I Got The Job...Now What?

Getting the job was easy for me, I had a skill that almost every logistic company wanted in the united states wanted. I was a degreed, well certified logistician with over two decades of logistical operation experience on a global scale. I got the phone call at my actual retirement ceremony Thursday May 26th, 2016. The company I had accepted their offer with had called to check in, they were excited they had been waiting for this day and ask when I could start. In 2009, I was the Brigade Senior Logistical NCO with 2nd Brigade Combat Team of 3rd Infantry Division. Nothing but the finest Officers and NCOs I still call to this day. Our motto was echoed and instilled with loud and thunderous voices to say “SEND ME” and here I literally was at my retirement ceremony, and as I had many times in the military without hesitation, I said I will be there tomorrow morning - SEND ME and then I hung up.  I looked at my wife and told her but without her saying a word I knew something was wrong. It was Memorial Day weekend. Like many other Memorial days, it’s when we pay homage to our fallen brothers and sisters who paid the ultimate sacrifice for our country. Every military member enlists not as conscripts but as selfless service and here I had done it again, willing to give up something as selfless service to a company not myself or my family. 

Fast forward 9 months into my new assignment or “Job” and I was fast coming apart at the emotional seams. Enlisting in the military at 17 years and 4 months old and retiring at exactly 45 meant the very fabric of my identity developed from the military and here I was at a company where I couldn’t have been more a fish out of water. Every other military member we had hired after I started had left including a 30-year Command Sergeant Major who threw his badge down after 28 days and said he quit because those people are not committed people. One young Captain who had finished his 5 yrs. in the Army left the service to try his hand at corporate life but after less than 12 months with our company came back in the military because of the culture challenges, leadership and transition. Think about that for a second, a young Cavalry Officer, finished his term in the military left service and came back in the military because of the transition challenges. 

My entire career I learned that Leadership was the process of influencing people by providing purpose, direction, and motivation to accomplish the mission and improve the organization. And all the sudden 9 months into my post service career I had none of those…. I had a “Job”. I had made a near fatal decision around February 2017 and I had a tremendous amount of guilt of failing at something I had never done while in the service. Suicidal emotions were at a peak and all because I took a “Job” that provided NO purpose, direction or motivation for success. I constantly was echoing a statement this was boxes not bodies how am I failing at this? 

In the past 3 years as a program manager for a U.S. Department of Labor Grant that was the link between transitioning military and companies I saw this exact same mistake made over and over again, there is an immense misunderstanding from both the companies and the transitioning servicemember. I attribute this to a national narrative “Thank You For Your Service” is a case of he said she heard scenario. We as transitioning Veterans assume:  

1. Were worth far more than the locals. 
2. They need us.
3. Were worth every bit of what we think we are regardless of wage surveys in the local regions. 
4. I was a Leader; I need to lead.

As I constantly deep dived failures from individuals hired with companies one examples stood out recently from a company who hired a 20 Year Army Senior Leader and Mechanic with 12 months of a vocational & technical training after retirement was hired and brought into the company at $16.00 per hour. I could not help but think his pathway is certain and how did or does the company get that wrong knowing they had been told so many times that level of experience is worth more. Two decades of experience leading as well as mechanical aptitude truly had to be worth more than that! 

How do you translate selfless service into purpose? Getting the “Job” is the easiest thing you can do, getting THE job is the hardest thing to do especially depending on the location or region you are separating at. Getting the Job means you must truly self-assess and one thing I learned tremendously was Maslow’s Hierarchy is not a term but from the bottom of the hierarchy upwards, the needs are: physiological, safety, love and belonging, esteem, with self-actualization being at the top. 

If self-actualization is at the top and below that esteem, how do you find esteem in your new “job”? Esteem means prestige and a feeling of accomplishment…both of which I had none…it was boxes not bodies after all. No one talked to me about that part of getting the “job” I did not feel any esteem managing a logistical operation that handled over 80% of North Americas contracts for a well-known computer company. Looking back now I could, I just needed the right mentor and coach to frame it that way. Now all I had to do was get over my worth being tied to a number or salary.  Again, settling for a “job” meant misunderstanding the link between my perceived worth and actual worth…selfless service was lost in translation somewhere along the line.

Finding purpose post service must be a self-actualization that needs to be considered long before you chose a “job” and one you need to consider when looking for a career. A Post COVID impact to business means this will become far to critical a mission to fail at when seeking a “job” because of the lean economies as they restructure and adjust regardless of your mindset.