Posted on Mar 24, 2015
Bringing Veterans into the Technology Business?
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The average American today is surrounded by technology. The smartphones in our pockets, the individual apps on those devices and the fitness monitors on our wrists are just a few of the artifacts symbolizing how technology has permeated into our everyday lives.
What is missing in all of this technology is the collective influence of U.S. military Veterans in the business and engineering efforts behind modern software and hardware. The most successful technology companies in the United States today were not founded by Veterans and are not currently led by Veterans.
There are certainly Veterans involved in the technology business, but there is a noticeable void of Veterans on the executive teams that are building the contemporary technology industry. Veterans are not shaping the technology market or leading the cadre of businesses building modern enterprise and consumer tools at companies like Google, Apple, Samsung, Uber, Facebook, LinkedIn, Evernote and Twitter.
I have seen the drought of Veteran influence in the technology industry first hand as a member of both the military and technology tribes.
When I left the active-duty Air Force in 2009, I went to Silicon Valley and took a sales engineering position at Google. After a few years I was promoted to a product management role. As I immersed myself deeper in the technology industry, I began to seek out other Veterans. The scarcity of peers and mentors in Silicon Valley with military experience was notable.
At Google, a company of over 30,000 employees when I resigned in 2014, there were only around 300 U.S. military Veterans. Many technology companies have recognized the need to recruit underrepresented communities and include Veterans in their diversity and inclusion strategies.
All too often though, the positions generated by these efforts are simply aimed at selling software, hardware or services to the government. These are not the coveted engineering and product management roles that are charged with designing complex software systems, leading development teams and creating new products.
When Veterans are able to join large technology companies, they are relegated to individual contributor roles or mid-level management positions. There are certainly exceptions where Veterans have achieved more in technology companies, but the frequency of these successes is largely anecdotal.
There is a better way! The world is full of interesting problems that have not yet been solved, and Veterans are keenly equipped to meet these challenges. Rather than joining large technology companies and fighting their way to the top, Veterans can become technology entrepreneurs, start businesses and change the world on their own terms.
There has never been a better time to grow an idea into a scalable technology company. Developing a technology startup does not necessitate an MBA, it simply requires having an idea, creating a vision, sustaining motivation and investing hard work. These are character traits that many Veterans already possess.
There are Veterans out there right now forging this entrepreneurial path, and there are programs expressly aimed at helping others along the way. If Veterans invest a bit of time to learn the language, understand the processes and connect with the right mentors, they can build the next generation of great technology businesses.
In an effort to highlight the connective pathways linking Veterans to technology entrepreneurship, Patriot Boot Camp and RallyPoint have partnered to publish a series of profiles on successful Veteran-led technology companies.
Stay tuned for great startup stories, amazing personal transformations and a lot of raw entrepreneurial motivation!
—
Sean Maday is a director at <a href="http://www.patriotbootcamp.org">Patriot Boot Camp</a>, an intensive 3-day event that seeks to help Veterans become technology entrepreneurs. The program is free for U.S. military Veterans and/or their spouses. The next Patriot Boot Camp event is in New York City on April 17, 2015. Follow their RallyPoint group page here!: http://rly.pt/patriot-boot-camp
http://www.patriotbootcamp.org
What is missing in all of this technology is the collective influence of U.S. military Veterans in the business and engineering efforts behind modern software and hardware. The most successful technology companies in the United States today were not founded by Veterans and are not currently led by Veterans.
There are certainly Veterans involved in the technology business, but there is a noticeable void of Veterans on the executive teams that are building the contemporary technology industry. Veterans are not shaping the technology market or leading the cadre of businesses building modern enterprise and consumer tools at companies like Google, Apple, Samsung, Uber, Facebook, LinkedIn, Evernote and Twitter.
I have seen the drought of Veteran influence in the technology industry first hand as a member of both the military and technology tribes.
When I left the active-duty Air Force in 2009, I went to Silicon Valley and took a sales engineering position at Google. After a few years I was promoted to a product management role. As I immersed myself deeper in the technology industry, I began to seek out other Veterans. The scarcity of peers and mentors in Silicon Valley with military experience was notable.
At Google, a company of over 30,000 employees when I resigned in 2014, there were only around 300 U.S. military Veterans. Many technology companies have recognized the need to recruit underrepresented communities and include Veterans in their diversity and inclusion strategies.
All too often though, the positions generated by these efforts are simply aimed at selling software, hardware or services to the government. These are not the coveted engineering and product management roles that are charged with designing complex software systems, leading development teams and creating new products.
When Veterans are able to join large technology companies, they are relegated to individual contributor roles or mid-level management positions. There are certainly exceptions where Veterans have achieved more in technology companies, but the frequency of these successes is largely anecdotal.
There is a better way! The world is full of interesting problems that have not yet been solved, and Veterans are keenly equipped to meet these challenges. Rather than joining large technology companies and fighting their way to the top, Veterans can become technology entrepreneurs, start businesses and change the world on their own terms.
There has never been a better time to grow an idea into a scalable technology company. Developing a technology startup does not necessitate an MBA, it simply requires having an idea, creating a vision, sustaining motivation and investing hard work. These are character traits that many Veterans already possess.
There are Veterans out there right now forging this entrepreneurial path, and there are programs expressly aimed at helping others along the way. If Veterans invest a bit of time to learn the language, understand the processes and connect with the right mentors, they can build the next generation of great technology businesses.
In an effort to highlight the connective pathways linking Veterans to technology entrepreneurship, Patriot Boot Camp and RallyPoint have partnered to publish a series of profiles on successful Veteran-led technology companies.
Stay tuned for great startup stories, amazing personal transformations and a lot of raw entrepreneurial motivation!
—
Sean Maday is a director at <a href="http://www.patriotbootcamp.org">Patriot Boot Camp</a>, an intensive 3-day event that seeks to help Veterans become technology entrepreneurs. The program is free for U.S. military Veterans and/or their spouses. The next Patriot Boot Camp event is in New York City on April 17, 2015. Follow their RallyPoint group page here!: http://rly.pt/patriot-boot-camp
http://www.patriotbootcamp.org
Technology
Entrepreneurship
Patriot Boot Camp
Command Post
Edited 9 y ago
Posted 9 y ago
Responses: 14
The Federal Web Community is making leaps and bounds into using technology to better serve the citizens in a more efficient manner. We've had hackathons and Challenges and opening up our data and apis for the public to consume and leverage into something that can serve the public good. I'm very proud of my colleagues and all that we have done. I will also add that we are doing it leveraging open source software such as Drupal, Umbraco, WordPress CMS, GitHub for code repositories, as well to save taxpayer dollars. Many of us in Gov are passionate about doing great work and leveraging the latest technology to do so. The Federal Digital Strategy and 18F initiatives have afforded us to do all of this. I think there is room for Veterans to come aboard and do great things for the Government.
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I'm in IT in education and that is a field that is definitely on the upswing. Everyone is moving to 1:1 computing and digital standards. Employment with Veterans offers a lot of options to school districts. Having certifications helps but not necessarily a requirement. I would encourage anyone that has time to get involved in tech to go there. Money can be made and it's something Veterans usually have a knack for. Just MHO.
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SFC Charles S.
The whole area in Education is wide open. Most Districts don't have the hands on the ground or qualified experts to guide them into what they would like to achieve. The doors are open for all types of positions. From sales to contract employees.
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Cpl (Join to see)
The tech in IT is changing at such a rapid pace you have to be extremely adaptive, which works well for most military members and vets. The only real problem with most school is they are usually a few years behind. The client I work with expects n minus 1, in other words, keep up with the technological changes; adapt and overcome. In a few short years I went from .net 2.0 to 4.51 moving from asp.net to mvc 5. And .net 5.0 is releasing very soon which means another big code push due to deprecating code base.
School is fine to get the basics, but keep up by buying books that introduce the upcoming changes.
School is fine to get the basics, but keep up by buying books that introduce the upcoming changes.
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SFC Charles S.
I believe I may have been misunderstood. I work in IT for the Education world in K-12 Schools. That area is a growing Job Area and would benefit greatly by having Veterans Prepared to enter that job market.
I fully agree with you, schools that teach IT are slightly behind what is actually in the field, Military are the ones that might get that and be able to land on their feet more adaptively than our civilian counterparts. We also know better how to do far more with far less than our Civilians also.
I fully agree with you, schools that teach IT are slightly behind what is actually in the field, Military are the ones that might get that and be able to land on their feet more adaptively than our civilian counterparts. We also know better how to do far more with far less than our Civilians also.
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Cpl Michael Riordan, CISM, CISSP, CISA
Hey Charles your absolutely right. I have made a great career out of IT. Let me know if I can ever be of assistance for you or any student that might need questions answered in my realm. Would be happy to do it.
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I hope that tons more veterans find their way into tech. Would be great to see this happen over the coming years!
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