Transitioning Vets: Intern With A Startup!

TLDR

Do you have ~ six months left on active duty? Are you interested in working at a startup after you separate? If yes to both, you might be able to coordinate a DOD SkillBridge internship at a startup during your final months on active duty. Interested? Read on.

Background

In early 2014, the Secretary of Defense issued DODINST 1322.29. The program -- SkillBridge -- enables transitioning veterans to intern at fast-growing, early-stage startups during their final months on active duty (at no cost to the company).

We just started recruiting via SkillBridge at ThinAir (which is 15% veteran), and this post is designed to share the experience with transitioning veterans, and other companies keen to do the same.

Are you a transitioning military member?

Many post-9/11 military members thrived in volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous environments. If you are one of them, and dread the prospect of working at a "9-to-5," you may want to consider working at a startup.

Startups are high-growth companies that use emerging technology or new processes to change the way businesses is done in a certain area. If you want to learn more, watch every single one of these videos. Doing the reading won't hurt, either.

Working on a small team building something new is similar to a high-optempo Iraq or Afghanistan deployment: stressful, time-consuming, high-learning, and binary (you either succeed or fail). Better than filling out TPS reports.

I'm interested. Where do I start?

Step 1: drop me a note via InMail. Don't have InMail yet? As a transitioning veteran, you get it for free - sign up here - as Linkedin provides veterans a free year of premium services (a $300 value).

Step 2: Check out the videos and reading I mentioned to above. They will give you a good sense of what working at a technology startup is all about.

Step 3: Determine your EAOS. You will need approximately six months before your EAOS to make SkillBridge happen, along the following timeline:

• Six months from EAOS: Decide you want to try to participate in SkillBridge. Familiarize yourself with the DOD Instruction, and your service-specific instruction. Begin to socialize the idea with your chain of command. If you believe they are amenable, proceed.
• Five months from EAOS: Begin the search for companies where you might want to intern. Reach out to them directly. If they haven't heard of SkillBridge, direct them to this article, and to me. Make sure you get in direct contact with both the hiring team, and the management team of the job you are interested in applying for. In Silicon Valley terms, this means: find "startup-soldier-fit" (yes, I just coined that term). Continue to socialize the idea of SkillBridge with your chain of command, to include your commanding officer and senior enlisted leadership. Make sure to explain that any Soldier/Sailor/Airman/Marine can participate in SkillBridge - huge opportunity to ensure that folks land on their feet given that most veterans transition off of active duty without a job.
• Four months from EAOS: Route appropriate paperwork (per the instructions above) up your chain of command. Receive permission of your commanding officer. Execute the remaining separation requirements (medical, transition assistance programs, etc.).
• Three months from EAOS: Show up to your internship! Enjoy. Be excellent. Apply for the position while you are still in the internship, and network around town to look for other opportunities (it is easier to find a job while you are employed than while you are unemployed).
• One week from EAOS: depart internship to out-process.
• One week after EAOS: hopefully return to the same company to start your job.

How can my company get involved?

If you're at a startup, and want your company to get involved with DOD Skill Bridge, here are the steps you need to execute:

Step 1: Identify what current job openings apply most for transitioning veterans.

Step 2: Determine if your company would be willing to stand up a training/internship/evaluation program for SkillBridge. Contact me directly to learn more about this, but the bottom line is that at the end of the program, there must be a job (see Step 1) to which the SkillBridge participant can, upon internship completion, apply. There is no expectation of employment, but there is an expectation that the SkillBridge participant will be considered against the pool of candidates competing for the job.

Step 3: Get the word out. I know this is vague. We are working on a good long-term solution - and have stood up the HN handle DODSkillBridge as a potential solution similar to the "Who Is Hiring" monthly string on Hacker News (which you should be reading regularly). Stay tuned to this space for more info.

Step 4: You will need to begin to identify SkillBridge candidates 1-2 months before you expect them to start. You will need to write a memo that conforms to the DOD Instruction (again, reach out for help - I have a template I can provide), and that memo will need to go to the candidate's military chain of command for approval.

That's it. Again, drop me a line if you have any questions, or if you are a veteran, working here in Silicon Valley, and want to get involved.