U.S. Army Officer Career Development and Management: How to efficiently and effectively plan and develop your military career?

2014-10-18T21:07:07-04:00

Thank you for the taking the time to read through the opening post of this discussion. I greatly appreciate your time.

As a newly-commissioned officer in the United States Army, I have several questions pertaining as to how to best plan for, manage, and ultimately control my military career. While I understand that one's military career development will differ depending on their service component, I feel that the general concepts on how one manages their military career remains generally the same.

With that said, I would appreciate any and all feedback from junior-to-senior officers, as well as from senior non-commissioned officers as well. Using this feedback, I intend to share this knowledge to the Soldiers whom I will lead, so they too can effectively manage their military (and even civilian) careers. My questions to the RallyPoint community are:

1. As a commissioned officer/senior non-commissioned officer in the United States Army, how did you effectively begin to manage your military career? How did you ensure that you would earn time to hold your recommended key developmental positions?

2. How exactly did you ensure that you successfully completed additional training opportunities that would keep (or otherwise) push you for promotion consideration?

3. What advice would you give to a brand new Second Lieutenant who is motivated to learn new skills, further develop their existing aptitudes, and to further broaden their operational experience while striving to hold key developmental positions, such as Platoon Leader, Executive Officer, and so on?

I am currently serving with the United States Army Reserve, which may make my developmental experience different from that of my Active Duty-component peers, however, I feel that the innate concepts towards pursuing professional development generally remain similar for everyone in the military.

Thank you again.

Response by CW5 Private RallyPoint Member made Oct 18 at 2014 9:21 PM

2014-10-18T21:21:22-04:00

1LT Private RallyPoint Member, this is a thought provoking topic. Something from your list that jumped out at me is item #2, "How exactly did you ensure that you successfully completed additional training opportunities ..."

I'll tell ya, I struggled with this my entire career, as an enlisted man and as a warrant officer. I saw training opportunities that would benefit me, benefit the Army, win-win ... but I seldom seized the opportunity to get that training because either (a) I was too busy or (b) I was perceived to be too important in my job to go away for "that long" for just training.

If there were one thing I could change about my 30-year active duty career, it would be that I would have pushed harder for those training opportunities that passed me by.

Response by COL Private RallyPoint Member made Oct 18 at 2014 11:33 PM

2014-10-18T23:33:31-04:00

1LT Private RallyPoint Member - great questions. You are your best career manager, as no one else has the same vested interest you do. Here are some suggestions:

1. Start you OER support form early (e.g., NOW) for the rating period. Chase your Rater and Senior Rater for input/suggestions for appropriate additional duties.

2. Map out your career timelines, educational/course requirements, and beneficial/desired positions. This will be dependent on your branch, but map out what is required for the next two or three promotions. Again, discuss with your Rater and Senior Rater for input and direction.

3. Learn as much as you can from your NCOs and enlisted. We have a lot of smart individuals in the force - don't ignore them because they don't wear brass.

4. Do as much training (courses, schools, etc.) now as you can - you will only get busier as you move up.

Response by LTC Private RallyPoint Member made Oct 19 at 2014 8:16 PM

2014-10-19T20:16:47-04:00

1. Talk to your rater and discuss your plans for your current position and future positions. Also, find a mentor to help assist you and guide you to what positions you should get and where. I have laid out my plans to my raters and asked for their blessing. As an AGR I then talked to my career manager to help ensure my next assignment was a good one for development.

2. I have volunteered to go to new training as it comes up or to training for mandatory items that units must have (master resilience trainer). Seek additional duties that need schooling. I also then ensured to be in touch with my career manager to ensure that I was enrolled in my ECCC to get it early enough in my career to avoid risking having it later in my Captain time and be in danger of not making it before the below the zone look.

3. Seek leadership positions always. When not I say go for the primary positions and excel. However, know your limits. If you need a break then go to school or do a position that is less demanding, but excel at that position. Get your break and move back into leadership.

Response by COL Vincent Stoneking made Apr 19 at 2015 11:58 AM

2015-04-19T11:58:04-04:00

1LT Private RallyPoint Member,
One of my favorite OPD topics right here. A few thoughts:
1. KNOW your branch's career progression & chart. In your case, you care about DA PAM 600-3, p 213-217.
2. KNOW whether or not you want to stay Signal (advice based on your stated CA/MISO preference...).
3. Get every civilian IT cert that you can - whether big green pays for it, or you do.
4. KNOW what you want to do in both your civilian career and personal life.
5. Especially with Signal, while a JO, if you can work in an IT-related field, life will be easier for you.

6. This is the main one, that makes everything else work. With the above 5 items in mind, I suggest that you create an Individual Development Plan (IDP) each for military, civilian, and personal goals. This is a multi-week process, not a 15 minute exercise. It will require a lot of thought and soul searching about "what I want to be when I grow up." (no offense intended - I still do them to this day, for that exact reason.) These should look at Long (5+), Medium, and short-term (<2 years) goals, and then break them down into actionable steps.

SHARE this information with your rater, senior rater, and anyone else in a position of influence. Be open to feedback, even if you don't like it. People an only give you an assist if they know what your goal is...

ACCEPT the old saying "Plans are useless, planning is indispensable." I updated all three of my IDPs as I was getting ready to rotate out of BN command. I was making amazingly good progress on all three in the first several months after. I was then offered a MOB that was too good to pass up. As a result, almost all of my military and civilian short and medium term goals went *poof*. Not to worry, I have new ones, and all I had to do was re-map my long-term objectives, not go back to the drawing board.

UPDATE them every 6 months. Schedule it & do it. As mentioned above, circumstances change, as do your goals. This is fine. Again, "planning is everything."

7. KNOW your job description. Know your rater and senior rater's vision of your job. Start your OER SPT form now. Update it EVERY SINGLE MONTH. No, really, every single one. Focus on those quantifiable things you did in each and every category. This helps you record your accomplishments while they are still fresh in your mind, keeps you focused on the quantifiable - which is important when it comes to enumeration, and reminds you what all the factors you are rated on are. That last is especially important with the roll out of the new OER.

8. Volunteer. Cheerfully. Proceed to kick a$$. ESPECIALLY in the Reserves, you have an unmatched opportunity to decide your fate. People who step up get noticed. You may find (depending on location, unit, personalities, etc.) that getting a CO CMD is as simple as saying "I would LOVE to command X Company...." In any case, you miss 100% of the shots you don't take.

9. Take all the courses you can. Even if "only" correspondence. Signal has quite a few, IIRC. Do the IO 101 (or whatever it's called now) at the first opportunity. Again, as a Reservist, you can distinguish yourself by simply stepping up to the plate more than that other guy.

10. Volunteer to support CA and/or MISO exercises, either in a Signal or general augmentee role. My doctrine is a little rusty with the delineation between IO and MISO at the moment (see above about my IDP going sideways - last 6 months learning something new, and that doctrine seems to be changing constantly).

11. Prior to changing your branch, wrangle a decent assignment to either CA or MISO. THEN put in your transfer request. You will then be "becoming one of us", rather than "abandoning us" to your uptrace. When you talk to your boss about your request, you will be able to point to both your current performance as well as your prior preparation for the new branch.

Response by Capt Richard I P. made Apr 22 at 2015 9:48 PM

2015-04-22T21:48:13-04:00

As a brand new officer I recommend focusing on only two things. 1. Mission accomplishment 2. Troop welfare (of your guys first then of everyone junior to you, then your peers) these two principles should carry you until Captain at least, then you can start learning Office Career management to teach your Lts and take care of yourself while you're at it.

Response by MAJ Private RallyPoint Member made Nov 17 at 2015 7:11 AM

2015-11-17T07:11:00-05:00

Army Guard guy here. I agree with most of everyones posts here (lead troops and focus on what you've got now), I'll try to say something different and answer your question in the light of "How do I manage a career to someday be an O6 or above?"

Great post. I wrestle with his often. I usually imagine a career like half of a ballistic trajectory. It goes up in rank on the Y axis as time progresses on the X axis...somewhat logarithmic. To maintain a good trajectory you've got to adjust yourself such that you meet all the right gates and what not. Here is my advice:

If you want to be an O6 in the Reserve/Guard you need to be willing to take assignments as they present themselves and be willing to drill far away from home. At one point in my career I drilled in KY and lived in D.C. to get command time. Spent more time driving to drill than doing drill.

Also be willing to let yourself grow into what you need to be. I started as an Engineer, went to AG school, then went to ORSA (Organizational Analysis) school. In the reserve and guard especially as you grow up the O5/O6 ranks you'll need to understand how money works. Unlike the Active Component we are much closer to our dollars. Landing an overseas AT costs cash, bringing your troops in on RMA days costs cash, getting ADOS funded costs cash...

Director of the Army Guard recently said that ultimately you'll need to build a career on one or more of these three things:
1. Lead troops (think Brigade Command)
2. Know money everything seems to turn into money at the O6 and above level
3. Own a process (G3 Operations & Training is king, G1 Personnel is a close second in upward mobility)

Try this:
Go to wikipedia, pick your favorite Guard/Reserve 2 Star or above senior leader and check out their page. Scroll to the bottom and look at their biography and dates of promotion. (Try General Frank Grass if you don't know any). You'll likely see assignments ranging from traditional troop leading to leadership of one of the G-staff directorates. Also look at the span of time between promotions. 4-5 years between CPT->MAJ->LTC->COL looks like a standard pace.

Response by CPT Private RallyPoint Member made Jul 8 at 2017 5:17 PM

2017-07-08T17:17:46-04:00

work hard, learn without being asked and get take hard jobs nobody wants, like 24 months in command; take blame for everything and work to lift everyone up; be of great character and take a punch from higher with a smile; oh, do not cheat on Army schools, work your ass off, but take great care to balance family and mission demand; draft up and make sure you and your fiance sign a prenuptial agreement; no cheating outside the marriage allow, or the other person gets everything; Yeah, it is THAT important; you can work your ass off, if your wife bails out on you, you will not continue; see too many on my time; lastly, get financial education; learn paper-stock, options, stay away from lazy mutual funds; buy a house everywhere you PCSs to, close to great schools, 45 minutes or less away from post, 3-2, under 1500 sf; then rent it out as rental property; do not go cheap on property management fees, they are worth their weight in gold if they are good; do not go IG or EO complaint, discuss problems with your boss candidly and offer no excuses for failure; yeah, that is about it.