Neil Serafin ⋅ Easthampton, MA Telecommunications ⋅ 40 years experience

Go sales. Sell Artllery shells. Sell maintenance contracts for aircraft. You have walked the walk and talked the talk. Buyers and end users love people like you. You speak their "language". Contact me for info.

Bob Molluro ⋅ Wilmington, DE Benchmark Consulting Services ltd. ⋅ 30 years experience

Mathew, the sooner you can figure out what you are passionate about and do it, you will realize that you no longer have a job since you will be doing what you love. This is easier said than done. At age 28 I realized I wanted to be an entrepreneur. I was working for IBM at the time and enjoying myself in computer sales. By any measure I was successful. However deep down inside that little voice keep sending me a message that this was not it. I continued to work in the IT industry for about 25 years and eventually became a VP. I got all the benefits /perks you have heard about however there was something missing. In 1991, I began my own business part time and in 1997 I was able to leave the corporate world and go 100%. I have never been happier even though I always work 60-70 hours per week including weekends. I haven't worked a day at a job since 1997. I realize now that all of my experiences in the IT industry were just preparing myself better for what I really wanted to do. I repeat that the sooner you know what you are passionate about and can actually get on that path the better off you will be. In the meantime you may have to take many false steps to get there. What I have outlined for you may help you make better choices when new opportunities present themselves. The other posts are quite good at helping you to solve your short term situation to get started. best of luck.

John Green ⋅ Cary, NC Information Technology ⋅ 40 years experience

A good Cyber Security engineer can make more than $200k on salary.

https://www.roberthalf.com/workplace-research/salary-guides

Drew Schildwächter ⋅ Wilmington, NC Salesforce ⋅ 8 years experience

Matthew: there are many tech companies with a demonstrated interest in hiring (and even training) veterans.

With your interest in computers and specifically databases you might want to check out Salesforce's Vetforce Program (https://veterans.force.com/) and Oracle's Veteran's Workforce Development efforts (http://www.oracle.com/us/corporate/careers/diversity/veterans-programs/workforce-development-program/index.html). I'm sure that there are others out there, too.

Tech can be a wide net to cast, but there are tons of veterans in the tech industry at large happy to help you narrow down your interests and land somewhere that will make you happy and pay the bills. If you would like, I can try to find specific guys in the Oracle veterans network who might be helpful to speak with. Let me know.

Best,
Drew

Jerry Welsh ⋅ Middleville, MI Master Military Transition Advisor/HPS GPO ⋅ 30 years experience

Set up an appointment with your local FAA training inspector and bring your VMET and Joint Military Transcript-that person will tell what class(es) you may need to take to become certified by the FAA on aircraft maintenance. Also look at COOL it will also show what in your training may transfer over.
IT is about certs and education. Certs to get in the door and then later education if you want to move up. I would do some research on careeronestop or bls.gov and then glassdoor.com to see what salaries are like to meet the needs of those hungry boys. The last part of the research is to hit Indeed and Twitter and start pulling down job descriptions for the areas you are interested in, to validate the basic criteria you say in the government sites. The problem with the civilian market is that each company has their own "title", the only way to learn it well is to study a ton of them. Thanks for your service and sacrifice and God Bless.

Robert Jurasek ⋅ Hollywood, FL Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) ⋅ 45 years experience

Dear Matthew,

With your experience, you may qualify as a FAA Aviation Safety Inspector (ASI). To view the qualifications, go to www.usajobs.gov > type 1825 (the job code for ASIs) in the Keywords field > leave the Location field blank and click on Search. The job announcements on which you want to focus include Air Carrier Avionics, Air Carrier Maintenance, General Aviation Avionics, and General Aviation Maintenance.

Most of the job announcements show a split grade of 9/12, which means that you would be at the FG-9 pay grade (FG is similar to the GS pay scale) for the first year then be promoted to a FG-12. The promotion potential for those jobs is FG-14. Locality pay (https://www.opm.gov/policy-data-oversight/pay-leave/salaries-wages/2016/general-schedule/) is added to the salaries shown. The lowest locality pay adjustment is 14.35%.

While you are on the USAJOBS website, click on Location (left column of the page) > click on Add Location to Search > type then select Elizabethtown, Kentucky in the first field then scroll to the bottom of the page and click on Update Search > Remove Keyword 1825 after the page updates > and select Who May Apply: Federal Employees, just below it. The search results will now show all Federal job announcements, which includes a few announcements for an IT Specialist, within a 20-mile radius of Elizabethtown.

If the ASI positions are an option and you need more details, please feel free to contact me. I will let the other Advisors respond to your interests in computers, but you may want to update your question with more information (is your interest more in fixing computers than programming, or cyber security?)

Good luck and thank you for your Service!

Sincerely,
Bob Jurasek