What line of work do you think is as purposeful as your time in the military?

In one way or another, all of my occupational pursuits since leaving the military have served a larger purpose to one degree or another; helping & serving others in some form or fashion. Less so as a janitor, more so as a security officer or keeping a public running.

The most purposeful one, though, I would have to say has been my work as a volunteer firefighter. That's the one field where I can *see* immediately that we've made an impact, and the one area with a similar mission-focused operation. It's also where I see a very similar camaraderie and level of teamwork as well.

I had a blast as a professional Soldier....as a civilian not so much.

I found working as a Government Contractor and working as an Army Civilian both similar to my work in the military. As a contractor I performed work very similar to what I was doing as a joint duty staff officer--joint exercise planning, controlling, and evaluation. We worked with dedication to both our client and our company. Doing a great job for our client helped improve readiness. Doing a great job also helped the company because we could use our favorable performance reports to help gain additional contracts. As an Army Civilian Program Manager my work was almost identical to military members with similar duty descriptions. Because of my background in the private sector and military, I focused on the mission and the tasks my program needed to complete to accomplish the mission. I wasn't a clock-watching civilian waiting for quitting time each day, hating the job, and putting in my time to retirement. I saw only a few of these types of Army Civilians. Although I understand where that attitude comes from, I never bought into it.