across (the triangle, the circle, etc). Take some time to assess yourself, assess your real skills, develop that elevator pitch and get out there and beginning networking with a plan on how you are going to make a difference for that company (hence why it helps to do some reach on an organization and to listen and truly conversate when networking, that way you have talking points)! Best of luck and please reach out if you have any questions. In this my inaugural blog on the military transition, I chose to start first with what I believe to be the most valuable asset, the US Chamber of Commerce and the Hiring Our Heroes Program, specifically the Corporate Fellowship Program. Why? Well let's cut to the chase with a little back story.
Without going into great detail, you can see me on the about me page, my back story goes as such. I wanted out of the military but didn't really know what I wanted to do. I took several of those personality/career tests and the answer seemed to be retail management. Well that made sense, I wanted to run a Bass Pro Shops and talk about fishing all day! I ended up with Love's Travel Stops through the Cameron-Brooks military headhunter service. This is a District Manager formalized training program. It had structure and a plan to learn from the floor up, starting as an Assistant Store Manager and becoming a Store Manager before becoming a District Manager. I had a plan. Take my interest, cover my worrisome areas (do my skills fit?), grow for about 7 years, get vested in some cash from Love's, then go to Bass Pro! All seemed good, until about two months into work, when I quickly realized, retail and retail management was not for me. Over the next 8 months, I spent most of my non-work time throwing out darts with no real plan and what was next. Eventually, my networking with GE Aviation that started two years prior paid off. I got an opportunity and have enjoyed it ever since. The moral to the story, if I had chance to intern at a retail organization, despite what all those test said, I would have learned that retail management wasn't fit, at the very least, and could have still had time to establish another plan without sacrifice of a paycheck. In comes Hiring Our Heroes Corporate Fellowship Program. Now I didn't have the fellowship luxury being stationed out in Hawaii, but I have since incorporated it into GE Aviation's rhythm, at least here at Madisonville. I do so, because this program provides both the service member and the organization with a fair assessment at learning each other, without any fiscal risk. As the service member, you can see if that industry and company culture is a fit for you. And even if it does not work out, you still work away with experience and resume bullets. For the organization, you get a free trial if you will, an assessment of talent and fit within your organization. What is there to lose with this growing program? You get a risk free self and organizational assessment, in which afterwards, you are free to move on, and still use those headhunters to find a job if necessary. But I would be willing to bet, that the experience you get and the connections you make during the internship, will be far greater than any vouching a headhunting firm will do for you before you go through your speed dating interview career fair. So I start with this, because I want more service members and businesses to be aware of the program, to give it a few tries, because I believe you will never look back and will be left more satisfied in your military transition. Visit them at https://www.hiringourheroes.org/ and review the Corporate Fellowship to see all that it has to offer. No what stage you are at, start planning now! |