My Amazon Warrior Story as a Navy Reserves Chief Petty Officer: Sharing job seeking advice to transitioning Veterans

2022-01-26T14:27:42-05:00

When I first applied for my previous position in human resources, for the City of Carlsbad, California, I received a rejection notice. Instead of taking “no” for the final answer, I applied some of the intelligence tradecraft I developed from the Navy to learn why I hadn’t landed the job.

I used LinkedIn to network with people who had worked for the city. I found individuals with connections to the hiring manager. I met with folks over coffee, and developed relationships with the hopes of eventually having them share my resume with the hiring manager.

I ultimately was able to meet with the city’s hiring manager in person, where I was able to talk about my background and education and how it related to the position I was applying for. She helped me see why I was passed over based on my resume (an unfocused laundry list of experiences in a document) that I hadn’t updated since going through my military’s Transition Assistance Program (TAP). I was hired by the city in 2017 as a senior human resources technician and eventually a recruiter.

When it came time to apply for a role with Amazon, I didn’t repeat the same mistakes — and was rewarded with a job offer instead of a rejection letter. As a recruiter for Amazon’s People Experience and Technology (PXT) team, I'm among the 45,000-plus U.S.-based military- or Veteran-affiliated personnel/military spouses working here. I also just entered my 14th year in the Navy reserves.

Putting lessons to work for other job-seeking military personnel:

I’m privileged to share my own job-seeking lessons learned to provide other recruiting-related advice and resources as Amazon pursues a commitment to hire 100,000 more Veterans and military spouses by 2024.

It’s also a subject I’m passionate about. In graduate school at San Diego State University, I studied how the U.S. Department of Defense’s SkillBridge program was a key, but underutilized, resource for assisting active-duty service members transition to the civilian workforce. In my free time I volunteer for the nonprofit group “VetCTAP” (Veteran Career Transition Assistance Program) (https://www.vetctap.org), where I teach a course on how to best use LinkedIn to promote yourself to employers and find your next career.

So, if you’re in the military, a Veteran, or a military spouse, and are considering a civilian career at Amazon or elsewhere, I recommend taking these steps:

Start early. If you’re not reenlisting or are planning a move from active duty to the reserves, plan your transition at least 18 months before your separation date. Begin thinking through what you want to do, build a LinkedIn profile and resume, create a networking plan and take advantage of various TAPs (not just the one offered by the military).

This is the time to explore internships such as a SkillBridge opportunity at Amazon (or another participating company). If you’re concerned your CO won’t approve your leave, communicate the mutual benefits in terms of sharing what you learn and offer to ease the burden of your absence by training the individual filling in for you while you are away.

Take more than one TAP. I had a mixed experience in the military’s TAP, but I also discovered additional nonmilitary TAP resources. Other groups with quality programs want to assist you in your career transition include the aforementioned VetCTAP as well as Hiring Our Heroes (https://www.hiringourheroes.org) and Hire Heroes USA (https://www.hireheroesusa.org).

Create a focused resume. We’re conditioned in the military to show employers we can do anything, and that with a little training we can get just about any job done. We tend to create these “everything and the kitchen sink” style of resumes that busy recruiters don't have time to fully review. Civilian employers need to see that you can walk in the door and do the specific job for which you’re applying, without much training.

Tailor your resume for the role you seek: Leave off extra details that would distract recruiters or hiring managers. Make sure to translate military experiences into civilian language so that employers can clearly understand how you are qualified for the role you are applying for.

Although I performed many other tasks to apply and get hired at Amazon like applying my experiences to Amazon’s leadership principles, conducting research and networking — I know my resume was lightyears better than the one that ended up in a Carlsbad black hole five years earlier.

Review and create a “model” LinkedIn profile. As a service member or Veteran, or as a military spouse with a MySECO account, take advantage of a free one-year upgrade to LinkedIn Premium and LinkedIn Learning (https://rly.pt/3gaevyX). And then create a model LinkedIn profile that lays out work history, education and other information sensibly and is pleasing to look at.

Get networking. Reach out to your connections — via LinkedIn and RallyPoint — to find Veterans, military peers and industry leaders who can provide advice and/or share your resume or profile. Start by viewing and connecting with me here on RallyPoint, at https://www.linkedin.com/in/jonaasted and https://rly.pt/3AK8AKp and with these other Amazon military personnel, https://www.linkedin.com/in/mkorth and https://rly.pt/3ucaqSP . For additional information, check out the profile of Michael Quinn, CEO at HireMilitary: https://rly.pt/3KX6uvk.

Are you a Warrior in Transition? See if a career at Amazon works for you.

Learn more:

Read about Amazon’s pledge to hire 100,000 Veterans and military spouses by 2024: https://rly.pt/2XjsAnL.

Check out Amazon’s hiring and skills development programs for transitioning service members and Veterans and military spouses: https://rly.pt/3daOOMU.

Get more information about roles at Amazon through the Amazon Military Webinar Series: https://amazonmilitarywebinarseries.splashthat.com.

Apply for more than 38,000 open Amazon positions based in the United States at https://www.amazon.jobs/en/military and search by job category at https://rly.pt/3IasqBL.

Explore Amazon’s Warriors at Amazon military affinity group and other employee-run affinity groups: https://www.aboutamazon.com/affinity-groups.

Discover more about Amazon: https://www.aboutamazon.com.

Response by Lt Col Charlie Brown made Jan 31 at 2022 10:16 PM

2022-01-31T22:16:16-05:00

Well done, following up to find out what the issues were and then learning from that going forward

Response by Capt Brandon Charters made Feb 10 at 2022 4:13 PM

2022-02-10T16:13:48-05:00

Awesome story, CPO Private RallyPoint Member!

"Tailor your resume for the role you seek" Man, this is an important one. So many of us like to shotgun out our resume and forget that we really need to take a focused approach for each role.