This will be a short missive on the very interesting, trying, and often stressful journey of transitioning out of the Armed Forces and into the civilian work force. Though I am in the middle of this process as I write, and as of this publication do not have an ironclad lock on a second career, I think it is fair to say that I have had some success thus far in comparison to some of my predecessors and contemporaries. To qualify this assumption, I can point to the fact that seven months out from my final day, I already had one interview under my belt, and to date have had a total of two video interviews, 10 phone interviews, and two contingency job offers. All of which I am most grateful to God, Jesus, Buddha, Allah, and the myriad of Spirits that inhabit the various Shinto Shrines that I frequent for extra back-up. I must also give credit to a retired Master Chief who, while preparing to cross over after 30 years, pulled me aside and told me up front, "its very scary business, so get your resume out there early. Even if you are way to early. Get it out there." So here is my advice and lessons learned, written in a military history frame of reference, as is what Im best at.
So that is my first recommendation. Get your resume out there early, even if it is way to early. I think that General Nathan B. Forrest's maxim on war, (yes I know who and what he was, and his dismal record in the field of human rights has no bearing here) when he said "Get thar the firstest, with the mostest" certainly applies in this situation. An early start has often been the deciding factor in who succeeds and who fails in a host of arenas. "Victory flies with the first effective salvo", a hard learned lesson of the bloody naval campaign off the island of Guadalcanal in WWII. So, get there the first with the most and speed to get the first effective salvo of resumes.
This is also very much a war of attrition, and the victory is the one who has the most staying power. I've been turned down for several jobs. One of my contingency offers was pulled after the job was given to another, better qualified candidate. It is, and can be, in the words of one my brothers, "soul crushing". But you must stay on it. Im still finding the drive in myself, still struggling to face and overcome my fears of failure and the unknown, but Im determined to keep fighting. It means long hours on a computer applying for jobs, it means early morning or late night Skype/phone interviews. It means improvising if possible, and it may require the swallowing of a great deal of my own pride, but I'm in it for the long haul. You should be prepared to do the same as well.
In the famous opening scene of the movie "Patton", George C. Scott quotes General G.S. Patton when he says, "Now I don't want to get any messages saying we are holding our position. We aren't holding on to anything, except the enemy. We are gonna hold onto him by the nose and we are gonna kick him in the ass. We are gonna kick the hell out of him all the time and we are gonna go through him like crap through a goose." The point here is persistence. Two to three resumes a day. Try to average 20 to 40 applications a week. It is ok to take a brief respite for a day, but otherwise, keep at it. Keep a log of whom you applied to so you don't apply twice. Also, this will allow you to track your averages. When I heard one fellow shipmate tell me that he had only put in for four jobs, I was shocked. Just as equally, a retired Master Chief who interviewed me was shocked to learn that he was my second interview. He told me that he must have sent out 300 resumes and didn't hear a peep from any of them for nearly six months. Others said they submitted around 80 and maybe only heard back from one or two. As of this writing, I have submitted 185 applications, which does not include a significant number of applications that I sent off before I began logging them in March. And I have had success in hearing back from several potential employers, so keep pouring it on every day until the day you finally report for that first day at work.
This leads to another lesson I have learned. Keep your options open. A contingency offer is just that..a contingency. Keep looking within your field of interest, even if you have offers. Don't burn bridges. If you get an offer that looks good, don't turn around and turn down an offer you had from another company two days earlier.
When looking, cast your net wide at first and then start singling in on the targets of opportunity. In my case, I apply for damn near every training/instructor job I can find, but I heavily concentrate on companies that work with the DoD and DoJ. I have chosen this one field because it is my most marketable asset, however if possible try to expand on your other talents as a back up. I have given the emergency management field a try every now and then just to broaden things up some.
You can have the biggest army or navy in the world, but it won't be worth a damn if the guns don't shoot straight and the ships have leaks. The same is true with resumes. I had one that I wrote myself and sent out in my initial looks back in November 2014. It got some results, but not a lot. Then I did the research and paid to have a professionally written corporate and federal resume prepared for me based upon inputs from my existing resume and other training documentation. Utilizing these two resumes as a baseline, I modified them into three separate documents that I have used with much better results. So, if you have the means, spend the cash to get a professionally written document. Be sure to research the companies first and then make sure you give them as much information as possible to work with. Also, tell them field you are going for. Once you have it in hand, you can then modify as need be to suit the job you are applying for. So, if you want to win the war, spend the money to get the right tools to get the job done.
Defeat can be turned into a victory if lessons are learned. Even though I have not done a face to face interview, I have learned a great deal from the Skype and phone versions that I have done. Some of the phone interviews were absolutely terrible performances. Too ridged, too blathering, disjointed, and filled with nervous ticks. But I noted what I did that was good and what I did that wasn't so great. My wife listened in on a few and gave me some candid and valuable input. I was even lucky enough to have an interviewer give me a post-interview, off the record critique of my performance. You will screw interviews up, I can almost guarantee it, but if you take those hard lessons and apply them to your next interview, you will find that you have improved. Train like you fight and fight like you train is a often quoted mantra in the Navy, and the same applies to interviews. If you have a phone interview, dress up like it is a face to face. If it is a Skype interview, prep the hell out of your surroundings/background, check your connections and practice talking to your computer....and dress the part to include shoes.
Finally, a quote from Japanese Admiral Togo of an old Samurai maxim. "Tighten your helmet chords at the moment of victory". Once you get a job, the fight is just getting started. All the hard work you put into getting it was just the prelude. So once again, as in a war of attrition, dig down and find that will to win. I haven't had my moment of victory yet, but Im sure it will come, and I keep telling myself that when it does that that is the moment of my greatest peril if I am not ready. So tighten up that helmet strap, the fight is just getting starting. I hope this helps some of you out there who are in the same predicament as I am, and helps those who may soon find themselves in it. Hopefully, I can refer back to this in my moments when hope seems a lost cause and draw strength and knowledge from it. I hope you can too.
"Victory usually flies with the first effective salvo"
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