Succeeding Without a Playbook: Transitioning to a Post-Military Career

This week marks Veteran’s Day, an important U.S. holiday, giving us the opportunity to honor all our veteran men and women for their service to our country. Each year, 200,000 people transition from the military to civilian life. As a U.S. Army veteran myself, I recognize the challenges some face when making this shift. I’m grateful and proud that Cisco offers military veterans a variety of programs to help them successfully through this transition. These programs, along with key, transferable skill sets, can make all the difference in creating pathways to meaningful post-military careers.

“At Cisco, we are firmly committed to our veterans initiatives and ensuring that we do our duty to those who have served” Chuck Robbins, CEO, Cisco

Today, I lead Global Collaboration Sales at Cisco and when I think about serving our customers, partners and employees every day, there often times isn’t a playbook. And this, in fact, is exactly what my military service prepared me for. When each day brings a new challenge, there are three key skills I learned from my time in the military that I’d like to pass on to anyone making the transition to civilian life today.

Agility – The military teaches you to assess each situation, make a decision, and move forward. You must think of what is best in that moment for the greater good, not just yourself. And you have to act quickly. You might not always get it right the first time, but I’ve learned that you will definitely earn respect if you have the ability to take in a lot of information and act on it effectively.

Working in complex environments – I have mostly worked in larger organizations, where there are a lot of dotted lines, negotiating, and teamwork – just like the military. When you are able to reach across a variety of teams, build consensus, and bring others along with you toward a shared purpose and goal, you will be successful.

Leadership – This is the attribute I personally value the most in employees with military experience. When I say leadership, it’s not only about managing people. It is also about achieving the mission at hand, what it takes to get there, and not letting challenges get in the way.

As a salesperson and a leader, I use these skills every day. The expertise acquired during military service is 100% transferable to the civilian workforce. In building teams, I look for people who can contribute and drive priorities forward. Veterans are able to draw from their experiences to work across teams, alleviate obstacles and accomplish the mission.

Cisco leads the way in providing programs to support, develop and recruit veterans.?If you are looking to gain skills for the tech sector before you transition, learn more about our CyberVets and NetAcademy resources. For those preparing to transition soon, our Veterans Employee Resource Organization leads our Mentorship Program for transitioning veterans, and provides support through our Military in Sales and Leadership and Veteran Talent Incubation programs. ?The Cisco teams have a hands-on approach helping develop skills-to-job opportunities, mentorship, and guidance to ease the transition?to a successful post-military career.

I am excited to work at a company that not only values my military service, but actively works to create training and career opportunities for transitioning service members, military veterans and their spouses. I am grateful to have had the opportunity to serve my country and I encourage veterans to constantly learn, be curious, network, explore, dig in and stay fearless. You’ve gained amazing expertise while serving in the military. You can take that into a new career with pride.