Chris Rossini ⋅ Lakeville, MN General Mills ⋅ 11 years experience

The right industry for you is the which you will most enjoy. Follow your interests and passion.

Richard Buck ⋅ Patterson, NY EY ⋅ 25 years experience

You could considered Management Consulting. I work for Capco with is a Management Consulting firm. We are looking for good people. we have a couple for good programs for people just starting in Management Consulting. We also hire season project/program manager.
If interested send me your resume and lets talk

Semper Fi
_____________________
Richard Buck
(914) 391-3375 (mobile)
76warrior85@gmail.com
www.linkedin.com/in/ribuck/

Bill Nobles ⋅ Basking Ridge, NJ Exxon ⋅ 30 years experience

Marvin, thank you for your service. Building on Sam's advice this is a good time to examine your strengths and personal interests before choosing an industry or job. My recent post "What are best tools for veterans to self-assess their aptitude, capabilities, and interests?" lists some tools for you to consider along with the experiences of others who tried them.
Good luck, Bill

Bill Craig ⋅ Madison, VA NDA Partners LLC ⋅ 40 years experience

There is no pat answer to your question, but the recommendation to do what you like to do is very sound. When I retired from the Navy, I determined that I wanted to work with good people and do good things. So far I have been able to do that; first in the IT industry and now with a consulting company focused on the Pharmaceutical and medical device industries. As far as industries go, it's always a challenge to predict which will continue to grow throughout your projected working time. Even within industries, availability of jobs is quite dynamic, so you need to keep abreast of developments and trends and learn to be nimble. Good luck.

Sam Miller ⋅ Houston, TX Hewlett Packard ⋅ 25 years experience

If you are not in a hurry and are willing to get more education, there are several industries that use program managers, including technology. You could take several career tests at such places as http://www.careertest.net/ to get a statistical feel for what you would like to do, and then you could research those fields to find the greatest need area (to establish the likelyhood of getting jobs), and then get education that would help you in that field you choose. If you want to use your current skillset as program manager, internet searches can give you some idea of available jobs for that skill. I recommend spending most of your time job searching by networking (meeting people), as this is the path that 70% of people get jobs, as opposed to merely 3-5% via internet and email communications. Also, in my experience the enjoyability of a career has as much to do with who you are working with (the kind of people) as it is with what you are doing.

ken wayte ⋅ Costa Mesa, CA General Electric ⋅ 30 years experience

Marvin, you must find something that you will be able to do day in day, and not dislike what you are doing. While it is rewarding to find something that you are passionate about, most people do not end up doing that. It is OK not to be passionate about what you, just make sure you get some enjoyment out of it rather than not liking what you do.
Focus on growth industries. Do not end up in an industry that is contracting either in volume or margins. Life will become difficult in those industries. When the auto industry started, that is where one wanted to be, not selling horse and buggies.
I do not know your background but the person above who mentioned oil and gas has suggested a good area.
Find a professional or a network organization that can evaluate your skill set, and give you candid feed back on what your strengths and weaknesses are. Best of luck

Tom Johnson ⋅ Newport Beach, CA General Electric ⋅ 25 years experience

Based on you skill set I would advise anything Energy or Oil and Gas.

Tom