What kind of challenges did you face transitioning to civilian work force and becoming a full-time student working on a Masters Degree?

2016-10-25T03:24:01-04:00

Response by CPT Private RallyPoint Member made Oct 25 at 2016 3:27 AM

2016-10-25T03:27:21-04:00

I am currently an Active Duty Transportation Officer. I am about a year out from the end of my contract and I am looking at changing career paths. Clinical Social Work is the route I am taking. I want to get ahead of the game and begin looking into all necessary requirements for my education as well as supporting my house hold (Wife and I/no kids). I am using the GI Bill to pay for school but my biggest question is employment during my time in school. Did anyone have a similar experience? I already have a pretty solid plan but I want to see if anyone, with similar experiences, had any obstacles they wish they knew about during the transition. I want to get as many angles as possible.

Response by SPC Erich Guenther made Oct 25 at 2016 7:27 AM

2016-10-25T07:27:56-04:00

It's a tall order your asking for Army Transportation background, pay enough to support a household, switching career fields, and close into Campus. So this is what I would do since I have no clue what exactly your new career field does. Attempt to find a mentor in your new desired field that is already resident in MN. Look on the Mayo Clinic website for contacts for Physicians and maybe email, write or call some of them for ideas since your new field is probably something a Physician has to refer someone to, perhaps they might have heard of something in the Twin Cities just starting up. Another tack contact University of MN Career Center by phone and ask them for help. They might turn you down because your not a student yet (which is BS but how Universities operate.....very inhuman type of bureaucracy).

So here is one problem your going to run into. The switching careers on seperation from the Army business and you have no experience in a medical setting but you want a job to support your family. If you attempt transportation and they find out your career change goals.........do you think they are going to hire you for just 2-3 years? Probably not. So you need some HR help there on how to position yourself or what kind of job you can reasonably expect given your goals. What your doing can be done but you have to take care with the resume and interview and you might want to target maybe a Hospital or Health Insurance Chain that needs help with Logistics........not sure if that exists but it is where I would start.

I am originally from Wisconsin and went to college there. I think they have a reciprocal agreement with University of Minnesota where you can attend a University of Wisconsin Campus and it is the same as attending University of Minnesota. So you might want to ask about that and see if the agreement is still in place as it would give you more geographic flexibility at least.

Here is one route you could take that might work great. Have you thought about becoming an ROTC Instructor. When I went to UW system they had CPT rank ROTC Instructors teaching Military History and other courses right in the College / University. Not sure what the perks are there just mentioning because the CPT was Active Duty. Military History was an easy course too for a former SPC so you could probably teach it in your sleep. Interesting thing was my instructor (CPT) was also going to school for his Masters Degree. So there HAS to be an Army program like what your looking for.

Also since your attending a Graduate Program if you have not already done so you probably need to prep for and take a GRE test. Again you need to speak with University of Minnesota on that (if they require it and what score range they look for). If you can knock out the GRE test prior to leaving the Army that might be one less thing you need to worry about. Also, most Graduate Schools want you to meet with a Graduate Admissions Advisor to go over your undergrad transcripts and tell you what remedial courses you need to take prior to the Graduate School allowing you in. It's one more area you can do ASAP and before you get out to see what your total time in school will probably be (HINT: depending on your Undergrad courses it might be slightly longer than 2 years).

I don't know if I helped you at all but that's all I have in my head. I almost went and got my MBA so I went through some of this graduate school stuff. Unfortunately UT-Austin had serious problems at the time with their admissions procedure so that kind of worked out well because I decided I didn't need a MBA just needed to shift my skill set a little for a higher salary and I was happy.

Response by SPC(P) Patrick Westbrook made Oct 25 at 2016 10:25 AM

2016-10-25T10:25:18-04:00

The toughest part...dealing with people who don't care about their job, being in the military we were always upheld to a standard and knew our place and what we needed to do to accomplish the mission...in the real world people don't care/don't do/barely put forth an effort in their job and get paid the same amount as you, while you can make waves and get ahead of them its a struggle when you get promoted ahead of your peers because you are goal orientated and they just complain that they've been there longer and should have gotten a promotion. Now the masters degree...not so much on my part but full time student/doing reserve drill/full time job to support a family was my situation after getting out of AD and an employer that doesn't understand drill time being mandatory to take off even after you present the schedule/school doesn't acknowledge drill time as being mandatory...#strugglesarereal

Overall not too hard just keep doing what you do and you'll eventually win...hopefully

Response by SGT Dave Tracy made Oct 25 at 2016 3:14 PM

2016-10-25T15:14:47-04:00

Transitioning back to being a civilian wasn't a big issue for me--then again, I haven't completely left the Army behind as I am still in the Reserves--but going back to school is rough. Just making sure I could get my Post 9/11 benefits was an arduous process, so from that aspect I'd suggest working on getting your ducks in a row regarding your VA benefits.

Like you Sir, I'm going to the U of M for my Masters, but juggling school, even part time, plus work and family and my Reserve commitment doesn't leave much left over in terms of time and energy.
Good luck.

Response by SSgt Private RallyPoint Member made Oct 27 at 2016 5:00 AM

2016-10-27T05:00:33-04:00

CPT Private RallyPoint Member I think that we are self-limiting and with Educational Benefits, that is more of an incentive. I have an unrelated goal of learning 20 more additional languages. The problem is, I would probably soon afterwords. lol being 60 already.