keith lydon ⋅ Johnston, IA U.S. Army National Guard, Specialist ⋅ 20 years served

Hello Jesus, My name is Keith and I'm a veteran too. It has been hard transitioning into the civilian life since I retired in 2017. If you are interested in finance I may have a job opportunity. Please message me back and I will fill you more with details.

Emma Chambless ⋅ Broadway, NC Verizon Business ⋅ 22 years experience

Hi, Jesus!
I'm a Veteran myself, been out since 1998. I got hired directly into the IT world (which made my transition super easy!) Now, I'm in a leadership role now with Verizon. I just saw a posting last week for an HR position with my company? Verizon is a GREAT place for Veterans to work. There is money for college, medical, dental, extra vision (if needed), employee assistance programs of all types and best of all, there's a lot of Veterans already here!

Here's a place to start a search for what interests you...

https://www.verizon.com/about/careers

joel carbajal ⋅ El Paso, TX U.S. Army, Sergeant First Class ⋅ 20 years served

Greetings Mr. Fernandez,
Thank you for your service.

Transitioning can be a challenge but know that you are not alone. The USO transitions is an awesome program that can help you. Best part is FREE. As most mentioned above. Start your transition by increasing your network. Use your FREE one year premium LinkedIn, get a mentor on the field your are trying to get into. Think about a certifications such as aPHR, PHR or SPHR. There are requisites for each of them. To see which one you qualify for look onto HRCI. IF you have any questions or need to connect you can send a message thru here or on LinkedIn.

Best wishes

Johnathan Vaughan ⋅ Rocky Point, NC U.S. Army, Private ⋅ 1 years served

Hi Sergeant Fernandez,

The best thing you can do is start networking early. I live down in Wilmington and have great connections with area businesses. Are you planning to stay local or do you want a new scene? There is a great network of vets in Irreverent Warriors that will be participating in the Wilmington and Jacksonville marches that would be great to connect with. I'd like to connect with you and go through your transferrable skills and your goals and ambitions to see if I could help you find your path to success.

All the best,

Johnathan Vaughan

George Wilhelmsen ⋅ Rochelle, IL Sargent & Lundy ⋅ 38 years experience

I guess I'll be the only one asking you to consider other alternatives.

While every corporation has HR jobs, the jobs are largely administrative and sedentary.

Perhaps you should consider a career in avionics? As someone who is in touch with the aviation industry, I can tell you that the only places that have looked for personnel in recessions and the latest COVID mess are avionics shops.

Google "Avionics News" and look at the job postings. As someone who has done both management and work, I think you'll find the work far more rewarding in the long run than any HR position.

Todd Cloutier ⋅ Woburn, MA Raytheon Technologies ⋅ 1 years experience

Jesus,

If you are interested in any positions at Raytheon Technologies, I will gladly assist you in applying by giving you an internal referral. Please let me know by sending me a message on here and we can further discuss career opportunities. In the meantime, I highly recommend looking at our career website: https://www.rtx.com/careers/overview

Henry ("Dr. Hank") Stevens ⋅ Fort Lauderdale, FL Human Resources Quality Assurance, LLC (Now Retired) ⋅ 50 years experience

Welcome to the Civilian World, Sarge! I too jumped from MOS 916 to Human Resources and stayed with it for ALL of my civilian careers. HOWEVER, that's not to say you should!

I suggest you step back and thoroughly ask yourself, "What are MY talents?" Then, pursue careers that are thus aligned.

Here is a (free) assessment tool for Carl Jung's assessment (MBTI).

http://www.humanmetrics.com/personality

I also endorse the book, "What Color is Your Parachute." Good material there!

Jeff Martin ⋅ Ashburn, VA The Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System ⋅ 25 years experience

I’d suggest that you network at the target company or industry. Use LinkedIn to find people already working there and reach out to them. Ask them the process they used to get hired and ask them to help you navigate the hiring process and if they are willing, ask them to submit you as a referral. These activities require much more time on your part but in my opinion would greatly increase your chances for success. Good luck!

David Gentes ⋅ Lexington, MA MIT Lincoln Laboratory ⋅ 35 years experience

Hello Sergeant Fernandez,
I also transitioned from the Corps as a E-5 Radio Technician with a Bachelor's Degree. That was in 1977 and I have worked in Human Resources for 43 years since then.
You will be coming into the workforce with a good set of transferable skills. Your MOS training has provided you with a basis of technology understanding and your supervisory experience is helpful. Human Resources has a number of career paths. If you chose to pursue Recruiting/Staffing, your training may be advantageous in working at finding and hiring people who have technical skills. As an example, Harris Corporation produces a number of the radios that you worked on. Your domain understanding may be helpful there.
In Employee Relations you would be working in a very different capacity. That would likely require more specialized training. HR is a very challenging and rewarding field.
I will suggest a book titled "What Color is Your Parachute" by Richard Bolles. There are also a number of web sites that use the same techniques to help job seekers to target opportunities more closely. There are options on Linked in that will be helpful. You will have opportunities to get information a lot of ways. Looking for a job is difficult but you have a lot to offer and the right position is out there for you. Please feel to contact me directly at gentes@ll.mit.edu if you want to converse further.