Morgan Lerette ⋅ Glendale, AZ AAA ⋅ 6 years experience

Hello Billy,

I transitioned twice from the military (once after being enlisted and once after being an officer). Both times I went directly into college. That is my recommendation. Transitioning to college you:

1) Learn new skills. The military teaches many intangible skills. College can be used to learn the hard skills you may not have gotten; specifically if you go into business (finance, accounting etc.) or Engineering.

2) Create a network. Get into a college with a good regional or national reputation and it opens up the alumni network to you. This is great for job placement. Not all colleges are the same and I'd steal clear of online degrees as part of network building is talking to humans in person.

3) Make new friends who can give you civilian perspective. This is invaluable. You think like a military memeber. Learning to see the worl through a "civilian" paradigm is necessary for job hunting and military-to-civilian resume translation.

4) The pace of life slows. The military is fast (until they make you wait). College is slow in comparison. You'll learn to be patient with procrastinating students...and teachers. When you can't pull rank, you learn coersion.

5) The post 9/11 pays for everything. Use it.

I could list more but I've probably already lost your attention. LOOK A FLYING PIG! Hope that helped.

MCL

Billy Austin ⋅ Valdosta, GA U.S. Air Force, Staff Sergeant ⋅ 8 years served

Thank you everyone for your very helpful and insightful responses. It's nice to know that there are people out there who don't mind helping someone out when needed.

Rashid, thank you for the encouragement in whatever I decide to do. I do have a lot of experience and I'm doing the best that I can to set myself up now. It's reassuring to hear that a transition out of the military isn't as scary as it feels if I prepare before hand. Moody isn't a bad place to be but for a lot of people it ends up being a black hole and they don't leave. I've looked at two units up at Pope as well but they don't have any manning slots for me at the moment. I feel that would be a great place end my career or fall in love with it again.

Robert, thanks for the advice. After I test for promotion next month I plan to do a lot more prep work and learning for my new career. A Linked-In Profile is at the top of my list of things to do as well since it has become the new norm. I work in Communications here in the military and I feel most comfortable in an IT setting but I definitely won't be restricting myself to just IT. I'm up for anything as long as it's PM. I also checked out your employer, URS. They seem to be a pretty good company and I had no idea they existed until you mentioned them. I really like the fact that they have openings all over the world. I'd definitely like to see some more of the world on my time vs during a deployment.

Morgan, thanks and very good points, I'm working on all of them now. 1) Air Force E-Learning has tons of Project Management CBTs as well as Management CBTs and anything else you can think of for me to learn from. 2) Creating networks is what I'm attempting to do here and I'll also be doing that on PMIs website and with some of their Chapters after next month. 3) I've made quite a few friends who have gotten out and some who have never enlisted but I do plan to make more. The more the merrier for sure. 4) I've noticed the slower pace with non-military agencies throughout my time in the Air Force. I'm always in a rush and go go go but the civilians definitely take it easy compared to life in the military. 5) Since my classes are online and $250 per semester hour, I'm already using the MGIB to pay for classes and books after my TA runs out for the year. I've spent far too long in the military without getting my degree. Time to get it done and move on to bigger and better things, like a Masters!

Lori, thank you for the advice. I know I'll miss the visible rank in the military if I get out. It's frustrating even now just to walk into a business and not be able to tell the managers from the workers or who's the boss. It can be easy in some places but not everywhere. I'm sure I'll have some trouble with it initially but it will pass. I do plan to ask lots of questions in a new job. To me it's the best way to learn about your new job and new surroundings with as few mistakes as possible.

Thank you all again for the advice and encouragement.

Billy

Lori Cox ⋅ Edwardsville, IL AT&T ⋅ 19 years experience

Billy, I concur with what Rashid and Bob have said - it sounds like you are on the right track! I thought I might share some of my thoughts from when I retired and started to work at AT&T. One thing was that I didn't submit my paperwork until I had a solid job offer. I don't know if this will be possible for you but it allowed me to move directly from the military to the new job.

I'm not sure if this is the type of advice you are looking for but, once I started the new job, there were several things I was challenged with. The first was how much I had relied upon visible rank and name tags. I really had to work at remembering everyone's name. It was also challenging for me to learn who was the leader (and at what level) and who was the lower level worker bee. I work in an environment with a mix of union and management and they are not treated the same way. Union employees have very strict working hours, breaks and lunch. Management employees are much more flexible and usually do not take breaks or lunch on a regular schedule. Some of this is local politics or culture, but it was very different for me and took some adjusting before I was comfortable with it. It was also challenging to learn who handled what responsibilities and how to know when to pass something off to another person. I was used to working things from start to end or at least having a clear idea of who did what. The civilian world is not very clear cut. Lastly, I missed the availability of written guidelines for every task. Yes, I hated all the regulations when I was in the Air Force, but once I retired and discovered that most civilian jobs do not have clear cut guidelines, I missed them.

So, what is my advice to you? Remain flexible and take advantage of you 'newness' in a job to ask LOTS of questions, questions about roles, culture, authority levels, work hours, etc. If you learn all this while you are new it will help you to blend in better and not make some of the mistakes I made. Good Luck!

Robert Lamaster ⋅ Olivia, MN Kyndryl ⋅ 17 years experience

Once you've completed your prep work, as Rashid discussed, the actual transition (and the months leading up to it) can worry you quite a lot. Just remember Rashid's advice, and be confident that you've got a "leg up" on those who didn't prepare so well.

Don't be afraid! Many people leaving the military spent their time doing little to prepare. If you ask everyone entering basic training why they joined, many will tell you that at least part of their decision was for the education and experience. Now survey the same people again when they leave the military and find out how many actually got a degree while they were in. Shockingly very few. Many others were simply marking time and didn't pursue challenging military jobs. You do have a leg up.

When you've decided to make the move, it's important that you not only have a good resume; You also want to polish your online image. Employers will often look at any information (social media especially) that tells the story about you. If you don't have a Linked-In profile, create one. Get recommended on Linked-In by writing recommendations for others you respect. They will often return the favor. Follow professional groups that specialize in your desired field. Contribute to their forums. Every once in a while, mention that you're getting out of the military and ask their advice on job availability. The key to the best job is knowing people and communicating with them. If you have a FaceBook account, spend some time removing junk. You want to use it as a tool for your image. Get rid of garbage such as "LoL Cats", etc. Follow people and groups that make your FaceBook a tool for your image.

Sure, your resume is your first foot in the door, but it may not be your only foot. On the last three interview boards I sat, we looked at the candidate's Linked-in accounts (if they had one). It's a good way to see what someone is like when they aren't in "interview mode".

Also, don't limit yourself to IT firms. I'm in IT, but work for a major company that does energy, construction, oil, mining, and many other contract work. My Navy experience was in IT. We have project managers all over the world that handle our IT (and non-IT) projects.

When I got out of the Navy, I took the first medium-paying job I could find. It was do-able, and gave me some experience in the civilian sector. I spent that time working my way up as far as I could go in IT network administration (for a school district). Also, I spent that time learning technologies in use at major companies (since the military often uses proprietary stuff). Once I had enough knowledge and tinkering experience, I started looking at corporate jobs. It only took about 3 months to land a great one that I'm very happy with and pays well.

In most companies there is plenty of IT and plenty of project management. Two things it seems like you have experience with. I wish you the best of luck in your transition. If you'd like to know more about anything I've said here, please let me know.

Robert (Bob) Lamaster

Rashid Hill, MPM ⋅ San Diego, CA United States Navy ⋅ 33 years experience

Good day Billy. I hope you are doing well. Funny thing, when I saw that you were at Moody AFB I had a flashback from my air force days ... I wasn't stationed there but knew some good friends that were. So, you are thinking about making the transition to civilian life in about 4 years.

The first thing I see here is that you seem to be doing very well in the Air Force and able to acquire a good amount of education and certifications while you are in. You're a SSgt heading toward 12 years. Attending school to get your B.S. and have project management experience. You should be able to do well with your military career. I would not suggest that you stay in for 20 or leave after 12, I am just responding to what you have laid out in your post.

When I'm asked by my coaching clients if Is it hard outside of the military to get a good paying job I normally would say, if you have used your last few years to prepare well for the transition then no, it's not hard. As you are aware, many people have left the military for better paying positions yet, that does not always equate to a better quality of life, benefits or culture.

Let me tell you a little bit about my Air Force story. I was (and still) in the TMO or Transportation field. Traveled the world in a couple of wars and made the decision midway through my term that I wanted to get out and take a contractor job. Why? Well, while stationed at Pope AFB, NC I was in a briefing about the future of TMO and how it might be better to bring in contractors to do that part of the military function. Somewhat like part of a A-76 evaluation. As soon as I left that briefing all I could think about was, as soon as I can get out I will contact a government contractor that is supporting the Air Force transportation and logistics. Why did I feel so confident at this endeavor? Just as you do now, I had my associates and bachelor's degree and was certified on systems that you could only get in the military so the contractor would be looking for hands on experience from someone... from the USAF TMO field; 2TOX1 type. So, yes, I made the move and happy I did. It worked out just like I planned. As a civilian contractor I was able to use my military experience and be trusted to lead teams without worrying about rank. Got promoted at a steady pace and eventually this led to my current federal position.

You have the right background and skillset to do very well in the vast IT field. With the Project Management education you want to get the PMP certification, look for opportunities to lead projects so that you will have experience to include in your resume. You are on the right track and I believe you will excel in the Air Force or if you choose to transition out. Just be smart about what it means to you and your future to either stay for 20 years in the military or transition out and forge your own path. All the best to you Billy.

Rashid
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