“At the end of the day, when you walk off that base <military branch> no longer cares about you and you need to find your veteran tribe.” Paul Cumming

1.What inspired you to transition from military to civilian life, and how did you prepare for this significant change?

My inspiration to retire after 20 years and move into the civilian market was fueled by a few life events. I had a very eventful career. When I was younger, I was always chasing “chest candy” or medals for non-mil reading. The pinnacle and highlight came before my 10-year mark. I was a Navy E5 that was awarded the Defense Service Medal, and at that point I had earned the highest medal I could receive as an enlisted service member, and it was time to really focus on making promotion. My next two events came at the same time. We were having our first child, and I was a plank owner (founding member) of a brand new, first ever, cyber protection team. Our son being born was when I finally stopped chasing rank and awards. Mostly because I was coming close to retirement window and wanted to be there for everything, and due him being born special. While these high points were a catalyst for me to slow and become more family grounded, it was also the same timeframe that I would be sent home on humanitarian orders to care for my father. They give you up to one year to prepare for the worst or to help make things better and my year was coming to an end. No shit as soon as I came upon that one-year mark, my wife was diagnosed with 5 ailments in one week and my son was categorized profound mental and cognitive delay. That was the week I was found on the side of the road hanging out of my car too which luckily was rules to be a severe panic attack that I blacked out to. The last two events happened amidst covid, the detailer in great wisdom decided a ship for my last 20 months even after hearing the royal flush of an eventful 7 months. Arrived defeated and in utter mental disarray, stress led to back pain too which was really stomach issues exacerbated by stress hiding nickel size gallstones, that led to emergency gal removal and finding out I had a bacterium hiding 7 12mm ulcers and few 7mm. Top that off, found out my gal was masking that I am lactose and celiac. These.. these were my inspiration that life in uniform had met its shelf life. The over 7 years of turmoil laid upon me after having already lost 13 family members; prepared me for what life’s lowest can be and when your natural family network had dwindled to 2. I truly feel that my course was plotted with amazing mentors along those 7 years who had retired and prepared me to a point though broken, I was financially independent based on the pension I would be receiving.

2.Could you describe your current role in civilian life and how you arrived at this path?

My current role that I will claim for this platform, is the CEO and Founder of the Whole Cyber Human Initiative Non-profit and a 24-year Senior Cybersecurity Artist. How did I arrive at this path or juncture? Man, this cuts deep, and I am going to mention a few things I am already known for conveying, but for you Caleb, I am going to be a little more vulnerable. I have been in IT for 24 years and 20 of those have been serving in a military capacity. Over the course of my 20-year career in tech, I had brought in on things, heard things, seen reports about the number of children who go missing, get abused, get trafficked, get groomed to the point of ending life. Now I am a little fired up and brother, you know I am a storyteller. Having seen what I had seen, witnessed what I had witnessed, and even more so by volunteering for Trace Labs Crowd-sourced Missing Persons CTF... I had to step back. I have a special needs child, non-verbal, sees everyone as a friend, has a high tolerance for pain, and is so heavy hearted he is quick to forgive wrong done to him! That! That is why I didn’t retire as a practitioner, because I DO NOT TRUST the level of acumen we have in the industry today to protect our children, let alone a handicapped or special needs child (Pew Pew). Not when we have so much greed in the industry that we make up lies that there is a talent shortage or that you must have a certification that is suggested for those with already at a minimum two years in security as an entry-level/beginner cert. My son is the fuel that feeds my compassion to help develop and educate our replacements. My day job allows me to be philanthropic and self-fund the non-profit. But damnit, we sure could use some donation or sponsorship love. Even better if an academic institution is looking for curriculum consultants to help create pathways and not a cookie cutter IT Degree rewrapped cyber (We can get you a testimonial for a .edu who already adopted our model.

3.During your transition, what obstacles did you encounter, and what strategies proved instrumental in overcoming them?

Great series of open-ended puzzles. I think the first obstacle was met in transition class (a class each US Branch provides to prepare uniform shift to average Joe/Jane). In this class I had listened to various presenters over the course of 5 days say that, even with 20 years within IT, INFOSEC, and Cyber, I had to essentially start from scratch. I think this is a common one that is also leading transitioning service members astray with signing up for xyz “Cyber” training camps or training providers who came on base and talked up their 5-day/10-day bootcamps or the 2-month multi-cert gimmick. I say leading astray, because these camps do not pre-vet your previous technical experience or even really break the industry down. They simply see them as a pot-of-gold and say slick shit like, “All you need is this cert and doors will open”, “Guaranteed job placement or your money back”, and the best “Cyber XYZ with these certs come out making $100k+ a year.” In combination with being told start over, I was given a formal resume writing class that sadly hadn’t caught up to covid’s generation of Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS). So due to my resume being the style you would hand deliver to someone, I was sadly getting auto-rejections minutes after applying. Then I heard about Vets2Industry, a Veteran Owned and Operated Non-profit that hosted monthly networking events. Here is where I learned to tailor my resume and grow a network of cheerleaders. I had finally gotten to about 130-140 interviews (combined total and not that many companies, some interview processes were 6 interviews). However, my elevator pitch was my Achilles. I was trying to explain why someone with 20 years’ experience, of which 12 in leadership capacity and advisory capacity, was applying for Tier 1/Tier 2 role. I had to shift rudder again and build a new strategy too which I happy to say included beta testing Christophe Foulon’s Coaching Master Class that really tailored everything down to an absolute. “What will you be happy to do?” and it isn’t always about that dollar. I narrowed down to Incident Response, Cyber Threat, and Threat Research too which I was reluctant to land my post service starter role as a Cyber Research and Developer focused on “of things” counter threat research.

4. In what ways have your military skills and experiences been an asset in your civilian career?

I would say I employ 100% of my military skills and experiences both good and bad in my career. I have demonstrated resiliency in learning a new domain of IT/Cyber and while being laid off. I demonstrated adaptability by being trainable. My leadership skills led to me being appointed as a job lead 9-months ahead of normal new hires. I’ve assisted in the development of my juniors and peers. My humbleness leads me to network with peers in my role when I need help. I continue to be a servant leader putting the wellbeing of others ahead of mine. These are just a handful, bolded to showcase that they are skills sought for in the market.

5.Are there any resources, networks, or strategies you found invaluable during your transition that you’d recommend to others?

Resources, now you know I am going to deviate from story mode and put this in an itemized list.

1.????? For US side transitioning military and active duty/veteran dependents. Onward to Opportunity https://ivmf.syracuse.edu/programs/career-training/o2o-locations/ (This organization provides multiple credentialing opportunities not just in tech.) When approved, you get access to 6-months of free training for your choice of the cert buffet. During that time you have 3 months to get to the final exam in the training and score a certain percentage 3 times to get awarded a voucher for that official cert.

2.????? For US side again, USO Training Program https://www.uso.org/programs/uso-transition-program (this program provides access to an enormous catalog of free training provided by industry lead vendors, complementary to military and active duty/veteran dependents.)

3.????? For US side again, Vets2Industry https://vets2industry.org/ (V2I as they are often referenced, is the single most largest resource pool for active duty, transitioning service members, military spouses, veteran spouses, and active duty dependents.

4.????? For US side, CyberUP https://wecyberup.org/ too which also caters to their local populus, offers grant funded or company sponsored apprenticeship and training opportunities.

5.????? NPower https://www.npower.org/ more local to areas they support but do have remote opportunities as well to where they can help get you debtless funding for upskilling and provide a volunteer mentor to help you meet your upskill goal.

6.????? US side, NextOp Vets https://nextopvets.org/about-us/ provides a transitioning service member or veteran a career coach. They take your fitreps, awards, evals, performance reviews, and help you build a master resume both federal and commercial. They take that master resume and walk you through tailoring it for roles they are able to source for through a myriad of partnerships.

7.????? Vets2PM https://vets2pm.com/ is what I would call a pinnacle and there is another I will mention soon. But Vets2PM, once vetted (and yes, it is a grueling vetting process). They expect you ready to come with your ready face on, but each facilitator/trainer is there the whole way.

8.????? Hiring Our Heros https://www.hiringourheroes.org/ is the other pinnacle. They too have a vetting process they put in place based on the sponsors they source and train. They offer fellowships, which does mean you need to be at least enrolled into a college setting. They have deep pocket sponsors.

9.????? Boots to Books https://www.boots2books.com/ which generally was built to help offset the cost for graduate level courses or materials for service members and veterans. They joined in on the industry in need, by establishing tech centric job fairs for transitioning service members, veterans, and military dependents, creating a quarterly certification voucher raffle, sometimes paying the cost for someone to get trained on a tech cert, and most importantly, the most well developed transitioning service member master class.

10.?? With You With Me https://withyouwithme.com/career-pathways/ caters to any veteran and provides an academy lush with very well put together pathways. Relevant training provided by both volunteer and paid instructors that are also currently career practitioners.

6.Reflecting on your transition, what piece of knowledge or advice do you wish had been shared with you beforehand?

The first bit of advice would be to do an honest breakdown of the skills you currently posses and you may notice roles that need those and aren’t 100% technical.

7.How did you navigate the shift in identity from being in the military to reintegrating into civilian life, and what helped you through this process?

My shift was easy. I had had mentors during my 7-years of chaos who all said, “At the end of the day, when you walk off that base <military branch> no longer cares about you and you need to find your veteran tribe.” Then a salty experience going through Chief Inititation to where “brothers and sisters” yelled and demeaned me as I went through this process a mere 2 months after my wife and son was just diagnosed. It followed, I heard all this stuff about taking care of each other but I didn’t see it. So it made it easy for me to close down that persona with ease. However, the momentum of work is still something trying to adjust to.

8.What aspects of military life do you find yourself missing the most, and how do you keep those memories alive?

I think really, it is the internal development done by mentors. Every now and then, I found myself in places where developing you junior and peers to take over for you meant it also led to them being promoted over you (a very rewarding feeling.)