How You Can Best Enable a Successful Transition From the Military

It’s a fact of life: At some point, everyone will transition out of the military. The challenge you will face upon doing so has rarely been greater. The civil-military gap that you will encounter is larger than it has ever been in our lifetimes and will continue to grow in the coming decades. Let’s put it this way: There is a 95%+ chance that the hiring manager you encounter upon leaving the service has no idea who you are as a veteran, what you’ve done, or what you can do. And the support provided from DoD, DoL, and the VA – while it has improved – continues to leave veterans largely fending for themselves upon leaving the service.

Something must be done.

My 25 years in a uniform and 20+ years (and counting) in the corporate world have led me to believe that in order to holistically address this conundrum, we must approach it from three separate angles. These angles parallel the three major stakeholder groups involved in transition – veterans and their families, their prospective employers, and the government that created them in the first place.

Veterans and Their Families
I’ve written a practical guide for this group called Mission Transition: Navigating the Opportunities and Obstacles to Your Post-Military Career. ( https://rly.pt/MissionTransition ) Its focus is to thoroughly address this primary question: How can transitioning veterans realize their full potential by avoiding false starts and suboptimal career choices following active duty?

Your Prospective Employers
I have a second book in draft aimed at this stakeholder group, who stand to benefit handsomely if they can properly utilize the incredible talents that all of you bring them. It aims to resolve this primary question: How can employers better prepare for and utilize transitioning veteran talent to improve the productivity and competitiveness of their organizations?

Government Support
Short of actually changing the government, there is something incredibly productive that we can all do to help them bridge the gap between the military and the communities into which you will transition following your service: We can support Veteran Collaboratives. Veteran Collaboratives are private, non-profit organizations that exist to bring veterans, agencies, organizations, and community members together on a local basis in an atmosphere of mutual support to systemically solve issues that each could not address alone. They enable a ‘warm handoff’ from the military to local communities all across the country. When you in-processed in the military, you likely did so through a military one-stop processing center that took care of all your needs: ID cards, benefits, housing, finance, transportation, travel, claims, etc. They did it all. You should think of these veteran collaboratives as your one-stop in-processing center for your new community. They should be some of the first resources you seek out. They can be incredibly helpful. Here is an article ( https://rly.pt/2GLxDlt ) I wrote on this topic; and here is a list of leading veteran collaboratives. ( https://rly.pt/2OHydXO )

Calls to Action
• Support Veteran Collaboratives in your area.
• Write or call your US Senators and US Representatives to support currently pending bills in Congress that will enable public private partnership matching funds for Veteran Collaboratives. Specifically, see Senate Bill 785 and Senate Bill 1906.
• Purchase Mission Transition and share it with any veteran or veteran group that could benefit from it. Alternately, please request that your local public library purchase a few copies for lending to card holders.
• In concert with the book, review my website ( https://matthewjlouis.com/ ) which houses a treasure-trove of free resources to support your transition

My aim and fervent hope are that this approach effectively enables successful employment outcomes for our nation’s finest. The future productivity of your employers and a grateful nation depend on it. The future happiness and financial independence of your families depend on it. Let us begin . . .