Rob’s Unsolicited Advice: The Value of SkillBridge

There can be a lot of differing opinions on the value of hiring Veterans. Almost on a whole folks will say that having Veterans in the workforce is a value multiplier due to “leadership” and “team building” along with the stalwart “supporting the Troops” but what does it look like in reality? How does a Servicemember, who’s knowledge and experience directly relates to defending the Nation translate into a corporate workforce? The Department of Defense’s SkillBridge Program is how.

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The Why:? A Bridge for Skills

The military has traditionally been a fantastic “entry level” job for those who are eligible and willing to serve. Most of those who join are in their late teens or early twenties with little in the way of professional experience starting out. These young people will gain experience from their respective branches of service for the length of their contracts with even others carving out a full 20-plus year career. But like all things, this service will come to an end and these now Veterans will likely enter the civilian workforce with a ton of skills and expectations which, by themselves, do not always translate well. In an effort to assist transitioning Servicemembers, the SkillBridge Program allows them to participate in a Fellowship during the last 180 days of their service with willing host companies in an effort to evolve their military skills to align with corporate workforce. This is predicated on the Servicemember’s Commander (ie, boss) being willing to part with their subordinate earlier than maybe expected (more on this later).

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Getting Started: Translating Military Value to Corporate Value

I had the honor of serving in the U.S. Army for 25 years and as that career was winding down I was hit with the undeniable reality that the “Army way” of doing business, while great for the Army, did not translate very well. To begin with, the Army isn’t a revenue generating organization so just writing my resume proved to be a challenge in articulating what my “quarter of a century” (as my wife jokes) of value was. I needed to jump in and start getting experience quick! It wasn’t that I couldn’t bring value nor was it that my skills didn’t align… I just didn’t know what I didn’t know as a means to explain it to a company (ie, hiring manager) in a way that we both understood what I was talking about. Thus, before I even left the military, I realized I needed to participate in the SkillBridge Program so I could have a better understanding of the corporate world. Unfortunately not all Veterans realize this or realize this too late to take advantage of the program. Likewise, not all companies realize it either.

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The Host Company: Try Before You Buy

It’s not just the Servicemember who has a lot of learning to do. Corporate America is very keen projecting employment processes that appear favorable to Veterans, even before they became a protected class. Companies are quick to hire qualified Veterans but then often struggle to integrate them from a culture or revenue-generating perspective. This is nobody’s fault, per se, but simply the result of highly structured indoctrination (the military) meeting the less structured, more innovative way of doing things. The SkillBridge Program allows companies, at NO COST, to host a transitioning Servicemember and start that process in a deliberate so the Servicemember AND the company can learn from each other without risk. ??

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The Fellowship: Evolving, Not Transitioning

My SkillBridge journey was sponsored by a non-profit organization called Hiring Our Heroes. They offered services as an intermediary between host companies and myself while providing educational opportunities to better prepare for the transition. They were fantastic! I was able to network into a Fellowship with Lockheed Martin – Space, joining their Military Talent Acquisition team as a project manager. When I wasn’t assisting members of the military community (Veterans, active duty, spouses, caregivers, etc) find meaningful employment with Lockheed Martin, I was in the background working on projects for new employees and initiatives to improve processes. In-between all that, I was networking, training, receiving mentorship, and learning. The Lockheed Martin team I worked with graciously invested in me in such a way that I’ll apply what I’ve learned for years to come! They had a great perspective on my journey which was I wasn’t “transitioning”, I was “evolving”. It was a fantastic way to look at it.

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A Challenge: Conflicting Military Leadership Messages

Not everyone is so keen on this program. Remember those Commanders I mentioned earlier? They are the gatekeeps for this entire Program and it is their decision if they chose to allow their Servicemembers to participate and for how long. By regulation it can be up to 180-days from military separation, but that number can be reduced. I’ve spoken at length about this with leaders and to paraphrase the majority of resistance, their concern is their unit mission readiness. In essence, losing personnel earlier than projected without means to effectively replace that person detracts from their overall mission readiness, which is a metric many Commander’s effectiveness are judged by. I acknowledge this is an over-simplification but it should suffice for this article.

By no means am I judging a military Commander. It is a critical military function and they have an enormous responsibility. However, the contradiction exists where they are told by their senior leaders to allow their Servicemembers to participate in this program BUT not to allow their mission readiness to fall below a certain percentage. It’s a juggling act I do not envy and that needs to change. A solution could be to create a personnel code for those participating in the SkillBridge Program 180-days from their approved separation date so they could be identified and replaced sooner by military human resources.

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The Takeaway: The Best Underused Program in the Military?

The SkillBridge Program has helped thousands of transitioning, that is, “evolving” Servicemembers since 2011. Veterans and employers alike find it an invaluable resource. There’s some work to be done in the way of messaging, especially to military Commanders, but as more and more feedback and success stories continue to be shared, I’m confident our military and participating companies will continue to reap rewards. I know I have.

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For more information about the DoD SkillBridge Program, visit their official website: https://skillbridge.osd.mil/index.htm

?For more information about Hiring Our Heroes, visit their official website: https://www.hiringourheroes.org/

?For more information about Lockheed Martin’s Heroes Program, visit their official website: https://www.lockheedmartin.com/en-us/careers/candidates/military-veterans/heroes.html