What's the best piece of advice you would give someone who is transitioning out of the military?

Capt Richard Desmond — Mon, 21 Jul 2014 20:46:13 -0400

Since we can all agree that TAPs or whatever the other service's transitioning programs are vastly inadequate, what piece of advice would you give that the military should be giving you. My answer would be networking, networking, networking. Sites like this and Linkedin may be a pain sometimes but it is essential. Statistics state 60% of individuals gain employment from networking versus blind resume sites like Monster Jobs.com. Sometimes the adage, "It's all about who you know," rings true.

Response by CMDCM Gene Treants made Jul 21 at 2014 9:02 PM

CMDCM Gene Treants — Mon, 21 Jul 2014 21:02:22 -0400

Unless you are locked into one Geographical Location, put your HHG into storage and look around. The grass may really be greener somewhere else. To often we lock ourselves into living in a place just because we are used to being there. If you have the flexibility to take a year or two off and travel to find out where you really want to live and where you can live for the rest of your life do it.

The best thing we ever did was sell our house, move into our RV and travel for 2 years before we settled down for the rest of our lives. Living in Norfolk, VA would have been easy. Getting out and looking for the place we wanted to settle was HARD. It took planning and courage to abandon our NEST and get away fro it all. If you take the time to plan it, it is much more that just a vacation.

Response by CAPT Private RallyPoint Member made Jul 21 at 2014 9:37 PM

CAPT Private RallyPoint Member — Mon, 21 Jul 2014 21:37:00 -0400

Always network, but one of your greatest assets is the reserve component. They can help you bridge the cultural divide and give you plenty of pointers and possibly job leads. Ask them to review your resume to help rid it of milspeak.

Response by MAJ Robert (Bob) Petrarca made Jul 21 at 2014 9:58 PM

MAJ Robert (Bob) Petrarca — Mon, 21 Jul 2014 21:58:48 -0400

Networking is key, Capt Richard Desmond. It can open doors and get you in the loop. Get out there and literally press the flesh. It works much better when folks know you as flesh and blood and not just as a digital image with a resume. Depending on your situation, get out there early and do your research on where to settle down and a career path. Finding a job in the civilian side, even for those of us who were career NG/USAR SMs who were pretty much grounded in the civilian world, can be tough in this market. Civilianize your resume - take all the military jargon and acronyms out. Leverage whatever contacts you have to make opportunities for yourself happen, to include people who you share common interests with - friends, people you know through your hobbies and other social groups.

Response by MSgt Private RallyPoint Member made Jul 21 at 2014 11:26 PM

MSgt Private RallyPoint Member — Mon, 21 Jul 2014 23:26:58 -0400

If your looking for a federal, state, county especially law enforcement position. Start your search early and I mean months before you're EAS. Many law enforcement jobs take months before you get through the process and actually hired. Written exams, oral boards, physical test and exams, Sociology test, polygraph and that's before you get to the academy. And make sure it's what you want. I made the mistake going through everything getting hired and changing my mind.

Response by COL Vincent Stoneking made Jul 22 at 2014 9:31 AM

COL Vincent Stoneking — Tue, 22 Jul 2014 09:31:47 -0400

In order to not repeat what I've said elsewhere, I'll give two pieces of advice I don't think I've hammered home.

1. Decide what you want to be when you "grow up." This doesn't necessarily mean you next job, it means your ultimate goal. You may well not get THERE, but you'll get closer than if you didn't plan. "Plans are useless, planning is essential." or some version of the quote.

2. WORK. The job search process should be a full-time thing, not something that you do occasionally or in spurts. I am a big fan of the "What color is your parachute?" book, but if you ignored all of the book both this one little bit, you would be ahead of 95% of job seekers. You are in the process of determining what you will do with the majority of your waking weekday hours for the next several years at least, what standard of living you will have, etc. If you take it with the seriousness it deserves, it is easily at least a 40 hour a week gig to look for a job. Before an interview, you can easily put in 10-16 hours with company research, interview prep, interview rehearsals, etc. Before an application, resume rewrites (resume should always be tailored to the job & industry), Cover letter drafts, research of company, etc can easily take 5-8 hours. Networking (which is work in this case) can take 15-20 hours easily. Add on working with a recruiter or really scouring high-quality job posting sites can take another 5-10 hours. So... If you Network, look for jobs, send out two applications, and have one interview a week, you are looking at 40 hours on the low end.

I am often struck with the fact that most people seem to put more rigor into planning their summer vacation than they do into getting the job that will pay for it. And we've hardly touched on the distinction between a job and a career...

Or luck into the right job. It does happen occasionally.

Response by Chris Fitzpatrick made Jul 22 at 2014 1:08 PM

Chris Fitzpatrick — Tue, 22 Jul 2014 13:08:03 -0400

The biggest piece of advice I give transitioning military as far as interviewing and job seeking goes is to know your audience. Many civilian recruiters / hiring managers do not have military experience or any formal training to understand military terminology, jargon, etc. I have seen many talented servicemen and servicewomen go into interviews with confidence, but the interviewer struggled to follow their examples because many military examples tend to come off as an entirely different language to civilians. Please be prepared to speak in "layman's terms" in interviews to have the greatest success in the transition!

Response by SFC Private RallyPoint Member made Jul 27 at 2014 12:30 PM

SFC Private RallyPoint Member — Sun, 27 Jul 2014 12:30:07 -0400

Unless you have a rock solid job don't do it. Its not worth it out there in the real world I got out at 20 with no degree no job I was just fed up and was ready to try something new. Its was cool for the first 2 months until terminal leave was over and reality set it. When you working at a factory with criminals or people with not even a GED you quickly realize you made a mistake. If you can stay in then do so no matter how much your unit sucks, it s 10X worse outside if your not extremely marketable. Nobody cares that you deployed 3x and have 2 BSM'S.

Response by CPT Private RallyPoint Member made Jul 27 at 2014 1:58 PM

CPT Private RallyPoint Member — Sun, 27 Jul 2014 13:58:17 -0400

There are a lot of good threads here on this subject so search them out.

My advice: IGNORE anyone who tells you that, "you will have no problem finding work because you have a master's degree, graduated Magna Cum Laude, are a minority, have a disability rating, have a high level security clearance, know everyone under the sun, are an officer, have outstanding computer skills, can play the accordion, bake an amazing bundt cake, whatever..." Get ready for a big yawn. It will NOT be easy no matter what you've got going for you (nor will it be automatically harder if you've got some things going against you...but it's still going to be crazy hard). All of those things I listed are true of me and it still took me 8 months and near starvation to find a crappy job. I worked the crappy job for two years before finding a good one.

I feel like I wasted the first two months fiddle-farting around believing that this was going to be easy (and spent money like my new job was right around the corner - it wasn't) and then wasted the next two months after that feeling sorry for myself. Skip over that part!

Also, don't let anyone (including yourself) convince you to give up. By give up I mean take a dead-end job that will not be a stepping-stone to your desired future. Lots of my friends ran their mouths saying, "if I were in your shoes, I would take anything, even Taco Bell" [disclaimer: I love Taco Bell!], DON'T. Maybe part-time at night, but remember what COL Vincent Stoneking said: looking for work is your new full-time job. If you take a different full-time job, how will you get time off for job fairs, interviews, and the like? You'll be stuck. Yes, I took a crappy job, but it was a crappy job with a DoD Contractor that held contracts for stuff I wanted to do and the job was located at the place I wanted to work. It was a foot in the door that I would have NEVER gotten if I had kept applying to only the jobs I felt didn't offend my dignity (your "dignity" and a dollar still won't buy you a cup of coffee - remember that!)

Response by Capt Jeff S. made Jul 27 at 2014 8:52 PM

Capt Jeff S. — Sun, 27 Jul 2014 20:52:39 -0400

Don't expect the corporate world to operate like the military or you're going to be very disappointed. People don't wear their rank on their sleeves and you have to feel out who's who.

Response by MSG Cassandra Wilds made Aug 7 at 2014 8:58 PM

MSG Cassandra Wilds — Thu, 07 Aug 2014 20:58:16 -0400

Make sure you have enough money in your savings. Secondly, perform research on the area you want to retire in; check out the job market, housing prices, etc.). For me, I knew I wanted to retire in Florida, so I accepted my last assignment in Florida. This gave me a chance to get a lay of the land and figure out if I wanted to live here.

Response by MAJ Raúl Rovira made Aug 15 at 2014 6:00 AM

MAJ Raúl Rovira — Fri, 15 Aug 2014 06:00:57 -0400

Id like to offer a few pieces from my foxhole

I went through a 27-month medical board and managed to stay on active duty. What matters is that I learned a few things during that the long period of uncertainty. Below are the bigger ones.

(1) I want to stress the importance of good communication both oral and written. The resume gets you the interview (if it s written well), the interview gets you the job (if you present yourself well). And hopefully you are the better candidate and you get the job. We can always use a second set of eyes on our resume.

(2) Networking. Most job offers first occur inside the organization. Having a good friend or contact in the inside helps sell your name. Establishing contacts is a good thing, but building and maintaining a good strong relationship with the existing contacts is extremely powerful.

I had a job offer to work at a non-profit in Europe. We were talking on skype when this came up. I was grateful that he offered me the job and was willing to hold it for a few months. Event today I still maintain that relationship.

(3) Sell yourself. Some folks are anti social media. Reality is that it is part of the way we do business in our time. Linked-in is a very powerful way to show your stuff and you can include more than what is on your resume. Hiring managers will check to see what is on your linked-in.

During the period of my medical board I was approached by a headhunter through linked-in with a tentative job offer. No resume, all by what she read in linked-in. It only helps. In the end the choice is yours.

(4) Credentials. Be ready, or as ready as time allows you. For this I mean Civilian Education, Security Clearance, Certification(s) like Lean Six Sigma or IT and so on. This things take time and if anyone tries to do it during the last year of service it wont work. This is something that has to be done a few years back. It does not get you a job automatically but it strengthens you.

(5) Headhunters. They can help. Now that I will retire under TERA (before 20 years) I get to do all this again. I signed up with two headhunter companies. Some I can recommend are Orion International, Lucas Group, and Bradley Morris Inc (BMI). There more out there.

I hope this helps.

Response by Cpl Jai Cotman made Aug 17 at 2014 11:33 AM

Cpl Jai Cotman — Sun, 17 Aug 2014 11:33:39 -0400

Networking is good advice but for junior enlisted and those that don't make it to the NCO/SNCO ranks, that can be rather hard. Capt. Desmond brings up the valid point that it's often not what you know but WHO you know. Well, when you're that E-3 or maybe E-4 transitioning out after one tour, who DO you know?

Unless you were in a key position where you worked with key staff and senior officers, you don't know anyone so your search starts from the bottom rung.

I'd say your best asset is knowing how to truly transition your military skills into a language that civilians can understand. Terms we use as well as simple vernacular in day-to-day military life don't look good on a civilian résumé. Take a small class on writing a professional résumé or get assistance in writing one and also practice interviewing with someone.

Just like we drill over and over, your interview should be well rehearsed but true and accurate. And lastly, just because you're out of the military, don't co crazy in your appearance. Dress and look like you want the job. While a company may say they're equal opportunity, how you present yourself is HUGE! Just like you would report to a new unit in your service alphas, a nice suit, well groomed and shaved (or beard trimmed), with no outlandish visible piercings or tattoos.

These are what I consider to be small yet crucial keys to success, especially when you may not have been in a position to establish a network connection while in service.

Response by PO2 Zechariah Allison made Aug 27 at 2014 11:20 AM

PO2 Zechariah Allison — Wed, 27 Aug 2014 11:20:02 -0400

So you are ready to get out. You are more excited about getting out than what comes next... Civilian life.
The military isn't for everyone and some its for life, but never forget that lifers aren't really their entire life span. With today's economy you will have to supplement in one way or another either out of financial needs or losing your mind because you don't know what to do with yourself. Please 6 months before retirement or getting out on your own accord, start looking for what you want to do next via School or another job (full time or part time). make a plan and try to stick to it with goals. Don't make your goals unrealistic either. You may have a lead at a friends or family members workplace but have a contingency and don't be afraid to fail your first time through.

Network!!! You will be amazed that someone you met one time at a school or conference one time you can actually contact again down the road to help give you leads and push you in the right direction. when you get the notion to get out or retire shoot that person an email or quick phone call and let them know that shortly you will be getting out and ask kindly that they keep and eye out for you, but don't stop there... once a week or every 2 weeks continue just a quick email or phone call on what your latest status is and just be that small voice in the back of their head so they don't forget about you.

Copy every bit of information you can find on yourself from the military and keep them in a safe location. all of your schools, training, job titles, commands... Everything. Employers want to know what type of experience you have and believe me that the Military gives you all OJT and experience anyone can ever ask for.

Make a resume. Be sure to research what your job is in the military and convert it to civilian terms. A lot of people don't know Military Jargon and you could be perfect for that job, but because you said it in military terms they may not understand.
Once its together flood places with your resume. monster.com, usajobs.com, linkedin, facebook, everywhere. The more people that see the better chance that you have.

Don't be afraid to pick up a smaller job not exactly at the level you want right now. Corporate world is different from the military and some companies want to see what you are capable of in civilian life.

Personal note:
my first job wasn't my ideal pay or even the part I wanted to do, but when I was there for a year and was doing very well the product I was working on has propelled my career even further than I was expecting.

The last bit I will say is Never Ever stop looking. even if your are comfortable update your resume once a month and just put it on a few places. You never know when that job that was made for you will fall into your lap.

Happy hunting and any questions I will be more than happy to help.

Response by SrA Joshua Hagler made Aug 28 at 2014 1:24 AM

SrA Joshua Hagler — Thu, 28 Aug 2014 01:24:38 -0400

Well for me, I would tell that person, prepare to be homeless and prepare to sell everything. My experience is not good, I hate civilian life, military was my escape and in a blink, it was over. Six years and two combat tours meant nothing to the Air Force, so transitioning out of service was and still is very hard for me. I have no real education beyond my training in the military. So one big advice would be, do not just go to school and milk the GI bill, know what you want to do, what classes and education you want to take, and prepare to work harder then you ever did in the military. I made the mistake last semester of just taking online classes for the GI payment and not really for education and I pretty much failed those classes. So please, for those transitioning out, know what you want to do, know what kind of education you want to take, if you want schooling, and be ready to move somewhere for work if you have to.

Response by CW3 Dylan E. Raymond, PHR made Aug 28 at 2014 10:44 PM

CW3 Dylan E. Raymond, PHR — Thu, 28 Aug 2014 22:44:31 -0400

I have three works for you Network, Network, Network....my motto is network or not work. I believe linked in is strong for building your brand and networking. So there are more than 225 million users so you can tap into a solid network. I was recruited and continue to get people interested in my background and experience. The best time to look for work is when you have work. So starting a year out is a good start and then you can turn up the heat as you enter the 180 days out mark....it get real serious when you are in the 90 day window.

In fact most a lot of recruiters wont work with you if you do not have a presence. Linked in also my primary means for sourcing military candidates.

Also network with other people you were commissioned with that is a strong source as well. The wider you cast the NET the more fish you will catch.

Dylan

Response by MAJ Ken Landgren made Apr 12 at 2015 9:03 PM

MAJ Ken Landgren — Sun, 12 Apr 2015 21:03:30 -0400

Look at what experiences translate to civilian needs. Definitely research companies and corporations. You want to be able to convey that you have the skills to work and understand the complexities of the position you are trying to get.

Response by PO1 David Waeschle made May 21 at 2015 7:35 PM

PO1 David Waeschle — Thu, 21 May 2015 19:35:52 -0400

Read this article!! I can not repost the entire article due to copyright's. I can say as a 20 year career military veteran who left active service in late 2008. I only wish I had an opportunity to read this article several years before I was ready to transition. MY life would have gone much smoother even with the "Great Recession". It is ironic that the article was written in 2003 which would have been a perfect time for myself to have read it.

http://www.militaryhire.com/article.servlet?id=13

This article is GOLD and is great for understanding the transition you are about to take.

MilitaryHire: Military Retirees: How To Take Control Of Your Career Transition

Jobs for Veterans! Find your next career at MilitaryHire. Free service to all veterans.

Response by MSgt Marvin Kinderknecht made Jul 19 at 2015 3:23 PM

MSgt Marvin Kinderknecht — Sun, 19 Jul 2015 15:23:01 -0400

If you anything left on your GI Bill--use it. I got my BA but had to pay for my MBA. Education opens many doors, Many career fields do not relate to private industry, I got my first job at Sears. Interviewed with Ops Officer (Captain US Navy) and hired by the personnel officer (Ltc Air Force) who also flew the C-97. Piece of cake.

Response by Georgeann Carter made Dec 14 at 2017 6:18 AM

Georgeann Carter — Thu, 14 Dec 2017 06:18:58 -0500

This is all great advice!!! I was getting ready to post a similar question!!!!

Response by PVT Ted Rodosovich made Feb 17 at 2023 4:17 AM

PVT Ted Rodosovich — Fri, 17 Feb 2023 04:17:39 -0500

Cut yourself some slack.