Transition Insight

TAOnline.com Education Hint of the Month -

Texas College Credit for Heroes Program Searching for Takers

_{Seven (7) Texas colleges are offering a unique program where your Military Training and Expertise may be transferred into College Credits. The colleges will provide models for awarding college credit by evaluating military training, including testing and prior learning assessments which other Texas colleges may replicate. There will be a focus on allied health careers, and the initiative will partner with the Military Education Training Center (METC) in San Antonio to provide current active duty service members with an accelerated degree plan. To learn more and determine eligibility, contact the Texas Workforce Commission at (512) 463-8942}

USAJobs Now to Include Navy and Marine Corps Jobs!

By Barbara Adams, CPRW, CEIP, CMRC, CFRW
www.militaryresumewriters.com and www.careerproplus.com

When the new-and-improved USAJobs site came back online earlier this week, it offered you more vacancies from which to choose!

USAJOBS is the federal government's official one-stop source for federal jobs and employment information. The Navy and US Marine Corps online application system, CHART (Civilian Hiring and Recruitment Tool), will be rolled into the USAJobs site, now making it easier than ever to apply for civilian jobs with these military services.

What does that mean to you?
If you are a USAJobs user who had not previously been looking through CHART for vacancies, you will now have even more jobs available. And if you have been using CHART, your job search will become much easier, no longer having to jump back and forth between the two sites!

If you have indeed been using the CHART system, you might be wondering, what happens to the data on that site? Also, are there differences between applying to vacancies between the sites about which you should be aware?

Here is the breakdown of what you need to know:

PREPARING FOR THE MOVE
* Create a USAJOBS account at www.usajobs.gov and either upload a resume or build a resume using your current CHART resume information. The Department of Navy (DON) created a specific fact sheet outlining the key steps to transfer your information. It is available at www.public.navy.mil/DONHR/employment/hiringreform.

* Check out the online applicant tool kit and FAQs located at www.public.navy.mil/donhr/Employment/hiringreform/Pages/ApplicantToolkit.aspx.

* Non-Department of Defense(DoD) employees: Before October 12, 2011, make a final check of CHART information and any related status updates.

* DoD and DON employees: Before December 30, 2011, make a final check of CHART information and any related status updates. (Access will remain via CAC.)

MAJOR DIFFERENCE BETWEEN CHART AND USAJOBS
Keywords are still important but are no longer king: It is still important to have your resume filled with all the right keywords but there will be no keyword searches used to choose the best-qualified candidate. That decision will be made by people reading the resume as a whole.

The document submission process will be more interactive: USAJobs has you use their Resume Builder to populate your resume information; fill out questionnaires about your knowledge, skills, and abilities; and upload any required documents.

Less is more: Applicants may detail their individual work experiences in 3,000 characters or less. (The 3,000 includes spaces.)

You’ll have to move fast: Most vacancies are open for 5 days, though some have longer options. (This is another good reason to call us today so you have your resume prepared sooner rather than later.)

Position requirements: Vacancy announcements are usually more specific for a particular position, detailing what you need to prove in terms of Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities (KSAs), specialized experience, and questionnaire answers.

People reading people: The days of "the computer" scanning resumes are gone. People do the jobs of reviewing all applications. Your resume should be as user-friendly as possible and feature only small paragraphs with added accomplishments. (Now you see why the character count is only 3,000.) It is vital for each small paragraph to be filled with keywords and accomplishments, making it easier for you to stand out.

Best qualified: Pay close attention to the questionnaires, which are used to develop your first scores. Be sure to rate yourself well on these multiple choice exams—now is not the time to be shy. But also be honest, as your resume will need to back up any claims made. Your questionnaire score will be added to your resume score to determine if you are truly Best Qualified.

Barbara Adams, President and CEO of CareerPro Global (CPG), the parent company of www.careerproplus.com and www.militaryresumewriters.com, has been a member of the careers community for the past 20 years. Ms. Adams holds four prestigious industry certifications. CareerPro Global is the only ISO 9001-2008 Certified Career Service in the industry, as well as one of the fastest-growing Military, Federal, and Civilian Resume-Writing and Careers-Coaching companies. The team of Certified Professional Federal and Military Resume Writers at CPG assist thousands of clients in applying for and gaining employment each year. We can help you land your military to civilian job.

Critical thinking: The secret weapon for today's veterans

By Patrick Lefler
www.spurancegroup.com

A few years ago, as a first-year student at The Wharton School and less than a year removed from active duty as a Marine Corps officer, I went through round after round of interviews for summer intern positions. I was the only former Marine in my class, and no one had more self-confidence than I as I eagerly waited to show the awaiting interviewers my stuff—the right stuff, as far as I was concerned, given that I had spent the previous six years as a Marine Corps pilot. But a surprising thing happened on the way to what I thought would be an easy waltz through the summer hiring process: I couldn't land an offer. Not one offer! Zero! To use a baseball analogy, I was riding a 40-game hitless streak while many of my classmates were hitting doubles, triples and even home runs, landing summer offers from some of America’s most prestigious firms—McKinsey, Proctor & Gamble and General Electric, just to name a few. At first I dismissed my failure simply as bad luck. When that excuse began to lose traction, I turned to blaming the interviewers. I rationalized to myself (and anyone else who would put up with my whining) that because most of these interviewers had never served a day in the military, it was impossible for them to appreciate the skills that I could bring to the table.

As it turns out, I was partially right on that second excuse. The interviewers weren't getting a good sense of what I could bring to the organization, but it wasn’t because of their lack of military experience. It was because I did a poor job in explaining how the skill set I had used previously as a pilot could directly translate into a benefit for their organization. I focused way too much on the pilot aspect of my military experience at the expense of what really mattered to the prospective employer back then (and what still matters today): the development of superior critical thinking skills that allowed me to become a really good pilot and leader of Marines.

And from what I’ve observed today (based on interactions with veterans as both a conversant and a mentor), many veterans fall down the same way I did years ago. When engaging with potential employers or school admissions officers, they naturally focus on the tasks that they performed while in the military, whereas they need to focus on translating how the critical thinking skills behind their military experiences can directly benefit future employers or the college of their choice.

So what are these critical thinking skills? And, more important, why do they matter? In this case, critical thinking can be broken down into two distinct skills: (1) problem solving and (2) decision making.

Problem Solving
Veterans appreciate more so than most the adage that "a problem clearly stated is already half solved." Their combat experience, with its constantly changing conditions, has made them experts in being able to quickly understand and effectively articulate what the problem is and what its critical dimensions are. They understand the difference between pinning down a problem and going on a blind hunt for facts. And they also are acutely aware of the need to find cause before prescribing solutions. These skills are developed not in the classroom, but through real-life experiences where critical problems arise on a daily basis. Having the ability to quickly ascertain changing conditions and knowing the difference between what matters to the mission and what doesn’t are highly desirable skills in today’s business world.

Decision Making
The average combat solder or Marine probably makes more critical decisions in a single day than his or her peers in the civilian world do in a month. These decisions all focus on selecting the action that gets the most done at the least cost, all while minimizing risk. Today's veteran knows the difference between interim, adaptive, corrective, preventive and contingency actions—distinctions valued in the modern business world but not completely understood by the majority of their civilian peers. They also understand the importance of prioritizing decision-making objectives. Distinguishing between "necessary musts" and "nice-to-have wants" helps prevent poor decisions in which essential requirements are sacrificed for the sake of meeting less important criteria.

More so than perhaps any other time in recent history, latter-day veterans bring to the table a rich inventory of these critical thinking skills. The problem, again, is that sometimes neither the veteran nor the prospective employer or college admissions officer has a good grasp of what these skills really are—or, more importantly, how they will benefit the organization. This is where the veteran needs to take the offensive and always frame the conversation in a way that highlights how these critical thinking skills can benefit the organization. Having experience as a combat engineer or an explosive ordinance demolition expert has no real value to most organizations outside of the military, but bringing in new personnel with highly refined critical thinking skills is one of the top goals for those organizations that need to stay competitive in a rapidly changing business environment. When I finally landed that hard-to-get summer job at Wharton, I was hired because of my problem-solving skills, not because I had been previously trained as a pilot. A year later, when I was offered a full-time position at Goldman, Sachs & Co., it was because my employer valued my decision-making skills. It just took me a while to figure out what really mattered to them and other employers—my skill set, not experience per se.

Anytime you speak to someone about your unique military experience, direct the conversation in terms of highlighting the critical thinking skills behind it. Again, years ago, when I was going through the process, I waited far too long during the interview (or many times never even got started) before I tried to explicate, making the connection that the same skills that served me extremely well as a pilot could also be a huge benefit to the organization I was speaking to. Don't make the same mistake I did, and don't think that most interviewers will be able to connect the dots in terms of understanding the benefit of these skills. Every so often during the conversation, pause and then say something to the effect of, "…and this is why it matters." You have to do this at least once or twice in the discussion to ensure that this important point is understood.

Making a good impression in what may be your only chance to speak to a particular organization is just too important to leave anything to chance. Remember, it's the skill set behind the experience that matters most to corporate America, small businesses—or even start-ups.

About the author: Patrick Lefler is the founder of The Spruance Group; a management consulting firm that helps growing companies grow dramatically faster. He is a former Marine Corps officer and a graduate of both Annapolis and The Wharton School. For more information, visit www.spruancegroup.com, or contact Patrick at: plefler@spruancegroup.com.

Culture change a hurdle in vets' job hunt

By Rick Maze

Current transition and education programs may not be enough to help veterans succeed in post-service life because the culture change can be too much to handle alone.

At a roundtable discussion sponsored by the Senate Veterans' Affairs Committee, Navy veteran Julius Clemente, who left the military after seven years of service and a deployment to Iraq as a hospital corpsman, said attending college was hard after living in a strict military environment.

"Life is more complicated and challenging than we think," he said. He got out of the Navy in 2005 but only now is nearing completion of a two-year college degree, after becoming involved in the Elevate American Veterans Initiative, a program aimed at helping veterans succeed.

A veteran might find his way, but that isn't enough if the family faces other pressures, such as a spouse being unable to find a job, said Air Force veteran Nicholas Riggins, who works for the initiative. A spouse of a veteran generally does not get preferential hiring or any help finding a job, Riggins said.

The problems come despite the recognition that veterans can be great employees, said Brad Smith of Microsoft Corp., sponsor of the Elevate America program that since 2010 has included a veterans' initiative and partnership with the Labor Department and several nonprofit groups.

Veterans, as a group, "make great employees," said Smith, Microsoft's general counsel and executive vice president for legal and corporate affair said. "They are smart. They are talented. They work well as individuals and work well on teams."

Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., the veterans' committee chairwoman, agreed. "This is the most employable group of people in the world," she said.

Smith said the problem of veterans finding jobs would not exist if the national unemployment rate wasn't greater than 9 percent. "If unemployment was only 5 percent, we would be having a different conversation today," Smith said. "Smart, talented, dedicated people are not finding it easy to find their next job."

Sen. Richard Burr of North Carolina, the committee's ranking Republican, said veterans might be helped if the military provided a more detailed statement on discharge records of how military experience translates to civilian skills. He also said it is worth looking at the possibility of waiving civilian certification and licensing for military members with similar skills.

New, free resource launches for ALL current and former US Military

The first of its kind, ACP AdvisorNet is a free, online community connecting veterans with business leaders across the country. Through an interactive and easy-to-use interface, veterans can ask questions related to career development, employment, and small business; follow topics and Q&A threads; or message advisors to get answers to their business questions and expand their network.

Developers say the difference between this site and say - Linked-in - is this will be the first totally veteran-and-business focused Q&A Network.

ACP AdvisorNet is the latest tool from American Corporate Partners (ACP). ACP is a nationwide mentoring program dedicated to helping veterans transition from the armed services to the civilian workforce through mentoring, career counseling, and networking with professionals from some of America's finest corporations and select universities. The ACP mentorship program is geared towards those who've served on active duty since 2001.

ACP AdvisorNet is available to all current and former members of the US Military, their family members, and business leaders looking to share their expertise. And all users can see the professional and/or military backgrounds of other users, promoting an environment of accountability and trust.

ACP AdvisorNet is currently in Beta and an open site ACP developers are inviting users to test. ACP plans a major launch to coincide with Veterans' Day.