The Leap

Hello friends, I am back.

I am coming back to report on my first year of employment as a civilian. September will mark the actual anniversary, but now seems fine enough to talk a little about what I have learned.

First, making the jump from public safety to corporate was WAY harder than I thought it would be. I filled out hundreds of applications starting in the summer of 2021, and even this week am still getting rejection emails from them! I suspect someone is just cleaning up the ATS and telling it to generate the auto email saying I wasn’t selected. In fairness, two years later I had kind of assumed you were not that interested in me. They say nice things, like “keep checking our site for more opportunities”, and things like that. It’s essentially the coldest friendzone ever.

It took me almost a year to land a role. Once I was in, there was a major change in the responsibilities of the role I had been accepted for. I was ok with it, the work was more interesting, and better suited to my skills.

For those seeking to make the leap I want to share some things you will find that are similar, and a few that are very different.

First, you will find good people who will have your back, just like your brother and sister officers did, and others who will not lift a finger to help, again, just like some of your other brother and sister officers. Unlike the public sector, where promoting up often involves there being an open position, testing, and maybe a practical exercise, in the corporate world it is not always clear how you move up. This can be especially true if you come in as a SME in one area, and you may be the only one who does it. The path forward may not be defined.

Second, brevity. This was especially hard for me. In policing it was drilled into us that “if it’s not in the report, then it didn’t happen”. We are accustomed to writing long detailed narratives with as much information as we possible. This was for a few reasons, the first I already said, and the second is if the case you worked went to trial, it might not happen for years; so the more details you included the better chance you had to refresh your memory during testimony.

This put me on the struggle bus for a little while. Early in my new role I was tasked with looking into something and providing feedback. So, I did what I had always done. I sent up a well thought out and thoroughly researched document outlining everything I had learned, and how I thought we could best overcome the issue. This was annotated and included proper citations and was six pages long. Good work, right?

Not so much. The feedback was essentially “please don’t ever do this again”. I was crestfallen, what was wrong? Was my research bad? Was it not the solution they were looking for?

In defeat, I reached out to a close friend who is high up in a very large organization. I sent him what I had been asked to do, and what I had responded with. He immediately called me. “Yeah, you tanked, this isn’t good.” Wait, What?

He explained it in a way even I could understand, albeit begrudgingly. He summed it up like this: Your manager wants three bullet points:

·?????What is the problem?

·?????How are you going to fix it?

·?????What is it going to cost?

He told me I should still write the full report, but it will take me longer to turn it into three bullet points, than it will to write the full research paper. He told me I still needed it, because if my memo went up, and there were questions, I had to be prepared to present how I arrived at my conclusions.

There was a learning curve to say the least for me. My skills were a great match for what I was working on, but I had to adapt to the deliverables needed. It’s an ongoing process, but every day I understand more. That is what I was looking for, growth. I look forward to more. Using the skills I knew I was bringing from the public sector but applying them in a new way.

Landing The Plane

My advice is simple, network. All the interviews I did came from someone inside the company that was able to refer me. Leverage your connections, don’t be afraid to ask for a recommendation. Understand how resumes are viewed. Each one only gets a few seconds screening, you need to grab the recruiter’s attention in the first two or three seconds, if not, they move on.

When you do land in a new role, listen more than you talk. This is good advice for life in general, but experience has shown me that it is even more important when you do something new. The rules have changed. Prepare yourself, it can be done. Coming from the public sector often means you see things through a different lens. This is not a bad thing. It can serve you well when applied at the right time.

Be resilient, be accepting of feedback, find your supporting peers. Understand that unlike the public safety world where moving is more difficult, in the corporate world there are more opportunities. Give it time, adjust, talk to people, and evaluate. The first stop may not be your final home. Unlike public sector, moving around is far more common. Sometimes it may be because the role isn’t what you are looking for. Sometimes you may max your opportunities to advance, and other times you may just be looking for the next challenge.

Opportunities are out there. There is life after public sector work. What you have learned can be used in so many ways, and you can contribute in ways you can’t even imagine. Many of us spent a career on the front lines, making split second decisions about life threatening events. This is different. You can think, ponder, research, evaluate, and act; and all those things don’t have to happen in an instant.

Best of luck!

About the author:

Brian Johnson?is a retired Sergeant with the Franklin, Massachusetts, Police Department. He served in a variety of roles in public safety including EMS, 911 communications, patrol, investigations, patrol supervision, administration, and served as the Public Information Officer working within a top 10 television market. He began his career in emergency services in 1992.?

He has now retired from public service, and works in the private sector leveraging his experience in public safety within the corporate environment.?