Transitioning at the Speed of Trust* – What are your value propositions?

Understanding, prioritizing, and trusting your value areas is vital to any successful interview. Transition courses taken. LinkedIn account built. Resume written. Business cards created. References established. Wardrobe updated. Mentors identified. Networking, networking, … and more networking. Interview, bingo!

After literally hundreds of quality hours properly reinventing and preparing yourself for the next chapter of your life you are finally in position to hit a homerun with your interview. I specifically highlighted the “you” in the previous sentence because I believe the interview is as much an equal opportunity for you to assess a future employer as they are assessing you. An interview, like the beginning of any budding relationship, is a two-way trust evaluation – the interview Team should not be the only one researching best value! After all, you will be most successful in an organization with mutually beneficial values and culture.

As such, the real question you need to ask yourself: Is a future employer the right fit and best value for you? And be honest with yourself, are you the best fit for the organization? Your efforts must ideally create a win-win for both parties.

I will use the arrival at my four value areas as an example to help in your journey of evaluation. Context: assuming an offer is tendered, you will talk pay and benefits. I encourage you to have this discussion as late in the interview process as possible. Without sounding narcissistic, pay and benefits matter; however, I submit if your value areas are satisfied this topic is much easier for both parties to discuss. Further, while communicating to your interview Team your value areas they will actually learn more about your greater overall future benefit.

Socially responsible/Purpose driven product/service. “Some people spend an entire lifetime wondering if they made a difference in the world. But, the Marines don't have that problem.” - Ronald Reagan. There was a reason I stayed in the military for over 20+ years. I always felt the military provided a socially responsible/purpose-driven service to the American populace. Thus, it was extremely important for me to find an organization outside the military I could respect, feel proud of, and show enthusiasm for when placing my feet on the deck in the morning.

Organizational Culture.  Along with embracing the honor, courage, commitment, and altruism mantras of the Marine Corps, I can say with 100% assurance I had a tremendous amount of fun. The opportunity to perform in a high functioning organization capable of integrating fun into their daily schedule is very important to me. My last Commanding General’s mantra was “Mission first, People always.” – rest assured, along with building tremendous trust and loyalty, he definitely made the effort to ensure we had fun at every opportunity too. Happy teams produce great products/services…

Economic Resiliency. If you have ever lived through sequestration or felt the internal unit volatility brought on by force reductions resulting from “peace dividends” you understand economic cycles matter to the military. The difference is, the military does a solid job preparing transitioning personnel and providing significant lead time (if properly utilized) to a shrinking military force. The same cannot be said for most profit-based organizations. Economic realities can hit hard and fast within a non-military organization -- employed one day, and not the next. As such, be sure your future employer has taken proper steps to diversify the overall product/service portfolio to (hopefully) absorb economic downturns; if not, you could be the best employee, and still lose your position at a moment’s notice... on the other hand, economically resilient organizations offer more stability while ensuring greater opportunities for advancement up the leadership, management, and salary chains.

Growth for employees/self. The military is world renowned for training and educating its personnel to excel in myriad dynamic global scenarios. Clearly, a tremendous incentive exists to provide this support - military members understand there are no trophies for second place. This same mindset, however, is not necessarily pervasive outside the military. Organizations can have stagnant employees, be listed number four or five in its industry, yet still turn a tremendous profit for its key stakeholders. I submit the healthiest organizations with the greatest longevity ensure their employees are on the cutting edge of training and education in all facets of their operations. The organizations who treat their people as powerful investments always win… and maintain loyal employees. Seek out organizations who sincerely value their greatest resource.

In closing, you have worked tremendously hard reinventing yourself in order to arrive at an interview and moving one step closer to hearing “you are hired.” Nevertheless, if a perceived tremendous job offer with a great salary is not aligned with your values I can almost guarantee you will look for another opportunity elsewhere… fast. Thus, take the time to identify and prioritize your values in order to ensure trust in and alignment with a future employer so you can properly get on with writing the next chapter of your life. Oh, and no matter the result of your interview, always send a thoughtful, hand written note of appreciation for their time… this little maneuver will set you apart and could be a deciding factor in obtaining a follow-up interview or job offer.  

*Title inspired by General Jim “Mad Dog” Mattis, USMC, Retired*

Brian Grana | Follow me on Twitter: @granab81

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