Timothy Strickland ⋅ Frederick, MD Defense Health Agency ⋅ 10 years experience

John,

Changing careers is hard but not impossible. It's all about selling the skills you have. From what I gather:
-10yrs recruiting for the Army (processing paperwork for entry level personnel, advertising positions, matching personnel with openings, employee entry testing, answering benefit questions, public speaking, processing background checks)
-ANCOC instructor (teaching advanced level technical and management concepts, leading personnel, test writing/grading, developing and enriching learning environments)
-SFC (I'm sure at some point in your career you mentored junior personnel, assisted with benefit claims, secured professional/financial assistance for service members)

Obviously, you would have to fill in the gaps and I'm sure some of what I wrote above does not apply. However, write your resume as a human resource specialist who just happed to work on generators for 20 years. Now you may have to take an entry level HR job as there are fundamental differences in HR for military and civilian members. But, don't sell yourself short. Just highlight your HR background and shine a spotlight on your HR degree.
Good Luck.

Timothy

Stacey Murphy ⋅ Denville, NJ Beacon Consulting ⋅ 18 years experience

John, I'm late to the table here but here are a few thoughts. If you're going to have a Management Major, it's really good to have a focus, so concentration in Human Resources is great, especially since you've had experience in that area. Beyond Monster, it would be good to get your profile onto Linked In. They have a really good job board as well. uSing linked in, you can make connections so you may know some of the people in the companies you're looking at. And as Bill mentioned, networking is key. If you draft a good resume, talk to friends at church or clubs you're in, ask for feedback on your resume. You're not asking them for a job, just input to your resume, and maybe they have connections they could connect you to. Good luck!
Stacey

Stefan Beyer ⋅ Kirkland, WA Wipro Ltd ⋅ 12 years experience

So, what made you pick HR as a place to go? I'm not sure what their salaries are like, but switching to computer science might also be a good move for you too. Starting salaries are at around $25 for an SDET (Software Development Engineer in Test - basically a programmer who writes automated test cases) contract. With a few years' experience you can get back to $35 and hour.

Since you're going back to school, this might be something to look into. If you'd like to try it out, I recommend getting a "Learn C++ in 30 days" or "Java for Dummies" book (Java & C++ are commonly-used programming languages) and see how you like it. Learning the basics of programming isn't that hard (there aren't that many commands); it's how you combine those commands to make something that defines a computer programmer.

Anyway, best of luck to you, and if you have any questions on the field feel free to shoot me a message!

Joshuah Chrisman ⋅ New York, NY NYC Department of Parks and Recreation ⋅ 1 years experience

Hi John,

Given that you sound like an expert in the Power Generation Field, you might consider applying for positions in the Human Resources Department of companies that deal in Power Generation. This would be especially true if you consider a career in the sub-field of talent acquisition and recruitment as you would be well versed, beyond the average HR specialist, as to the qualifications and dimensions of the persons that would benefit the company.

I would also suggest reaching out to other HR professionals on this site, using the community tab at the top of the page and sorting Advisors by expertise, to locate and reach out to professionals that would have far greater insight into the matter. You can ask individual questions to as many people as you like and build a dialogue as well as network with HR professionals all over the country.

I hope this helps.

Josh

John Bittner ⋅ Chester, VA U.S. Army, Sergeant First Class ⋅ 22 years served

Thanks Bill for answering so quickly. I have since fixed my grammatical error. You have given some good advice. I already have been networking with HR. Personal, that's one thing I picked up while being a recruiter for the army. You can never have enough combat multipliers to assist you in completing your goals in life.

Monster in my opinion is nothing more then a spam networking system. At least that's what I have gathered over the past few years from it.

I am hoping to use some of my military recruiting experience to compensate for experience so I will not have to start at the bottom. However I am preparing myself for the worst but hoping for the best.

That is one of the reasons I have joined this site. To assist and use as combat multiplier to ensure that I am at least pointed in the right direction. Thanks again for your words of wisdom.

Bill Blair ⋅ Holiday, FL Legacy Venture Group ⋅ 35 years experience

John:
Switching careers is often difficult because companies generally want experienced people. Incidentally, have someone proof anything you might submit (resume) it wasn't clear what you meant to say in your post -"worked for a civilian generator company making the most important....WHAT?? It didn't make sense and will reflect badly on you.
here are a few suggestions:
1.if you really want to try HR -call a HR person explaining you'd really appreciate some direction that they could give you.Offer to take them to lunch! You'll learn a lot - and maybe make a friend-may take some effort -but it will be worth it.
2.Monster.com was a great internet site for finding jobs -don't know if they are still around -but sure there are a lot around. Don't engage one that wants you to pay a fee up front -run from them
3.Find a recruiter (again on the internet -they are looking for qualified persons with specific skill sets to FILL a job. maybe there is something that your power generator experience would complement
4.Network -ie ask around your church if there are any HR people
5. Lastly, to set your expectation level -You were making almost $6000 month - that's almost going to be impossible to duplicate within an area you have no experience in.
Side note-although I live in Tampa, Florida now....I was born in Roanoke, Va and my dad was a 30 yr AF pilot.
best of luck
Bill Blair