I am an intelligence officer with one military deployment to Iraq as an operations officer and two civilian deployments (Iraq and Afghanistan) as a lead analyst. I took one other contract in the US however that, along with many others dried, or are drying up. This moves me to look for a new civilian career. I discovered veterans can get the PMP for free. I used the military skills translator for 35D to begin filtering what markets to focus on, however its my undergraduate degree that concerns me. I have a BA in Criminal Justice. The norm for PMP seems to be previous business, engineering, finance degrees or work experience in those fields. I understand the value of having a PMP but will it be any good for someone with my experience and previous degree? If so, I could use the help in narrowing down what markets to go after.
Second request, I have rewritten my resume many times but only getting interviews with contracting companies. I want to leave contracting and get a fulltime job in project management. I reworded my resume to reflect both my technical and management attributes but still no success. Any advice would be appreciated.
Thanks in advance!
Answers
Hi Michael,
I will be more than happy to look over your resume if you like.
Scena
Michael,
You should definitely read and participate in this discussion over on the Veteran Mentor Network. It advocate SCRUM Master over PMP.
"Transitioning veterans are you searching for a civilian career? Have you considered being a ScrumMaster?"
"As a retired Veteran who works in Information Technology I observer that there is great need in small teams using the Agile / Scrum Methodology for servant leadership ..."
Hello Michael,
I felt like you were describing me: CJ degree, Intel officer, contract work...although we did them in a different order, we have very similar backgrounds. You are also asking many of the same questions I had getting out. I chose to get a finance degree to round out my resume. But enough about me. I don't want to blush.
It has been my experience that a CJ degree is not a hot commodity in the business world. A PMI, PMP or Six Sigma belt are icing on the cake but are not strong enough to get you a job. I.e. you'll need the background to get noticed and the certificate to get the call back on your resume. There are plenty of people without those certificates who are great program managers. Inversely, there are people with those certificates who are absolute garbage program managers.
Having consulted, you'll need to figure out a way to show how you conducted Program Management and Process Improvement in those positions. Then get the certification to show you have a knowledge base and understand the structures of PM which companies want.
If you have any education benefits, I highly recommend an advanced degree to compliment the leadership skills you gained in the Army.
There is a full nickle worth of free advice in there if you look hard enough.
Morgan
Michael,
A PMP certification can help. And a certification alone is likely not sufficient.
A few questions and actionable suggestions. Please answer, provide feedback and interact.
Q: Can you share with us several job-listings that interest you? Include jobs you want now, and in 2-3 years, and 5 years and beyond.
Q: What is your career networking strategy?
Q: Have you been utilizing informational interviews?
Q: Do you have a "positioning statement"?
https://acp-advisornet.org/articles/24/4-clear-steps-creating-your-30-second-positioning-statement#!
Actionable Suggestions:
* Utilize the ACP-AdvisorNet directory and request informational interviews.
e.g. Joe Paschall
https://acp-advisornet.org/community/66crf9/joe-paschall#!
I searched the Internet a year ago as I was trying to outline a career pathway for Veterans to pursue career as Project managers and to earn the PMP certification. I came across an article Joe had written, called him on the phone and followed up with am email asking him to join acp-advosrnet.org. He quickly accepted.
Joe is a great resource and a great guy. He's authored some fantastic posts right her eon acp-advisornet.org, but with the recent re-design of the site I can't find them, I apologize profusely.
Read: "A Checklist For Veterans: "How to Learn More About the Project Management Professional (PMP) Cert."
https://acp-advisornet.org/questions/532
and
http://www.northalabamapmi.org/documents/papers/2009_Joe_Paschall.pdf
e.g. a site-specific search looking for "PMP" https://www.google.com/webhp?#q=site%3Ahttps%3A%2F%2Facp-advisornet.org%2Fcommunity%20pmp
https://acp-advisornet.org/community?user_group_id=1&expertise_id=19&zip_code=&company=#!
https://acp-advisornet.org/community#!
* Join relevant LinkedIn groups, both Veteran Mentoring groups and groups relevant to Project management.
https://www.linkedin.com/vsearch/g?type=groups&keywords=project+management
https://www.linkedin.com/vsearch/g?type=groups&keywords=pmp
Joe is active in the MC4 group.
https://www.linkedin.com/groups/MilitaryCivilian-Career-Coaching-Connection-MC4-3722272/about#!
With over 40,000 members, Veteran Mentor Network is the largest an done of the most effective Veterans mentoring efforts in the world.
https://www.linkedin.com/groups/Veteran-Mentor-Network-4466143/about#!
* Contact a local chappter of PMI.org and "get involved". Request a mentor.
Consider implementation project management work with software companies selling into government agencies. That would make your degree a positive differentiator vs. a mismatch. Any previous experience working with software packages would be a plus, as would a security clearance.
Downside is a fairly long period of training on a particular package, plus extensive travel to client sites.
Top companies in this area would be SAP, Oracle & Infor, also consulting houses such as IBM/PWC.
Your Answer
Please log in to answer this question.