'Elon Musk Has a Secret' and Other Lessons About Email Subject Lines

Jamie,
What got me to open this RP post was "....and Other Lessons About Email Subject Lines". This is a relatively simple answer with a complex back end. First, please forgive the length but it will make sense when you reflect on what I am going to say. So here goes:

Background: If you have read my RP bio you know I am a retired US Navy Chief Hospital Corpsman. You also know my Military Occupational Codes (MOCs) are HM-8432 and HM-8404. You also know I dual designated SW/AW.

Premise: If an employer REALLY wants to appeal to me as a veteran they need to do as much homework about me as they expect me to do about them. I am unimpressed with claims that employers have made about being "... committed to hiring 10,000 vets over 3 years..." yada, yada, yada! An, never reaching that goal. With a real veterans un / underemployment rate of 28 - 30% across the country many vets are unimpressed with lip service they are being paid with dividends being received. Here is an example of what one company is doing in the story of Stephen P. Hudson (https://www.dominionenergy.com/community/community-stories/bridging-the-military-civilian-gap). Sgt Hudson, was not trained in energy, but he was trained in leadership and problem solving, which in the end is a "bottom line" capacity. After all to improve the "bottom line" people have to "think outside the box", which BTW military people are taught to do from day one. While we also follow "lawful orders", we work as a collaborative to "get the job done". The word "collaborative" is an synonym "Team Work".

Action Required:

- First tell me you are interested in ME! When you send me an email, don't make it sound like it was sent to 1,000 other potential candidates. Make it sound like you want me and my time is valuable to you. Humm, we call that "respect". Here is what I am talking about:

"Nate, I see from your Rallypoint and Linked-In profiles you bring creative, problem solving and critical thinking skill sets to the table. My company, (Give company name as embedded weblink), has need of someone with your diversity of experience, who will help to challenge us to take our company to a new level of performance and profitability as a result of the daily use of these skills.

Your Environmental Science degree and experience working with many cultures as result of your long Naval service is critical to our overall mission and vision. Our military recruiting specialist have interpreted your SW/AW qualifications and your MOCs of HM-8432/HM-8404 as having critical transferable skills and knowledge germane to our needs.

We don't want to waste your time. If our understanding of your military and post-military skills is correct, your leadership and skill will help us and we can help you get the kind of continued education and experience that will make you and us mutually profitable! If you are interested, please contact us within the next 7 days to set up an initial phone or Skype interview. We have also contacted 9 others whose military service and skill sets closely match yours that we are interested in speaking with. Your immediate point of contact for consideration for our (list position title and link it to that PD) is provided for your consideration:

Give Name
Give Title
Give Phone / Email

Finally, in order to hire you we want to hear about your family and professional needs over the next 3-5 years should we choose to hire you, based not only on your skills sets, but your vision of the kind of work you will be doing that will positively impact your family."

The is above Part 1 - Body of the email. But, Part II - The Subject Line. Is how you will get my attention and I know you are, at least serious - "Nathan, Reviewed your backgrounds and we want to talk about hiring you now."

Why will this subject line get my attention? Simple, When you use my first name and tell me upfront you have already assessed my military skills sets and used the language "hiring you now" provides me an understanding that you are serious about getting me hired and working immediately. I hate nothing more than to have my time wasted. If you really need someone waiting weeks to hire them tells me your company is not serious and not a place I'd want to work. Furthermore, your company does not have sense of urgency in solving problems. Knowing that a company wants me "now" and they have already seen my value upfront, tells me they respect my time and have made a commitment to integrate my skills and experience effectively.

- Second, to effectively provide a proactive understanding of the deep dive for veteran skills requires a better understanding of the cross-walk developed by ONET:

> https://www.onetonline.org/crosswalk/MOC?s=MOC
>> https://www.onetonline.org/crosswalk/MOC?b=N&s=8432&g=Go
>>> https://www.onetonline.org/link/summary/29-9011.00
>>https://www.onetonline.org/crosswalk/MOC?b=N&s=8404&g=Go
>>> https://www.onetonline.org/link/summary/29-2041.00
> https://www.onetonline.org/find/descriptor/browse/Skills/

In my case, below is a number of links within ONET that career titles must reflect that a potential employer is aware of regarding the training and skills derived from various military educational specialties that cross-deck. Here are those job/career titles that match ONET and cross to civilian careers:

> Occupational Safety & Health Specialist - http://www.onetonline.org/link/summary/29-9011.00
> Occupational Health & Safety Technician - http://www.onetonline.org/link/summary/29-9012.00
> Environmental Science & Protection Technician - http://www.onetonline.org/link/summary/19-4091.00
> Industrial Safety & Health Engineer - http://www.onetonline.org/link/summary/17-2111.01
> Regulatory Affairs Specialist - http://www.onetonline.org/link/summary/13-1041.07
> Environmental Compliance Inspector - http://www.onetonline.org/link/summary/13-1041.01
> Epidemiological Technician - http://www.onetonline.org/link/summary/19-1041.00 (closest match)
> Emergency Management Director - http://www.onetonline.org/link/summary/11-9161.00
> Emergency Services Specialist - http://www.onetonline.org/link/summary/29-2041.00
> Medical and Health Services Manager - http://www.onetonline.org/link/summary/11-9111.00
> Medical Records and Health Information Tech - http://www.onetonline.org/link/summary/29-2071.00
> Billing and Posting Clerk - http://www.onetonline.org/link/summary/43-3021.00
> Clinical Data Manager - http://www.onetonline.org/link/summary/15-2041.02
> Document Management Specialist – http://www.onetonline.org/link/summary/15-1199.12
> Administrative Services Manager - http://www.onetonline.org/link/summary/11-3011.00
> Front-line Supervisor - http://www.onetonline.org/link/summary/43-1011.00
> Loss Prevention Manager - http://www.onetonline.org/link/summary/11-9199.08
> Stock and Warehouse Operations - http://www.onetonline.org/link/summary/43-5081.03

What is interesting is that every business with jobs to offer MUST engage in a job matching program being able to use the MOCs combined with there grade level (aka the duties of an E1 vs the very different duties of an E-7, one more basic technical to one much more advanced technical that requires the skills of planning, communications and collaboration to achieve success). Not until, the civilian community really begins to understand the various ways military technical training matches these jobs and career opportunities need can civilians really accommodate the successful reintegration of veterans who have the skills they need.

I challenge civilians to look at ALL their position descriptions and cross-deck them with the various military specialties and make it simpler for military members to know where they fit, so it becomes easier to cross from certain specialties to others with a common point of reference.

I am happy to consult on this issue with any company who truly wants to make that effort to really help reduce the actual estimated un/under-employment rate (est 28 - 32%) vs the not event remotely accurate and misreported rated of 4-5% for veterans.

Lets get real! Until the community, both civilians and veterans, expect a shared awareness and deliberate efforts to hire skilled veterans, who are able to adapt and learn quickly, to accomplish the mission and give veterans a reason to join their team, base on the company's understanding of how their military skills fit, the high unemployment impacting veterans and veteran families will continue to have a negative result.

What any civilian Position Description should say is something like this:

"The critical performance elements of this career path are also equivalent to the following Military Occupation Codes (US Army-xxxxx, US Navy-xxxx, USAF-xxxxxx, USMC-NA, USCG-xxxx) at the E6/E7 level"

Think about how important it is to do this for veterans.

I welcome input.

cc to: COL Mikel J. Burroughs

Subject lines can upset bosses when employees use the wrong ones... Subject lines by marketers are open to anything to get you to click... actually, same as Phishing senders!