Greeting ACP Board Members
I'll be transitioning out of the Navy after a 20 year career next December and starting to plan for the next chapter of my life. My experiences in the military are quite diverse (Submarine Sailor to Sand Sailor) and I'm having a difficult time explaining my accomplishments and trying to link two unrelated fields to a future career.
I was a Fire Control Technician (FT) on submarines early in my career where I worked on electronics/ IT systems and performed operations like data collection and analysis to support tactical operations at sea. I changed fields after 13 years to military intelligence (IS) where I work mostly with Special Operations in a joint service environment. Additionally I am just 5 classes away from my B.A. from a Top-Tier university and plan to hopefully have it completed by the time I retire.
Ideally I'd like to enter the corporate world as an analyst or management consultant but I'm having some difficulty translating my military experiences to job requirements.
What organizations should I look to join and what certifications should I pursue?
Thanks in advance for all the help!!
Answers
John
Tom's link is a great resource. It will take you to www.careeronestop.org which is a fantastic site. Specifically, the veteran's re-employment link has a military-to-civilian-skills translator that takes your various MOC codes for input. Seriously, don't stop there. The whole site is resource rich and remarkably comprehensive.
Also, the Guerrilla Marketing book series by Jay Conrad Levinson is worth a look at your local library. I think his books are - hands down - some of the best books on low-to-no budgeting marketing out there. More to the point, his guide for career hunters is exceptional as is his manual for consultants. I am not selling anything. I just teach a class - as a Red Cross Volunteer - on occupational transition for vets here at Ft. Belvoir and I am always on the look out for quality material. Good Luck!
There's also a lot of great tips and information in these older threads:
https://acp-advisornet.org/question/725/what-are-best-tools-for-veterans-to-self-assess-their-aptitude-capabilities-and-interestss
found using the topic search tool:
https://acp-advisornet.org/questions/topic/self-assessment
https://acp-advisornet.org/questions/topic/career-assessment
Thanks for all the responses! it look's like I have some homework to do.
I know kind of where I want to be career wise but like a kid in the candy store it's hard to decide what exactly I want and the path I need to take to get there.. I'm going to reach out to my mentor and see if he has any ideas!
Hi John,
What do you want to do, what most truthfully grabs and keeps your engagement? Every industry, of course, needs analysts and consultants, but as a hiring manager, what I really want to know is why do you want to work in MY industry?
I will hire someone with passion in my industry over someone more highly qualified with education in a heartbeat. Something to think about...
Thanks,
Jon
I agree with my fellow college from NY. I would strongly encourage you to finish up that B.A. Like you I finished out 20 years in the Navy and transitioned from BM to IS to O SWO and finished up as an Intel O. I had the same trouble translating my military skills to civilian language. Best advice I can offer is if you are applying to government work, put every single award, certification, completed training course, all jobs you have held to this point and highlight anytime where you saved the command money or improved the way of doing business. Practice those interview skills over and over. What are your strength's and weaknesses, why do you want this job? Translate every specific job specific into those questions. That's how I arrived at the treasury as a GS-14. The hiring manager was BIG on education and the supervisors were big on Intel skills for what job you could do for them. Feel free to message me if you have more questions.
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