During your transition from Soldier to Civilian, what were the biggest differences between your expectations and reality?

As someone who was booted due to being overweight, my transition felt very rushed. I have been fighting for years to get back in as I am just not civilian material. I have only managed to hold 2 jobs because employers don't like my military attitude. I have lost many friends because I feel adults should be adults and quit acting childish. But here I continue to sit, 3 degrees, 2 career changes and a broken body and mind and no end in sight to this misery of not being with my comrades.

Sorry rant over.

The popular media has painted all veterans as being psychotic (or at the least sociopaths) sufferers of dissociative PTSD. Civilians (most of whom) have difficulty separating truth from fiction have actually become afraid of us. At a recent psych CME, the presenter stated with absolute certainty that 50%+ of all military personnel and veterans suffer from an anti-social personality disorder. I questioned his contention and after lunch everyone had moved away from from me.

Nobody, and I mean NOBODY was impressed I had been a field artillery officer. I would go to job interview and people would give me a blank stare when I said I was a reconnaissance and survey officer. Very few even knew what the artillery was. I had to constantly avoid using Army jargon and had to change the way I wrote e-mails.

I was very fortunate when I left active duty. Signed out of my unit on Sunday and started to work on Monday as a Department of the Army civilian. It was some what of a promotion as I moved from company-grade quarters to field-grade quarters. Reality exceeded expectations because my new boss was a great mentor in the new job and an asset in the transition.

Chain of command is an unknown concept. often,there is no accountability for disrespect.

I found that my military training in a lot of areas of my military job did not always transition into the civilian workplace and found that a lot of times I was thinking federal not state but at the time I was let out of the service as it was a completely different world as it is now, computer age was just getting started and there where opportunity, I am a water treatment or if you like an engineering supply NCO as I like to call it because of a change in tasking from engineers to supply in the mid 80 found my self-being a supply NCO more than water treatment NCO I was transitioned from missels I started my career as a radar tech for Nike Hercules air defense system, but when I came back from Germany there where no slots for patriot at that time and other systems where still in research mode so I worked for the army DARPA program at white sands for a few before I changed over to water that was good times worked on a project called sergeant york for a bit then it was scrapped , but where I am going with this is I had a lot of hats then that made it some much easier to make it out here so never say never is my modow , I was in school and taking my civilain collage class to become a waste water op when I got the ax after gulf one , witch was good becuase the state of wa at the time did not do cross resiprecal licensing , they did not even want to take any of the epa training certs I had and the best part was I had top secret clearance at the time and had water skills they had know idea of yet LOL. but it got their attention a few years later when they where thinking of building a new plant and found I had the skills to run there new system let alone design it, hope that helps

Being a civilian now gives me the creeps. It's like a skin I cant shed.

I had a great deal of medical knowledge, training and experience when I got out so I decided I would work as a nurse while going for a medical degree. All my knowledge, training, and experience (ER, OR, surgical intensive care, anesthesiology, etc.) mean nothing in California and would have to retake all classes from scratch. Years worth. Discouraged, I said "no" and made my hobby (computers) my profession.

The proffesiin peace was easy and according to plan. The word professional is what was eluded in the process. Many civilians are not professional, dedicated and loyal. Nor do their managers know how toborooerky motivate them to the organizations cause. There are many that are professional but not like the military, so it can be frustrating.

On th eoersonal side I was not ready for the downtime as I worked 24/7 for sooooo many years. It affects many aspects of your life. Find a hobby, ensure your family is ready too, as they are now in unfamiliar territory as well. It can and will affect the entire family unit. Thank you all for your service.

Wanted to get a degree, but NO schools have Large Font text or Braille Textbooks where I live and been told I can't return for a degree cause I will lose my benefits from the VA (Compensation wise) AND at times, it's just feeling useless-can't drive, see single visioned and noone will hire me cause of my sight issues so---just feel lost and docs at the VA are trying to help, but it's not going good.