Tom Cal, CFA ⋅ San Francisco, CA Army Veteran, Investment Manager ⋅ 25 years experience

* Pleads interact, ask follow-up questions, and provide feedback.

* As others mention, earning an in-demand professional certificating is a great idea. As evidence, there are over 4,200 job-listings on indeed.com that mention one of the HRCI certifications.
http://www.indeed.com/jobs?q=phr+or+sphr+or+gphr&l=#!

* As an alternative to a program that requires payment or use of benefits, please also consider and research 100% free remote training offered by VCTP Syracuse. Contact VCTP Syracuse and schedule a time with a professional advisor to learn. VCTP Syracuse is 100% free for post 9/11 Veterans and spouse, no benefits used or required.

http://vets.syr.edu/education/employment-programs/#!

* As others mention, reach out to a local chaplet of SHRM.org, join and get involved. Proactively contact the local chapter by email and phone, introduce yourself, request advice and guidance, and offer to help. Attend local meetings in-person, network, request mentors and advisors, offer to help, and get involved.
http://www.shrm.org/Communities/SHRMChapters/Pages/default.aspx#1

* Request a one-on-one mentor from the ACP mentoring one-on-one program. (see acp-usa.org). Be patient and be selective in the mentor with which you work.

* Craft a personal and typed career networking plan. Share it with us for review and so we can learn.
http://www.bing.com/search?q=career+networking+plan

* Be sure to craft a solid LinkedIn profile and resume.

* Again, please interact and provide feedback, so we can help further, and so we can learn how to serve as better mentors of Veterans.

Mike Esqueda ⋅ Chicago, IL Zurich North America ⋅ 3 years experience

By the way Depaul is an excellent choice!

Mike Esqueda ⋅ Chicago, IL Zurich North America ⋅ 3 years experience

Valeria,

All the recommendation above are spot on! I have been on the recruiting for going on 2 years now and I love it! I think the big key will be to identify what area(s) in HR you enjoy the most i.e. employee relations, recruiting, HR Business Partner, etc. By networking and asking other HR Professionals about some of their challenges, wins, and advice you will be able to reduce our scope to a desired career. I have also seen a handful of recruiters who leveraged their experience from recruiting to land other HR roles within the organization. Entry level recruiting positions are fairly easy to come by but the key will be to find a permenant role. This way you can leverage the companies internal mobility and promotional career path.

Best of Luck!

Mike-
U.S. Army

Jamie Doud ⋅ Houston, TX JRD Consulting; (Prior): Easton Sports ⋅ 20 years experience

Hi Valeria, thank you for your service to our country. My Father was in the USAF.

I live in Houston, TX. I've been in H/R and general business for 30+ years (Texas, NYC, California, Eurpope, Latin America). I have a GPHR from HRCI and an MBA.

Rick Baron above provided some good advice. Additionally:

1) You may want to join The Society for Human Resources Management (SHRM), or a local chapter ( I belong to SHRM and HR Houston). These are great places to network, look for jobs, have blog discussions, and keep up to date on the latest and greatest.

2) Make sure to have a solid resume (1-2 page max) and cover letter ( 1 page max). Chronological resume is the best. Recruiters want to see what you've been doing the last 1-3 years in particular, then go back in time from there. Make sure all is concise, truthful, and keep the language "business professional". If you belong to SHRM you can get resume templates, etc. If not, Google HR resumes and see what you get on the internet. If not go to Amazon.com and search for resume/cover letter books and spend $20 on one, and get a great resource for yourself, and use it when you get an HR job.

3) Get a profile up on LinkedIn (LI) ASAP. Make sure it matches your resume. In my opinion, LI is currently the best place to be seen, look for employment, connect/network others, and you can join local, country wide, and international HR groups to network with and educate yourself on HR issues.

4) Don't be afraid to contact a temporary agency or search firm and get a temp job, or part-time job. You will get experience, maybe a foot in the door, and you can always continue to look for full-time employment. Volunteer work may also prove helpful, and get a foot in the door as well as help others. Plus this gives you something else on your resume.

And Network, Network, Network. This can be at any social event with friends, family, etc., industry specific events/meetings that may pertain to the particular industry/company type you may be interested in.

Good luck with all Valeria....

Rick Baron ⋅ Sarasota, FL Coca-Cola ⋅ 16 years experience

Hello Valeria, you have several options to get that experience. Some ideas are to connect with local HR associations for networking opportunities, offering your HR expertise as a volunteer for a not for profit organizations, or registering with your regional staffing organizations for contract HR opportunities which often require less experience than many full time HR positions.

Smaller organizations are often receptive to less experience and with your strong leadership and operations experience you can piggy-back that experience into more administrator type positions, then move into more full time HR.

I think a big thing to remember is that you seeking entry-level positions within HR so be receptive to titles such as HR Assistant, Benefits Coordinator, Recruiter, etc. With your background you will move quickly upward and it might take several job changes to get the position you'd like.

The PHR is a good move for you to link your current education to an HR skillset. When you get it, I would make sure you highlight it in a prominent position on your resume.

Lastly, remember when you conduct your search, really tone down the military jargon and use terminology that is very business-centric. You and I understand many of those military terms, but the average business person has no clue. Making the connections for them is really critical.

I'm happy to help or talk through any questions you might have. You can reach me at rmhbaron@hotmail.com. Good luck and thanks for your service. Rick

Craig Bush ⋅ Boston, MA IBM ⋅ 11 years experience

Hi Valeria,

I've answered this elsewhere. But here's the sort answer.

A cert is always nice to have on the resume if you have the time and money to get it. But be mindful that companies like to differentiate their service offerings to stand out amongst their competition. The cert will teach you the basics which is always a good thing to know.

I would approach the interview using your leadership and training experience as an officer. They'll like that. Training the troops is directly transferable to project management. Here's my answer to another similar question:

Consider the training of your troops as an example.

Let's say you are assigned to a new unit. One of the very first things you do is size up the capabilities and weaknesses of your team. In consulting we call this "establishing the As-Is state." You'll look through their proficiency reports and records, you'll take them out for a run to see who's the fastest and who's the slowest. You'll take them to the range. You'll discover how much of their basic skills are up to snuff. This is basically the analysis phase.

From there you figure out where you need to go. We call this "gap analysis" but it's basically the same thing. Then you'll consult with the leadership and figure out a training schedule to get them where they need to be. We call this the "To-Be" state along with a plan, a schedule, milestones, meetings, etc. You naturally establish a planning phase, an execution phase, and finally an assessment and testing phase. Afterward, you work on remedial training until everyone is at or nearly at where you want them.

Of course, your experience will influence the efficiency of this process but in my mind they are exactly the same.

Hope that helps.

Fouad Malik ⋅ Los Angeles, CA ⋅ 7 years experience

Project Management Professional (PMP) is a solid certification and will enable you to translate your military skills and experience to civilian equivalent. I have been teaching a project management certification courses to veterans for past three years and more than 80% percent of those who went through the course gained employment.

Projects occurs in various industries so if you do not have IT or related background for which you need extensive training, you should still be able to gain employment in project management or related occupation based on your past experience and background.

I think that your next step may be to develop an excellent resume targeted to project management or related occupations. If you need resume assistance, email me at: fouad@able2work.org.

Alex Wilson ⋅ Stewartstown, PA Collabsion, Inc (self employed) ⋅ 25 years experience

Valeria, I agree with what Joe said about the field, however, there is hope. I spent over 22 years in IT with many of those years as a PM. Over two years ago I transitioned to wireless communications (cellular, WiFi, radio, etc). I am still doing PM work. Conceptually it is the same, although cellular projects span many different disciplines such as construction, engineering, IT, and general labor management. My point is that your skills as a PM will help you in any industry.

You will want to focus initially on the areas you have industry experience with so that you can minimize the hit you will take when applying for jobs requiring some level of industry experience. Then you can start to branch out to other fields building even more value.

One of my selling points has been my depth and breadth of knowledge in different fields and industries.

Best of luck to you!

Jake Miller ⋅ New York, NY Undiclosed ⋅ 3 years experience

Hey, if you are still looking out for PMP training in Washington DC , you can get trained by us,
check out greycampus,com
or send in your queries to jake@greycmapus.com

Valeria Maretti ⋅ Carlisle, PA U.S. Army, First Lieutenant ⋅ 4 years served

Understood, thanks.

Joe Paschall ⋅ Madison, AL nLogic, LLC ⋅ 26 years experience

There really is no "PM Field" so you need to reconsider your focus. PM is a position within many fields, and you need to ensure you are qualified for the field itself. To be a PM in IT, you would need the PMP and IT experience. Conversely, someone with IT experience and a PMP would not be qualified to be a PM in Construction. Ensure that you are being realistic by scoping your resume toward fields that you have experience in, in addition to the PMP. Having the cert does open doors, but it does not open doors too far beyond your own technical experience.

Joe

Robert Brockman ⋅ San Diego, CA San Diego State University now Self Empl ⋅ 52 years experience

Hope this is not too late before you get busy with the move. This Message Board format is sometimes a little hard to follow and determine up-ticks on new entries but obviously you are shifting your plans from HR to PM and moving too so anything said here has to apply accordingly. I will just add for what its worth, I think the HR shift is a good idea what with limited employment still a factor in the USA. (Not much HR going on) Anyway, PM is probably a more versatile field. So since you have also already stepped forward into some organized prep for PM my only suggestion would be what I usually tell my counselees when they are changing plans, go back to basics and start over with the effort. You have already started in that direction and using some of the previous above general advice is helpful but only as applied now to PM. I have not lived in Texas for a long time but have followed the enterprise development in and around Austin on the I-35 corridor which I would think is chocked full of PM opportunities for someone who is connected and already in the stream ala start up of educational prep. I would say therefore that your best efforts now would be connections, connections, connections along with some assessment about where the PM jobs are going to be and to what extent are you mobile enough to be able to follow the best trails to jobs in the future. Include professional connections through joining the right associations and don’t waste time and effort on “get there quick” schooling. Go with a learning source that is reputable and preferably has an in-house placement service. Texas may or may not be your best bet for a career in PM start up but presently there is some aggressive work going on to bring in new industry. Keep an eye on that too.

Good luck……….

Valeria Maretti ⋅ Carlisle, PA U.S. Army, First Lieutenant ⋅ 4 years served

Good afternoon everyone and thank you for your great advice. I've decided to pursue a PMP certification instead, after weighing all pros and cons of HR, Project Management, and my experience, I've registered for a project management certification program (followed by the PMP exam through PMI, once I get near completion of the program). I'll edit my post to reflect this change. Currently, I'm moving my house, so I may not be on this site as often as I would like, but will try my best to interact and provide feedback. Thanks again.