November 2015 |
Transition-e-news Volume 3 Issue 112 |
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Transition Insight
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2015 USA Today Veterans Affairs
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10 Transition Tricks of the Trade© Tom Wolfe, author; all rights reserved; excerpts from Out of Uniform: Your Guide to a Successful Military-to-Civilian Career Transition; used with the permission of the author and publisher, www.potomacbooksinc.com. 1. Timeline. Don’t start too soon, but don’t wait too long. There are three phases to your search: preparation, execution, and decision. Start the preparation phase well in advance of your availability date. There is plenty to do to get ready for the transition, the job search, and interviewing. Use a 12-month countdown. Months 12 through 5 are the preparation phase. Months 4, 3, and 2 are interview months. Month 1 is the final phase—time to compare, contrast, and decide. Month zero? Start your new job! 2. Self-knowledge. Lacking this is a leading cause of interview failure. All of your company research, knowledge of products and industry, and diligent mechanical preparations will be for naught if you fail know thyself. What are your strengths? Attributes? Skills? What do you bring to the table? What really matters to you? Without that self-awareness and the ability to relate those answers to the job and the company, it is impossible for you to sell yourself as a great match for that opportunity. Also, do not overlook your deficits, weaknesses, and failures. Your ability to discuss this subject shows self-confidence and creates empathy. Add in your strategies for correcting or compensating for them and they are less likely to be used against you. 3. Work smart. Focus on organizations that have a history of hiring veterans. Otherwise you will spend a lot of time trying to convince a company to hire veterans and then convince them to hire you. Skip that step. Chase someone who wants to be caught. Where do you find these companies? You already have! Click on the Military Friendly Companies tab at the top of the TAOnline homepage. 4. Network. Talk to those who have completed successful job searches and they will likely mention a single individual who was instrumental in making the connection. To be successful you too must find and develop that relationship at every one of your target companies. Add all of them together and you have your network. You either have contacts already in place or you will have to work hard to find and foster those relationships. How do you find them? Consider friends, neighbors, relatives, alumni groups, professional societies, social media, placement companies, and recruiters. Each of them has the potential to become that instrumental person or connect you to someone who could fill that role. 5. Homework. Back in the olden days researching a company was difficult. You had to go to the library and peruse business magazines and trade journals. Visit a stockbroker and read annual reports. Frequently the information you found was outdated or no longer accurate. However, the interviewers were aware of this and would often tolerate this inadequacy. Along came the Internet and the Information Age and everything changed. As hard as company research used to be, we now have the opposite condition—it’s easy! Insufficient or inaccurate research is now inexcusable. Find yourself guilty of that and you will be labeled as lazy, not interested or ill prepared—all legitimate causes for rejection. 6. Filters. Filters are such a part of our everyday lives that we hardly notice them. The oil filter in your car, the air filter in your home, the caller ID on your phone, and the parental control on the remote control, to name a few. Filters do two things in every system: increase the quality and decrease the quantity of what passes through. Think of your job search as a system with filters—those inserted by you and those utilized by the employers. Companies use them to eliminate candidates who lack the requisite credentials or mismatched expectations. You have no need to interview for a job that does not fit your decision criteria. Both parties use filters to eliminate impurities, thereby enhancing the attractiveness of the contenders. This is not an even playing field. There are almost always more great candidates than there are great jobs and the employers want the pool to shrink. You however want as many high-quality options as possible. For that reason, be judicious with your use of filters. Keep them at a minimum, apply the most important ones first, and insert the others at the end, if you have that luxury. 7. Interviewing empathy. Many things influence your decision. There is much that you care about. However, as focused as you are on what matters to you, you must also have an appreciation for what matters to the interviewer. What does the company need? What are its priorities? What does the interviewer care about? What are the hot buttons? Your sensitivity to those issues is called interviewing empathy. Without it you will be hard-pressed to make the personal connection necessary to convert the interviewer from an adversary to an advocate. 8. Q & A. Every conscientious job seeker knows the importance of the A. Anticipating, preparing for, and practicing answers to questions is standard operating procedure. It’s the Q of the Q & A that causes many interviews to fail. Answering questions well is critical, but are you also prepared to ask them? The questions that you ask may be the most powerful tools in your transition toolbox. Not only do they help you gather information about the job and company, but, if chosen wisely, they will also allow you to show interest and build empathy. Subtract either of those and the problem solves itself—there will be no offer to consider. 9. Social media. This is a powerful job search tool, but it comes with risks. Although it’s a great way to research companies and develop your network, it’s also an easy way for companies to check you out. Googled yourself lately? When was the last time you did some housekeeping on your social networking pages? Are you on Facebook? Will it make an employer more or less interested in you? Inventory those pictures—are you comfortable sharing them with a boss and co-workers? Do you have a presence on LinkedIn? You should. It in addition to crafting a profile that represents you well, identify and join any special interest groups that have the potential to expand your network. 10. Close. Interviewing is selling. You are the salesperson. You are also the product. The company you want to work for is the customer and this customer has a need. You want to fill that need with your product. You package, promote, advertise, and market yourself. You have stiff competition—there are many products available that will satisfy that need. You identify the need and find yourself in a position to sell yourself. You make your pitch, give it your best shot, go home and wait for the good news, right? Wrong! You forgot the most important part! You forgot to close. If you want the order you have to ask for it. Do you think this customer is going to call you and say, May I please buy your product? Fat chance. You must ask for what you want—the job (if you are ready to accept) or the offer (if you are not yet certain). Fear of failure stops many job seekers from doing this. Sure, if you do not ask, they cannot say NO, but they cannot say YES either. Thanks for your service and GOOD HUNTING! © 2015; Tom Wolfe, is an author, columnist, career coach, veteran, and an expert in the field of military-to-civilian career transition. During his career he assisted thousands of service members in their searches for employment, placing more than 3000 in their new jobs. Prior to civilian life, he graduated from the U. S. Naval Academy and served as a surface warfare officer. He teaches transition courses, gives seminars on career and job change, writes about the career transition process, and continues to counsel current and former military personnel. His book, Out of Uniform: Your Guide to a Successful Military-to-Civilian Career Transition, was published by Potomac Books in 2011. Tom lives on the North Carolina coast with his wife, Julie, and their Chesapeake Bay retriever, Maggie. |
Find Your Inside Track to a New Job© Copyright, 2015, Susan P. Joyce. All rights reserved. If you are a job seeker with a few years (or a few decades) of experience, you have many advantages over younger or less experienced job seekers. You have knowledge, skills, and experience plus many accomplishments. But you may not recognize or value what may be your biggest advantage: your network of former colleagues! People you have known and worked with in your career can be your “inside track” to your next job. Time to leverage that advantage — take that inside track to your next job! The Inside Track: Your “Corporate Alumni” NetworkCorporate alumni are the people who formerly worked for a specific employer. They are “alumni” of that employer like school graduates are alumni of their schools. Think back to the employers where you have worked in your career. Connecting with a former boss, co-worker, subordinate, or just another former employee with whom you may or may not have worked could be your connection to a new job. Consider the possibilities:
Reach out to them. They can become a quick route to either becoming a "boomerang" or being referred to a new employer by an employee. (More on boomerangs below.) This group may be much larger, more well-connected, and more useful than your school alumni network. Connecting with other people who worked at the same employer you did is much easier now, and, even if you didn’t work with them or know them while you were employed there, you still have much in common and can extend the reach and power of your network. Most likely, there is a LinkedIn Group. Just search on the name of a former employer plus the word “alumni” — like “Hewlett Packard Alumni” if you worked for Hewlett Packard — in Google and LinkedIn. How to Reconnect with Your Corporate Alumni NetworkThink of all the people you have met in your life whom you have liked and/or respected. Those people are the effective core of your network. Have you lost track of some — or many — of them? Reach out to the people you have not been in contact with the last few years. Then, spend some time finding those you have lost touch with. Instead of going to a job board and hitting the “Apply” button a few times, go to Google and search on those names. Or, go directly to LinkedIn to do those searches. Where do those people live and, more importantly, work now. Are those places you want to work? 1. Use LinkedIn to ReconnectIf you don’t already belong to LinkedIn, join, complete your Profile, and connect with at least 50 people. Then…
Type the name of a company where you have worked into the “Company Name” field (which also works for nonprofits, colleges, government agencies, etc.). Select “Current or Past,” and click on the “Search” button. Look for the names of familiar people (the more LinkedIn connections you have, the more names you will see), and check the “Contact info” tab on their LinkedIn Profiles for their email address, website(s), and phone numbers.
Over 2 million LinkedIn Groups exist, and you’ll find them for almost any topic — professions, industries, locations, hobbies, other interests, and a combination of topics (like Using the main search bar at the top of most LinkedIn pages, select “Groups” from the small gray lined box sitting at the left of the search bar, and type in your query. 2. Use GoogleGoogle, or your favorite search engine, can be a big help as usual.
Typically, an employer who has a corporate alumni page is an employer who values former employees and, often, welcomes “boomerangs” (see below for more information about boomerangs). Using the Inside TrackOnce you have found the people, send them an email or give them a call to learn what has happened since you last had a chance to talk. Ask about family, friends, and life in general. See what and how they are doing now. Then, ask about their jobs, and how they like where they work. Would they recommend that employer for you? 1. Connect with Employee ReferralsFor most employers, employee referral is the preferred method of finding and hiring new employees. Referred job seekers are cheaper to hire, stay longer, and perform better than non-referred employees. In addition, the employee making the referral is usually rewarded by the grateful employer. So everyone wins in this situation! Think of the advantages you will have if you are hired through a referral! Instead of walking into a new organization knowing no one and having no allies, you will already have someone “on the inside.” Your ally can help you understand how things work, who to work with (and who to avoid), and what will help you succeed in that organization. Read Express Lane to a New Job and To Be Hired, Be Referred for more information. 2. Consider Becoming a “Boomerang” EmployeeIf you would be happy to work for a former employer again, look for current employees you may know. Many employers like to re-hire former employees. There’s even a term for people who are re-hired: “boomerangs.” While some organizations resist re-hiring someone who was “disloyal” enough to quit, re-hiring a former employee often works out well for both employer and employee. The employee often still has a network inside the organization plus knowledge about processes, products, and services that don’t need to be learned, although updates may be needed, depending on how long it’s been since you worked there. For the employer, you are a “known quantity.” Not only are you familiar with the organization and its work, current employees know you and, hopefully, will vouch for your knowledge and accomplishments and help you re-enter the organization. So, a boomerang often becomes productive more quickly than a new employee. To connect, reach out to former co-workers who might still be there (if you wouldn’t mind working for/with them again). As usual, LinkedIn is often useful for this. Also, check with HR to see if there is a special process for re-hiring former employees who are considering returning. Not every organization is smart enough or willing to re-hire someone, but many very well-known, high quality companies do. To find out, ask. Also check the employer’s website. As noted above, if the employer offers “corporate alumni” events and networking, chances are very good that boomerangs are welcome. More About Older Worker AdvantagesIs Your Job Search Too Old-Fashioned? Employee Referral: Express Lane to a New Job What Is Being Over-Qualified for a Job? What Is Age Discrimination in Employment? How to Beat the Baby Boomer Job Search Blues About the Author… Online job search expert Susan P. Joyce Online job search expert Susan P. Joyce has been observing the online job search world and teaching online job search skills since 1995. Susan is a two-time layoff “graduate” who has worked in human resources at Harvard University and in a compensation consulting firm. In 2011, NETability purchased WorkCoachCafe.com, and Susan has been editor and publisher of WorkCoach since then. Susan also edits and publishes Job-Hunt.org, is a Visiting Scholar at the MIT Sloan School of Management, and a columnist on HuffingtonPost. Follow Susan on Twitter at @jobhuntorg and on Google+ |
The problems veterans face in the professional workplace
© By Jena McGregor Corporate America loves hiring veterans. Part good strategy (think valuable technical and leadership skills), part good finance (think tax incentives) and part good P.R. (no explanation needed), companies have increasingly been promoting their pledges to bring thousands of employees with military experience onboard. Some companies or employer coalitions like Starbucks, Walmart and the newly renamed Veteran Jobs Mission are reaching or blowing past milestones toward the goals they've set. But what happens once those sought after workers are in the door? That track record, particularly among veterans in professional careers, is not very well understood, says Julia Taylor Kennedy, a senior fellow at the research think tank Center for Talent Innovation. So Kennedy and her team set out to survey 1,022 veterans working in full-time, white-collar professions as well as to conduct in-depth interviews with some 40 more. "Companies are investing enormous resources into recruiting veterans," said Kennedy, a co-author of the report, released Tuesday, which cites data that veteran hiring efforts can consume as much as 20 or 30 percent of recruiting budgets at some large corporations. "But companies are failing to make good on that investment. What we find is veterans get in the doors of corporations and they're either not looking to rise - what we call 'tuned out' - or another big portion is 'stalled out,' "-- that is, they're eager to advance but have trouble getting promoted. The study, which was co-authored by Michael Abrams, who founded the veteran support organization Four Block, found that many veterans feel under-utilized, alienated and uninspired in corporate workplaces. Fully two-thirds of the respondents said they weren't using three or more of the skills they have that could be applicable to their employers. Meanwhile, only 2 percent said they have an executive who really champions and advocates on their behalf. That compares with 19 percent of men and 13 percent of women in CTI's surveys of the general professional population, Kennedy said. "That was really stunning for us, because we feel sponsorships are the real key to getting up the corporate ladder," she said, noting the gap may be due to the more hierarchical leadership style many military veterans bring to their jobs, which could make them less attractive candidates for such an advocate, even if unintentionally. "They're used to taking and giving orders. They're not used to getting buy-in first," Kennedy said. Also in the survey, roughly half of respondents said their colleagues had made false assumptions about them (such as that they're politically conservative or have post-traumatic stress disorder); more than a quarter tried to downplay their military experience with colleagues; and nearly a third of those with a service-related injury or disability hid it from their colleagues. Many said they didn't want to get into awkward or tough conversations with their colleagues. For example, one former sniper said, "you would not believe the number of times I've been asked how many kills I had," Kennedy recalls. Some also didn't want to be seen as having special advantages, an issue that could be particularly delicate as companies go out of their way to hire veterans. That was especially true for veterans who are also racial minorities, the report says. Nearly 40 percent of Hispanic veterans, 25 percent of black veterans and 21 percent of Asian veterans - compared with 14 percent of their white peers - avoided sharing their military experience with colleagues, the study found. Less surprising, however, is CTI's finding that nearly two-thirds of veterans said they felt more purpose in the military than in their corporate jobs. Many cited far less camaraderie with their teams at work, and those who were no longer leading other people as they had in the military missed doing so. This was particularly true for women: 56 percent of female veterans said their corporate careers weren't meeting their goal of meaningful work, compared to 47 percent of male veterans.
While such numbers may be not be encouraging, companies are starting to pay more attention to the sort of issues raised in CTI's report, said Nicholas Armstrong, the senior director of research and policy at Syracuse University's Institute for Veterans and Military Families. That may be partly because just over half of veterans leave their first post-military job within a year, Armstrong said, leading to costly and time-consuming amounts of turnover for companies. "The conversation is shifting now," Armstrong said. It's moving from a focus on just hiring vets to asking, "What are we doing to find better matches for their careers?" |
Vets can continue to serve by starting a business
By: Maria Contreras-Sweet Every year, about a quarter-million U.S. servicemembers transition out of the military. To know these men and women is to know that an overwhelming majority wish to continue to serve even after returning to civilian life. One of the most impactful ways veterans can keep serving their country is by starting a business. It allows them to channel their talents, support their families, build their communities, and put their fellow veterans to work. One out of every 10 American businesses today is owned by a veteran, and 5.8 million Americans owe their job to a veteran. Among the most patriotic things any American can do is hire a veteran. And who better to do so than a veteran herself? The military produces leaders who are disciplined, motivated, focused, risk-tolerant, stress-resistant, and accustomed to constantly changing roles and responsibilities. These happen to be the same traits that describe the most successful entrepreneurs. No American is more deserving of the American dream than one who fought to protect it. Few Americans are better suited to realize that dream through business ownership than our veterans. Before I took over as the head of the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) last year, I started three businesses in Los Angeles. I know firsthand how daunting it can be to take on the job of leading a startup. The SBA has professional staff and business counselors in every region of the country on standby to advise veterans on how to craft a viable business plan, conduct market research, obtain a loan, manage working capital, build a customer base, and gain access to government contracts. One of the hardest things about starting a company is getting that first loan. That’s why the SBA recruited banks across our lending network to take the Veterans Pledge in early 2014. As a result, SBA-backed loans to military veteran entrepreneurs have more than doubled in the last year as we pushed out more than a billion dollars in capital to vets. To encourage veterans to apply, SBA has eliminated all bank fees on veterans seeking loans under $350,000. Another important way Uncle Sam gives back to those who gave so much to their country is by awarding government business to our military heroes. Last year, the federal government broke its record for contracts awarded to businesses owned by service-disabled vets, with $13.6 billion going to these small firms. The SBA can provide the counseling, capital and contracts to help military leaders become business leaders. How does a vet get started? For transitioning servicemembers, the SBA runs the Boots to Business program at 180 military installations worldwide and has already exposed 35,000 servicemembers and their spouses to the basics of business ownership. Any transitioning servicemember can access the curriculum by selecting the entrepreneurship track in the Department of Defense’s Transition Assistance Program (TAP). Finally, veterans of every era can take part in Boots to Business: Reboot. Under Reboot, the SBA has opened up our entrepreneurship classes to vets regardless of when they served or separated. Thirty events are being held this week alone in communities across America as part of National Veterans Small Business Week. I'll never forget the very first business I visited after joining President Barack Obama’s Cabinet last April. It was a local Cross Fit gym outside of Washington, D.C., and the owner was a post-9/11 veteran who had just graduated from our inaugural Boots to Business class. He confessed he had no idea how to start up, navigate the red tape, get that first loan, or market his company to the community. He confided that it was his SBA representative who took him by the hand and walked him through every step of the process. I hear stories like this across the country. Our veterans have been part of the finest team in the world: the U.S. armed forces. So today, as we celebrate National Veterans Small Business Week, we want our aspiring veteran entrepreneurs to know they have a friend waiting to assist them in the business trenches — SBA, an agency committed to serving veterans as well as they’ve served us. Maria Contreras-Sweet is administrator of the U.S. Small Business Administration. |
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