Tag: geography

Veteran Profile: Ed Jasper

In this first installment of Veteran Profiles, listen to Ed talk about his 20 years with the Army and more than 14 years with John Deere.

Ed Jasper
Military Experience

United States Army – 1981 – 2001 – (MOS 67N/67T/67Z)

In the early years, I was a UH-1H (Huey) Crew Chief, Section Sergeant, Instructor, and Quality Control NCOIC. In the later years, I was a Production Control NCOIC, Squadron S3 NCOIC, and Retired as a 1SG of a UH-60 (Blackhawk) Troop

Current Position and Civilian Work Experience

Manager of Program Management Office, John Deere – Cary, NC

I have worked for John Deere for 14.5 year and had multiple assignments in Factory Operations, Project Management, Quality Engineering, and Program Management

 

The Big 4 Questions:

  1. Were you financially ready to get out? What steps did you take?

No, I was not financially ready to get out!

I was a 1SG with 3 kids in High School, and one kid was getting ready to start college. I was fortunate that I found a good job with a great company and literally left the Army on Thursday, drove across country and started with John Deere on Monday.

I tried to be as debt free as possible, ensured my credit report was clean and accurate, and bought a house that was below what we were approved for to help control expenses.

Stetson 4-3 ACR

  1. Why did you want to get out?

I loved the Army, but it was time.

I loved working with soldiers and spent my entire career in Army Aviation and was still crewing helicopters occasionally as a 1SG. It may sound funny, but I was not interested in becoming a CSM and what that rank would entail at that point in my career. I had been a 1SG for 3 years, and the family was ready to have me home more. In 2001, to become a CSM, I would have had to go to the academy, spend a year at Ft. Bliss, and then be subject to an assignment worldwide. I had three kids in high school, and that level of uncertainty did not seem like the right thing to drag them through. Based on what I thought my next step in the Army was, and the needs of my family, it was time to go.

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  1. Did you know where you wanted to live?

I have a funny story about where “we wanted to live”. We had lived all over the world, and our last duty station we were stationed at Ft. Carson, CO which is an awesome assignment. My wife and I were discussing the whole retirement plan, when a commercial for Colonial Williamsburg came on the TV. We had lived in the area previously for a few years when I was stationed at Ft. Eustis. We both thought going back to the Tidewater Area of Virginia would be a good choice if we did not stay in Colorado. The following day, I got a call from a previous commander of mine that said he had someone from John Deere where he was working in Williamsburg, VA that wanted to talk to me about a job! How is that for karma!

Honestly, I was willing to relocate to any location for the right job. I had seen a number of former coworkers in Army make what I thought was a mistake and limit themselves to a geographic region. This really limited the types of jobs they were getting interviews for.

I know moving is tough on families, but after John Deere made me job offer,  it was my kids that told me it was ok to change High Schools again, they would adjust and that Mom and I had to do what was right for our long term future. It was tough on them, but they have all made it through college and are working in their chosen career field.

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  1. Did you know what you wanted to do?

No, I had no idea what I really wanted to do. I did have plan, I called it the “5 finger plan” and had a resume that matched each of those paths. They ran the gamut from working for a defense contractor in aviation maintenance to working in public education. The other thing I did when I was in was to finish my degree programs – so I earned an Associate’s Degree while I was still a SPC, earned my  Bachelor’s Degree by the time I was a SFC, and finished a Masters in Education the year before I retired. The degrees did not make me any smarter, but they do open doors that might not be available without them.

I knew I wanted to have a challenging job, with a firm I could grow with, and that would offer a level of pay that would improve my standard of living. So far, John Deere continues to offer me new opportunities – I have moved 6 times in 14 years and had 7 primary jobs in that time period and number of other special projects. Not everyone has to move to advance, but they have offered interesting jobs that I wanted to pursue, so it has been a good fit so far.

 

Quick Tips for Transitioning

  • If you are enlisted – get as much school as you can to include college, certifications and other training applicable to your career path.
  • Officer, Senior NCO, or Enlisted – Be willing to take an entry level job with the right company – your experience and work ethic will lead to other opportunities for promotion.
  • Be willing to relocate to take the right job – go where the work is
  • Contact others you have served with that are already out – they are a great resource
  • Practice Interviewing and using words and language that civilians understand
  • Send your resume to people not in the military to get some feedback – Don’t be offended with the feedback
  • When you get the first job, find a mentor. Most organizations have some former military in the workforce. Find out who they are, and approach them about mentoring you. They will be invaluable to you in helping to connect the dots as you transition.

 

Listen to the full interview now, or take it with you and listen on the go!

I want it on the go: Veteran_Profile_Jasper

Listen now:

 


Is Your Marriage Ready for the Transition?

Getting out is a stressful time, full of unknowns, and that can put a strain on your marriage if you both aren’t ready.

When I left the military, I moved my wife and son halfway across the country from Maryland to Iowa, a place neither of us had ever been.  My wife is from Tucson, Arizona, and i’m from Miami, Florida, so both of us are used to warm weather and big cities.

Ottumwa, Iowa has a population of 30,000 people, and although it’s hot in the summer, just last year we had -50 degree windchills and multiple feet of snow.  It is a tiny town with one Walmart, one Burger King, one Taco Bell, a couple subway’s and McDonald’s, a single movie theater, a sad mall, and a Target that is closing its doors at the end of this year.  In the winter time, there’s little to do with small children that can’t be outside in that kind of cold and piercing wind, and the nearest big city (Des Moines) is about 90 minutes away.  Ottumwa is famous for being the birth place of Tom Arnold and the home town of M.A.S.H.’s fictional character Radar.  For two big city kids from warm climates, this was tough!

Not only was the location itself difficult for us, but neither of us had any family nearby; mine is in Florida and hers is in Arizona.  In addition I talked earlier a bit about how I had to take a pay cut initially when I got out of the military (more on that here).  Add to all this change the fact that we had no friends and knew no one, then it’s easy to see how things were tough to start.

Luckily for me, I married an amazing woman, and we were able to lean on each other and work to improve our situation pragmatically.  First of all, our relationship is strong and has only gotten stronger with time.  For us the saying is “There is no I in marriage.”  We strive to work together and make decisions as a team.  It turns out Ottumwa was the right place for us, both for my career and for our relationship, and we figured that out over time as we made great friends and became a part of the community.

Too many of you are treating your marriage like a contractual relationship.  “If she does not please me, then she is in breach of contract and I move on.”  You give love conditionally only as a result of some action that pleases you, instead of doing so unconditionally because you promised to years ago.

Your wife may indeed be a problem, but let me ask, what have you done for your relationship lately?  What do you do the moment you get off work?  Are you rushing home to be with your family, or are you going to hang out with your buddies.  Do you know what her struggles are?  Do you understand what her problems are?  Do you know what she is going through?  Do you even care?

How many of you look at those questions and think, “well she doesn’t try at all,” or “she doesn’t understand what i’ve been through.”  Are you trying? Do you understand what she’s been through?

Are you more patient with strangers than you are with your family?  When you get into an argument, is your goal to reach an understanding as a team, or to win the argument?

I still struggle with a lot of this.  I have a tough time recognizing that it’s not all about me.  If I “win” an argument by sending her off with a tearful “FINE!”  Then I have lost because my marriage has lost.

Put into terms that maybe you guys will understand:  If a QB and a WR are having an argument, and the QB refuses to throw the ball and the WR refuses to catch it, is there any way for that team to win?  No…no there isn’t.  The only result is more yelling, resentment, and eventual divorce.  You have to work at it.

If you don’t respect your marriage, no one else will.  If you don’t respect your wife, no one else will.

Next time you want to get hurtful, I want you to imagine it was a total stranger yelling at your wife instead of your dumb ass.  Then I want you to ask yourself what you would do if a stranger was talking to her that way.  We both know what would happen, you would beat his ass, but you’re tolerant of your own bullshit you hypocrite.

I told you in the beginning that I wouldn’t mince words with you, and maybe i’ve pissed some of you off, but the ugly truth is rarely well received.  If you won’t work at your marriage, then your marriage won’t work.

I’ve seen many guys blame the Army for their shitty relationships with their wives.  They think it’s the deployments, time away from home, saturday formations, that are the root of their marriage problems.  They’re not, they are the context under which problems are occurring, but if you’re marriage is rocky while you’re in, the added stress of getting out is not going to help you.

I’m not saying that you need to solve all your problems, but you do need to develop some healthy habits that will help you deal with the turmoil that comes when you first get out.

  1. Fight fair- remember you’re on a  team
  2. Remember that marriage is a commitment, not a contract.
  3. Think about how she feels
  4. Treat her how you would expect others to treat her
  5. Respect your marriage
  6. Have fun!

Yeah, marriage is not easy, but having a fulfilling marriage is very rewarding.  If you’re just roommates, you’re missing out and you owe it to yourself.  I’m not perfect, I fall short nearly every day, but I’m moving in the right direction, and I have the best partner to do it with!

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My friend Pastor Marty Schmidt in Ottumwa did a great job explaining this.  I recommend you take some time and watch the message below:

PS Week 3 Marriage 9-7-2014 from The Bridge on Vimeo.

 

-LJF

The 4 Big Questions- Career

  1. Do you know what you want to do when you get out?

This is something I didn’t know, I wanted to remain open to as many career possibilities as possible, and to be frank, I really didn’t know what I wanted to be when I grew up; heck, I still don’t know.  I don’t want you to decide to do something that you’re comfortable with unless that really is your passion.

“Well, I’m an MP, so I guess I’ll be a cop.”

No.  Stop that shit.  Do you want to be a cop? If the answer is no, then don’t just blindly do something because it was your MOS.  Look, I was an infantryman (11A) and an MI officer (35D), since I got out I’ve been an assembly line supervisor, marketing manager, and now I’m a program manager.  Luckily this is one area that I didn’t listen to those doom sayers.  Just because I had a TS/SCI didn’t mean that the best opportunity for me was to work as a DOD civilian.  I didn’t want to sit around in a SCIF reading intel reports.

A headhunter is a great resource here.  Be honest, if you don’t know what you want to do, but you’re articulate and you know how to spell, then there’s a really good likelihood that he’s going to be able to find you a job that pays about as much as you make now.

I know you want to make more than you make now.  That’ll come, and we’ll talk about it later, but we need to manage some expectations.  You’re starting at the bottom again and no one cares that you were a first sergeant or a company commander.  What’s your first name?  That’s who you are now; I became Louis, the ex-army guy with no experience.  The truth is, you don’t know how the real world runs, but that’s ok.  You bring a special set of skills that are highly sought after and I’m going to teach you how to use them, but before we get into that, answer these four questions.

You’re about to make a major life changing decision and you need to check your static line.  By the way “lead people” is an option.

 

-LJF

The 4 Big Questions- Location

  1. Do you know what location you want to live in?

Determining a location is quite difficult because there are tradeoffs to what decision you make.  If you decide to be geographically mobile, it will be easier to find a job, but you could end up far away from where you really want to be.  If you limit yourself to a particular city, you could be looking for a job for years.

Not only was I in the Army, but I was a Navy brat, so I’ve always moved around.  When it came time to get out, my wife and I talked about location a bit. I knew that if I was open geographically to living and working anywhere, that my chances for getting a job where much better.  So I think I talked my wife into agreeing to live anywhere.

It only took 12 months in Ottumwa, Iowa, a town of 30,000 people in the middle of nowhere with blazing hot summers and -50 degree windchills in the winter, for my wife to change that tune.  Living anywhere no longer became acceptable.  Living 90 minutes from the nearest airport was also unacceptable.  We found out we’re city folk, and we like malls and shops and eating out and being near a big airport.  So we have now agreed that we will retire in her hometown of Tucson, Arizona.  In the meantime, we will try to get there.

If we had been honest with each other in the beginning, and if we hadn’t been scared into accepting the first job offer we got, I don’t think we would have ended up in Iowa.  We were effectively scared by the command staff as I was getting out, and I knew that my best chances of finding a job were if I was ok with living anywhere geographically.  So I made the decision to accept pretty much any geographical location if the job paid well.

So this is an area where you need to consider a tradeoff.  If you limit yourself geographically, you’re going to lose out on a lot of job opportunities.  So consider this carefully and understand that you might be looking for a job for a long time if you are unwilling to move from your current city.  If it is really important for you to be close to home, but you also need a job in a hurry, consider a larger geographical area like the Midwest, Southeast, Southwest, Northeast.  You might want to be near family in Florida, consider whether Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, etc. are all options.

If I had started by focusing my search in the Southwest, we would have had many opportunities, and at the same time been closer to home and that would have probably been a better tradeoff. This is not an easy decision, and if you are firm that you refuse to move, understand that I’m not exaggerating when I say it could be years before you find a job.

I’m glad things have turned out the way they have, however.  We made the best out of that location, and we met some awesome people.  Plus I got a job with a really awesome company, and if I hadn’t considered the Midwest, Deere would definitely not have been on my list.

 

-LJF