Tag: retiring

All These Transition Experts, So Little Expertise

The beauty of the internet and social media is that it has given us a medium to connect millions of people instantly, where all our voices can be heard.  We freely share our experiences and knowledge with each other and even though we’re strangers, we connect and learn from each other.  The problem for the transitioning veteran is identifying what’s good or bad advise for leaving the service. Often times the worst offenders for giving out bad advice are the well-meaning veterans who are self-proclaimed experts that start dangerously doling out advice on things they know very little about.

We’ve noticed a trend, particularly on LinkedIn, where there are thousands of transition experts all giving advice on how to navigate the difficult process.  Some give good advice having been out of the military for a while, learned the ropes of civilian life and offer their transitional experience for the betterment of their fellow veterans.  Then there are those who more often that not miss the target of offering value-adding information. Let’s just put them in categories:

  • The veterans who retired and immediately went to work for the government
  • The veteran who got out of the military 6 days ago, but because he found a job, now he thinks he knows how to “successfully transition”
  • The veteran who sees transition advice as a ticket to making a lot of money
  • The veteran who wants to be a motivational speaker and tells you “everything is awesome!”

 

The Lack of Experience & Expertise

There is a well-known pillar of how wisdom is accumulated known as the DIKW pyramid. Wisdom is achieved by first collecting data, turning it into bits of information, then compiling it into knowledge. Enough knowledge produces wisdom. Reaching the wisdom phase is not something you can take a course on and POOF, you’re certified; you have to EARN it.  Veterans who lack the time commitments necessary to develop experience and expertise in the civilian world, also lack the qualifications of claiming to be competent sources of knowledge and wisdom for other transitioning veterans.  Basically, they don’t know enough to give you advice.

Transitioning out of the service isn’t easy; it is a never ending process and a constant review of your adjustment in the non-military world. Though it’s not easy, it doesn’t have to be hard.  Lots of folks out there think that civilian hiring managers are dying to hire veterans. With all those organizations out there and transitions assistance resources available, it appears as if there are thousands and thousands of jobs JUST FOR YOU!

Yeah…that’s all bull.

It’s a great marketing technique for a company to say they’re going to hire a thousand veterans. What they’re actually doing is looking for veterans with a few years of civilian experience that served four years in the early 2000’s; not a newly minted veteran who just left the military this morning and is firmly wrapping themselves up in their DD-214 blanket.

Why?

Because the veteran getting out today doesn’t know anything about business. From a hiring managers perspective a veteran doesn’t understand my business, my customers, my product, how to make my product, how to sell my product, my organizational structure, etc.

To put it a different way.  Imagine you had a CEO of some company who decide to join the military. They have no military experience; they’ve never even fired a gun. They were in charge of a multi-million dollar company though.  Would you put that person in charge of a brigade of paratroopers in Afghanistan or, a Regiment of Marines or, a fleet of Navy ships?  HELL NO!  No way whatsoever!  Why?  This CEO obviously has great leadership; they were in charge of an entire commercial business company.  Yeah, but he knows fuck-all about combat and he’s going to get people killed.  Best I’d do is make him a low level Captain working for a seasoned staff officer in the command center so he can learn how we fight. This is exactly the type of job you’re going to get when you transition away from uniformed service and that’s a BEST case scenario.

Unfortunately there are assholes that don’t know any better (or realize it but don’t care) and are feeding inexperienced veterans bad information about how to step right into an executive or managerial leadership role. Or worse, the inexperienced “transition assistant” stepped into a company as an “executive” who’s sole purpose is to help other veterans find jobs. The funny but sad thing is Duffel Blog made a satire story about this very phenomenon. These transition assistants purport to know all the answers, have all the inside hiring scoops and, know the path veterans should take to transition successfully into corporate America.

Comforting Lies

Those people outlined above won’t tell you any of this.  They don’t have the experience to know right from wrong. They haven’t actually been promoted in the civilian world. They don’t understand how civilian hiring managers make decisions because they’ve never been one or around one. They’ve never had to justify the additional headcount of another employee. They’ve never done an analysis on the cost of adding a person and the added revenue that person will bring in; whether it is sustainable for the long term because you don’t want to have to fire them 6 months from now. They simply don’t know.

Comforting lies are…well…comforting. Yelling “everything is awesome!” is disingenuous at best, dangerous at worst.

Besides that, getting a job is only the very FIRST step.   Did you know that 44% of veterans leave their first job in the first year?  Did you know that number jumps to 65% by year two?  Why do you think that is?  It happens partly because they haven’t been told what corporate life is like.  No one told them to consider corporate cultures.  No one told them to consider the product, the environment, their own personal desires, where they wanted to live, what is important to their family, what kind of work life balance they are looking for, why they got out and how this job works into that plan, I can go on – I wrote an entire book on the subject and regularly post here about it.  Finding the right fitting job is more important that just finding any job.

Did you know that veteran suicide rates for GWOT veterans are highest in the first 3 years after they get out?

Are you starting to see the picture yet?

Veterans are getting out, hate their jobs,  get in financial trouble, which results in marriage trouble, which leads to substance abuse, and that to suicide.  I’ve talked about this plenty with “break the chain“, and it’s the whole reason I started CONUS Battle Drills.

It does no one any good to talk about finding a job and calling that “transition”.  The equivalent would be to give someone “marriage advice” but only talk about how to plan a wedding.  Then some asshole gets up and starts talking about how you too can have a successful marriage the day he gets back from his honeymoon.  The wedding (or job hunt) is the easiest part of the whole ordeal, but 90% of the “transition” advice I see out there focuses on this small element of transition.  Don’t get me wrong, finding a job is critical, and there are plenty of organizations out there to help you do that, but it is NOT transition.

 

A Successful Transition…..?

This article is more about helping you, the veteran, identify potential pitfalls in your journey of moving into the civilian sector – your transition.

SO…how does a veteran judge themselves as having successfully transitioned? Is there a manual that has standard metrics, benchmarks or specific goals to achieve? One veteran’s perspective of success is wildly different from another. Some veterans want to get out and land a federal job while others want to be managers and executives in corporate America, still others want to work in civil service (police, fireman, teachers, etc.). Some just want to get out and hang out on camp couch under the 1st parents division for a while – however we highly advise that this not be your definition of success. Success is ultimately measured by the individual, not by other veterans or transition assistance “experts” metrics of success. There is no such thing a “successful” transition because success is measured differently from one person to the next.

Furthermore, a veteran never transitions out of the military, they learn how to meld their military and civilian lives together. NOBODY, not even the veteran themselves can ignore their military past. A transition by definition is process or a period of changing from one state or condition to another. A veteran isn’t changing from military to civilian; they blend and harmonize the two.

As noted earlier, it is a never ending process and a constant review of your adjustment in the non-military world. The question you should always be asking yourself is “How am I leveraging my experiences in the military to advance my post-military journey.” There is a process that business’ across the spectrum use to analyze themselves to plot their grow – it’s called the Deming Cycle.

  • Plan: Forward moving steps to include points of reference to measure your success (i.e completing a class, earning a degree, getting hired, getting a promotion, etc.) – be it short term, long term, or some where in the middle
  • Do: Implement the plan you developed
  • Check: The progress of your plan to see if your meeting the measurement points – it’s alright if you fall short; the key is you made some goals to achieve.
  • Act: On the review of the plan, identify what went well and what didn’t and, take the lessons learned back into the planning phase.

This cycle is a never ending, always repeating process of improvement. Some times the iteration is short and sometimes it is long. Either way the idea is to make goals and points of reference to measure yourself by so that you can adjust and steer your own personal ship (i.e your post-military journey).

I say again, Transition isn’t easy, but it doesn’t have to be hard.  Don’t fool yourself into thinking that it’s over once you get a job.

Finally, for those of you struggling out there: you’re not alone.  The majority of veterans have gone through this as well.  You can do this.

-LJF & BY

 

For more information on transition, get the highly rated book on Amazon:

How to Fix Your Terrible Resume

Recently I received an email from a reader (we’ll call him Max) asking if I would review his resume.  When I first glanced at the document, I was on my way somewhere with the family and only had a few seconds to take a look.  I didn’t see anything exceptional and as I walked away I tried to recall anything about the person in the resume I just read.  I remember thinking, “wait…was that guy a battalion commander?!”  Here is a copy of that resume, although you can’t fully read my comments, you can see that I had a lot of them (2 pages):

bad max

 

 

Later, when I had more time, I printed it out, marked it up, then prepared to send a very blunt email.  I noticed that Max was a West Point and CGSC grad, had two master’s degrees, and was a battalion commander, so I suspected that this Resume was not his best work.  I sent him some stuff I’ve written on resumes in the past, and I explained the following:

  • Your resume is not the place to be humble
  • Tell me about YOUR accomplishments- focus on the back of your OER not the front
  • Use the STAR format
  • Include KPIs or Key Performance Indicators- numbers, values, objective results
  • Highlight your degree not where you went to school
  • Your society/memberships and military schools (like Basic training) really aren’t as important

With some trepidation, I hit send and waited.

To his credit, Max took the advice and sounded totally energized.  He had plenty of questions and got to work.  He basically scrapped his entire resume, created an outline, and started over.  In one of his emails, he sent me a STAR chart which was a great invention, and something I will be sending out in the future for resume outlines.  It allows you to put a job, your rater and senior rater comments, then several accomplishments in the position.  See the examples below (2 pages):

Star Chart

 

After he filled this out for every job in his 23 year career, a very enthusiastic Max sent me his updated resume which you can see below (2 pages):

good max

It’s clear that Max is a true top 1% performer that is probably ready for executive level leadership positions in the civilian world, but his initial resume didn’t convey that.  As a recruiter, I would have completely dismissed him with that first resume, but that second one puts me in a position where I HAVE to talk to Max further.

Recruiters are only going to spend a few seconds on your resume.  Give them no option to dismiss you.

-LJF

 

For more information on transition, get the highly rated book on Amazon:

Interviewer: “Do you have any questions for us?”

Recently I’ve been applying for new jobs internally and I was talking with one of my mentors about an interview I had coming up.  He’s a former First Sergeant who I can count on being brutally honest with me yet always gives some sage advice.  Because of this, I value his opinion greatly.  He asked me what questions I had for the end of the interview and I told him I didn’t really have any because I already spent 40 minutes on the phone with the hiring manager and he answered all my questions.  “Well, when I interview a candidate and they don’t have any questions, I think they’re an idiot.”  We laughed together and after a bit of ribbing, he dropped some easy yet insightful options that I’m now going to share with you.  So, here are 6 potential questions that you can ask at the end of an interview that will make you stand out as a candidate:

1. What is the first project/effort that you want me to tackle?

Not only does this question make you look like a forward thinking badass, but it also gives you an idea if the job is something you want to do.  It might have some sexy job title, but you find out that for the first 6 months they have a floor full of records that they want you to help digitize.

2. What are some of the Challenges that I might face?

Here you get some insight into the position, and it may open up an opportunity for you to talk about how you might tackle said challenges, further setting you apart in the candidate pool.  Again, the interview is also for you to get more information about the job to determine if it’s something you want to do.

3. Besides the manager, who should I look to for guidance in the role?

You really don’t want to be going to your boss for every question, you also don’t want to ask advice from the wrong person.  This will also help you identify the people who your future boss thinks are doing a good job and surrounding yourself with them.

4. What are you looking for in a candidate?

This is great if you still have some time in the interview.  Listen carefully, then find ways to show how you fit that description.  This is a way of getting the answer to the test, then having an opportunity to reword and present as your own.

5. What are the keys to success in this job?

This is an opportunity to get a candid answer from your next boss on what he/she is looking for, and it will help you understand what you need to focus on as soon as you start the job.  You’re probably going to have a lot to learn, many questions, and maybe little direction about where to start.  With this question, you will know exactly what you need to focus on and if you need training somewhere, what training you need to ensure your success rapidly.

6.  What does a typical day look like?

This last one is just for you.  Don’t let them get away with something like “every day is different”, hit them with a follow up like “well, what are some of the tasks that you have to do every day?”  You might find out right there that this is NOT something you want to be doing for the next several years.

There you go, you’ve now got 6 different questions that you can use at the end of an interview to get a better understanding of the job and make yourself stand out as a candidate, or as my mentor puts it, “Don’t look like an idiot.”

-LJF

 

Click the image below to find out what we’re doing here at CONUS Battle Drills!

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Why I drive a Prius and Other Begrudgingly Smart Financial Choices

I haven’t had a car payment for almost five years and it has been awesome…except for the fact that my 2006 Honda CRV was getting a bit boorish to drive and I really wasn’t a fan of the armrest.  Those are pretty silly reasons to buy a new car, and every time I went car shopping, I came back to the same realization that I loved money more than I loved a new car.  Then in mid-August a teenager not paying attention slammed into the back of my CRV as I was waiting on someone making a left turn.  The car didn’t really have much damage, but the bill for repair was approaching the value of the car and it was declared totaled and I got an $8,000 check.

 

I like to take my time making big financial choices, so I was a bit disappointed that I had less than a week to decide on a car.  I had three options as I saw it:

  1. Buy a similar vehicle to the one I had and stay on the savings plan to purchase a newer car in the next few years
  2. Spring a few extra thousand dollars and get a slightly nicer used car
  3. Put the $8,000 towards a new car and take on a car payment

After spending a weekend with every used car salesman in a 20 mile radius, I ended up settling on option #1 and purchased a Prius with similar mileage and a similar year to the car I was already driving, except now I have more than doubled my gas mileage and will probably only fill up the tank once a month (I’ve spent $14 on gas since mid September).

So now my household has a Prius and a Minivan.  I’ve thought about putting a Ranger bumper sticker on my Prius, then supplementing that with a “my other car is a minivan” sticker, because that’s just the kind of guy I am.

Look, it’s not sexy, and not a “fun” car to drive, but it’s comfortable and it gets me to work every day.  It’s a reliable vehicle and it protects me financially, and as I have told you in the past, strong finances also protect your marriage.  So by making this choice, some of you “manly-men” might make fun of me, but the most important relationship in my life is protected, so insult away bitches.

Other Frustratingly Smart Choices

I recently took a promotion within my company, moved my family back to North Carolina, and drove 45 minutes one way for nearly a year because I had a rental property that I couldn’t sell.  I know many of you have gone through this same pain in the ass problem.  We moved my big ass five person family into a small 3 bedroom 1600 square foot house for months because it was the smart financial choice.  When we finally sold it, we upgraded some, but stayed well below 20% of my salary in the new home and cut my drive to 20 minutes.  We could have afforded much more house, but we both know this isn’t our final living place, and our ability to save money is more important.  It also gives us greater financial flexibility.

I only learned these lessons because I made the mistakes before.  Less than a decade ago I was living in a house far more expensive than I needed to be and I had a $500 a month car payment.  We lived almost paycheck to paycheck, and whenever I got an overtime check, we would spend that too.  It wasn’t until I had to take a pay cut that all our bad habits cost us.  We argued, she cried, the stress was terrible, and I had to get rid of my beautiful truck and buy the minivan then drive the CRV.

We made, and still make, sacrifices financially, but we don’t have any debt.  We stay on a strict budget that fits our needs that includes entertainment, and going out, and new clothes for everyone regularly.  We take vacations, and now we never feel like we don’t have money, and folks let me tell you that feeling is so much greater than the new car smell or a great big house you don’t know how you’re going to pay for.  Those things aren’t going to bring you joy like being able to buy your kids the present they’ve been wanting without batting an eye. We’ve also become much more generous givers able to donate significantly to charity.

Being debt free means to have complete ownership of all the money you earn, and sadly very few people have EVER felt that.

Imagine not owing anyone.  Imagine not having to pay credit cards, student loans, car loans, etc.  Imagine getting a check and not being a slave to anyone else.  I strongly recommend Dave Ramsey’s Financial Peace University, you can scroll down and find a class near you.  In Proverbs it says “the borrower is slave to the lender”, becoming debt free is releasing your own shackles.

Having debt is like a constant weight that you have to carry around hanging off every single paycheck.  No matter how hard you work, or what promotion you take, it never feels like enough.  We live in a culture that thrives on materialism where status is given by your belongings…but it’s all fake.  Some things are worth more than a fancy car or a really big house, and being financially secure is one of them.

Set yourself free!

-LJF

 

 

For more information on transition, get the highly rated book on Amazon: