David Daugerdas ⋅ Palatine, IL IBM ⋅ 36 years experience

Thank you for your service. In addition to the tips mentioned in Deanna's reply, project management is not industry-specific, so if there's a particular field in which you wish to work or already have experience, you can apply project management to it. Entry-level positions could be project assistant, project administrator, junior project manager, etc. Key skills include good communications (written and oral) leadership, organization, the ability to motivate others, managing without authority, managing risk and the ability to juggle multiple tasks simultaneously, among others.

Deanna Corbett ⋅ Winter Garden, FL VMware ⋅ 21 years experience

Hi Steven,
Thank you for your service.

Making the shift to project management is easier than you might expect since much of your background and experience are likely project management related and will translate well into relevant work experience and anecdotes to use during an interview process.

As far as other prerequisites, obtaining a PMP certification or Agile-related certification can help. The PMP alone will open doors as far as job entry - but you need actual Agile experience to back up an Agile certification.

A couple resources that might help you prepare for the transition and shift to a project management career path are:

Vets2PM: https://vets2pm.com

Vets2Industry: https://vets2industry.com

VetStone: https://militaryvetstone.com

Another helpful thing to do is whatever the industry and organization you're looking to become a project manager in, be sure to research that area so you will have the contextual understanding of where you will perform that job. Project management is a very flexible skill set that will allow you to work in many fields and in all organizations within a civilian company. If you pick a starting point of "working in IT for a tech company" you'll also need a basic understanding of IT and the specific technology area the company develops (e.g. cybersecurity, cloud computing, hardware, silicon, etc.)

Finding people who work in companies similar to the area you aim to go can be useful to get more detail about what they look for when hiring - and be sure to check for any Veterans Programs available.

Best of luck!