Transitioning Veteran Survival Guide -Waiting Is The Hardest Part
Brooks Johnson
Software engineer specializing in the Salesforce platform. Apex, Javascript, Java
One morning I woke up and I was civilian. After twenty-six years I was just Brooks: no rank, no uniform. I was also unemployed. I was clutching my DD214 and wondering if I should file for unemployment. The fates smiled on me and I received and accepted a job offer later that same day. But I was totally unprepared for how long my search would take. I think most veterans are. We have no idea how the civilian hiring process works.
When you decided to join the military the process with the recruiter was probably pretty fast. I hope you didn’t have to go through multiple rounds at MEPS. I boarded for a few positions in my career. But I had never a had job that required multiple rounds and decisions were made within a day or two.
My first civilian job hunt lasted ninety days. I began applying in earnest and reaching out to my contacts about two weeks prior to going on permissive TDY. I was certain I would have a job within thirty days. In my mind, I was already spending all the extra money I was going to make with two incomes while I worked during my transition leave. I’m glad I only mentally spent that money.
Looking back on it all, I had no idea how the hiring process in the private sector worked. When I would get an email from a recruiter I assumed that it was pretty much the same thing as being offered a job. A phone interview! I will probably start next week, I thought. The reality is that most of those recruiter emails are designed to cast a pretty wide net. I almost never heard back after I sent my resume. And I can’t even tell you how far a phone screen is a job offer.
In the last week of my search, I was one of the final candidates for two different positions. Almost sixty days had gone by from the time I first applied until the time an offer I was made. My experience might have been extreme but I went through eight different interviews for the position that I accepted.
Over the next few months, I will try to detail my own transition: what worked for me and what didn’t. It is harder, and more frustrating than many of us are prepared for.No one is going to hire you just for your leadership skills alone, no matter what they told you at your TAP class. You will get the job and you will be successful. It just won’t be as easy as they told you.
Senior Analyst at Federal Government
8 年"No one is going to hire you just for your leadership skills alone." This is so true. The companies and government agencies that have reached out to me want me for my technical skills; never been asked about my management/directing ability.
Thank you for your service. I think your experience is very similar to all of us looking for work. It's a much longer than we expect. But thankfully there are many employers specifically looking to hire veterans.
Professional Planner at Alaska Airlines
8 年I completely agree. I transitioned two years ago and the stress levels ran through the roof at that time. I was an E-8 with a Masters Degree, I figured that I would apply for a simple manager job and have employers beating down my door. This is far from the truth. It took an email to a friend of a friend who knew a guy that might have something for me to do. Wow! Networking beats out job hunting for sure, at least I thought. I had tried networking on LinkedIn with recruiters, managers, old buddies from the military and the knocks on the door were silent. Resumes sent out to prospective employers, applications filled out to numerous employers in and out of state. Still, maybe a phone call out of every 30 prospects. Of those phone calls, maybe one interview. I'm still not sure what it takes to get past the electronic resume parsers, or the prejudice towards the veteran. I know that I thrived in the military, drove through the ranks from E-1 to E-8 in 18 years, led seamlessly over 100 people with respect, managed millions of dollars in equipment, and yet it is still hard work to get the calls. Employers will not be beating down your door. I think for the most part you have to do the beating.
Private Small Business Owner
8 年This is a great article. The only problem I have is don't assume that all transitioning military members have no idea how the civilian hiring process works. I worked in the civilian sector for almost five years before enlisting and now that I'm out it seems to be the same sector that it was when I left. I encourage military members that have never known anything but the military to use your fellow more experienced peers especially those who used the military as a fall back plan, not a first option.