Design Your Post-Service Career Action Plan, Part 1, Outline Your Post-Service Career Priority List

As we come to the final Monday of February, we're excited to wrap up Part One of our series, "Crafting Your Post-Service Career Action Plan," here at Vets2PM. You have crafted your Professional Introduction. You now know what makes you you and what makes you the best person for the job you want. This is called your Unique Value Add.

Let’s close part one by outlining your Post-Service Career Priority List. This involves creating a list of what's most important to you for your life after leaving the military. We encourage you to not skip this step.

How to complete this step:

1. Involve everyone who will be on the military transition with you. Encourage them to answer the questions from their own perspective, considering how the choices you make will directly affect their lives.

2. Provide them with the list of questions beforehand. Allow everyone time to think about what it is they want post military.

3. Schedule a time for everyone to meet and discuss.

4. Collaborate to come up with one list.

5. This is the list you’ll utilize when completing Part Two of Crafting Your Post-Service Career Action Plan.

Questions:

Travel: Do I want to travel extensively, or am I looking for stability in one location?

Shift: Am I open to working non-traditional hours or shifts, or do I prefer standard work hours? What are these standard work hours?

Location: Do I want to stay in my current location, move closer to family, or explore new places?

Type of Job: What type of work interests me? Do I want to continue in a similar field or pursue a completely different career path?

Stress Levels: How do I handle stress, and what level of stress am I willing to tolerate in my next job?

Family Life: What do I need to consider? Think about the current season of life the family unit is in such as school aged children, sports programs, medical conditions, etc.

Work/Life Balance: How important is it for me to have a balance between my work and personal life? What activities or hobbies do I want to prioritize outside of work?

Keep in mind that your priorities set the stage for your post-service career. Ensure everyone is 100% honest while answering these questions.

See you next week for part two, Post-Service Company Finder.

We can help you on your military transition. Start here: vets2pm.com/training.