Retirement date is 10 April and I am locked into seeking job opportunities along the central California Coast due to family reasons. Seasoned project/program manager with a background in spacecraft as well as satellite and missile launch operations. Leader of progressively larger and award winning teams, versed in team building and goal attainment within fiscal contraints and maintaining schedule. Expert communicator (oral/written) as well as with all current computer planning and communication systems. Strategic planner and leader, have managed programs successfully with budgets of over $250M. 2 Masters and 1 Bachelors degree with numerous professional certifications.
Answers
Hi Walt,
Retired high ranking military officers generally won't find the jobs they're best suited for posted on line or in trade publications. Placement firms (head hunters) have access to clients looking for job candidates for executive positions with your skill set. Approach reputable firms in the area you want to live.
Good luck.
Pete Schilleci
Walter,
You are in the middle of the biggest congomeration of aviation / aerospace firms on the planet where you will be located. Northrup Grumman, Lockheed Martin, Boeing, and others all have presences in your area.
So, I'll ask the obvious question: have you looked on MONSTER? Most of these firms post to the big job sites. What you'll need to do is leverage your resume to the job you are applying to, and get down to factoids that are accurate, and portray your performance in the light that it deserves to be in.
Where I suspect you'll need help is in the interviewing process. Do you have anyone who can run through some targeted selection questions with you, to help you gain a feel for them? Most places are looking for "STARS" - Situation or Task, the Action you took, and the ResultS of that action. They don't want to know what the team did - they want to know what you did.
Good luck!
George Wilhelmsen
Have you checked out SpaceX in LA - not quite central coast, but close.
O
Hi Walter. Your leadership skill set sounds awesome, with 22 years of growth and command level management, supervsion and team building, I'm wondering if you've thought about consulting independently. I work in your area on the Central Coast as well and would not mind providing you with a high end mock interview setting to practice. With 112+ staff members in Santa Maria, we might be able to provide some great networking resources for you as well. Leadership training is something that requires experiential history and I would be interested to hear what you have thought about,contracting your consulting services to collaborative minded agents and agencies throughout bot Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo counties. Let me know if you'd be interested.
George,
Thanks a bunch for the tips and advice. Yes, I have registered with Monster but have found that as I continue to network and explore with these companies (I have worked with all three of them in one shape or the other during my AF career) a large portion of the jobs they have openings for are in a "hidden" network where there is a lot of "word of mouth" referral hiring going on. Your advice on the interviewing is spot on and I will definitely practice practice practice on that front! The STARS sound a heckuva lot like our "Action-Impact-Result" format we use to write performance reports. I'm definitely going to have to explore how to translate adequately what I have done under the veil of military jargon to what accurately conveys in "civilian speak" what I really did
Thanks again, this is very helpful!
Walt
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