September 2016 |
Transition-e-news Volume 3 Issue 122 |
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The Best Job For You© 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. One of the most important goals of the military-to-civilian transition process is landing a new job and starting a new career. Most conventional wisdom says you must figure out what you want to do before you interview for that position. I tend to disagree, especially when the you in that wisdom is a military service member making that transition for the first time. I believe it is much more important for you to know who you are, what makes you tick, what are your strengths, attributes, skills, traits, advantages, weaknesses, and detriments. What are your needs and your wants (no, they are not the same)? How about additional search and decision criteria? For example, where are you willing to live? What hours are you willing to work? How much travel can you handle? What is your minimum acceptable compensation? The greater your level of self-knowledge at the beginning of your search, the higher the likelihood you will end up in the best job for you, the first time. As you begin the search, focus more on the gathering of information rather than the job title itself. Think of it as a two-way information gathering process. The potential employer interviews you to determine what you bring to the table in terms of skills, attributes, motivators, style, personality, drive, and ambition. At the same time, you learn more about the company, the job, the culture, and the people who work there. At some point the employer will decide whether or not to offer you a spot on the team and, if they do offer you that spot, then you decide whether or not to accept the offer. Although the job title may have been missing or unclear at the beginning of that interviewing process, it will become perfectly clear to you by the time the offer is extended. Here is another way to look at this. Your resume, assuming it is a good one, is a presentation of your past experience written in such a way as to indicate your future potential. That resume generates an interview and the employer uses that interview to verify what’s on the resume and measure what no resume can convey—your personality, desire, interest, style, and attitude. Are you the kind of person they want on their team? This works both ways. By the time that employer has found the answer to that question, you are also ready to answer this one: Is this the right organization and opportunity for me? For some of you this will not be much of an issue, especially when there is a direct or logical civilian equivalent to your military expertise and you want to continue your career doing that kind of work. Here are three examples of that scenario: Supply Chain Analyst for an International Integrated Logistics Company Quality Assurance Engineer in the Power Generation Industry Jet Aircraft Mechanic in the Field of Commercial Aviation For the rest of you it will not be that simple. You think of yourself in terms of your management skills, leadership, coordination, liaison, operations, and mission accomplishment abilities. You self-identify as an honorable, reliable, ethical, loyal and hard-working individual. You want to be a part of something important where you can contribute and be recognized for the value that you add to the organization. Well-done! What company would not want you on their team? But here’s the rub - how do you convert that into a job objective? How about this, the right job for you is one in which:
I imagine that sounds good to you, but I also imagine that you feel something is missing, specifically what is that job actually called? That would seem to be pretty important, right? How are you supposed to convert those four bullets into a job objective on your resume or an answer to the “what do you want to do?” question in an interview? Try this: OBJECTIVE A job at which I will excel and from which I will obtain satisfaction, high quality of life, and the opportunity for career growth. That pretty much sums it up, right? No, not really. The person who sees that on your resume or hears those words come out of your mouth during an interview is highly likely to ask a follow-up question: “That sounds fine, but what would you actually like to do?” Hmmm . . . now what? There are two ways to handle this dilemma, your choice of which depends on the scenario. Scenario One: you are targeting a specific opportunity, about which you know enough to write a targeted objective and/or present yourself accordingly in the interview. The importance of the self-knowledge mentioned in the second paragraph is critical here. Say you are interviewing for Job X. Make the objective on your resume sound like Job X, give your resume an emphasis on X, and make sure that when you find yourself in the interview, every attribute you highlight, every example you use, every question you ask, and every question you answer in some way is flavored in terms of X. What if the next time it’s Job Y? No problem—just substitute your Y for your X. Scenario Two: you have no idea what job you are applying for or being considered for. Now what? Again, your excellent self-knowledge will come to the rescue. When the interviewer asks you what kind of job are you looking for, you respond, “The best job for me is one in which I can apply my talents and attributes, for example (finish the sentence with your best ones) and one that will also meet my needs in the areas of (fill in the blanks with what really matters to you). With luck, the company has just the right job for you. Lacking that, fine, its not the right place for you. In summary, you must know yourself well enough to be able to make the interviewer see you in the job, doing it well, and with a smile on your face. Yes, you are telling the interviewer exactly what he or she wants to hear, but it also happens to be the truth! This will go a long way to helping you land the best job for you. Visit www.out-of-uniform.com for a more in depth discussion of this subject and more about the military-to-civilian career transition process. Thank you for your service and good hunting!
© 2016; 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. |
Virginia firm helps vets, spouses conquer job market© 2016 Stars and Stripes, Reprinted with permission FREDERICKSBURG, Va. (Tribune News Service) — Bruce Benedict knows firsthand how tough it can be for someone to find a civilian job after a career in the military. The skills they’ve acquired in the service don’t readily translate into those required for a job with the federal government, a defense contractor or other employer, said the Stafford County resident, who retired from the Army as a major in 2007. Benedict eventually found a job as a hiring manager for the federal government’s Joint CI Training Academy, but many of the résumés that crossed his desk didn’t make it easy to figure out if the applicant had the appropriate skills. He soon realized that the majority of veterans who were applying had one thing in common: They thought that they had to change who they are in order to get hired, and were understandably frustrated. “What I concluded was that the veterans themselves don’t need to change, they need to understand the system to know how to work with the system,” Benedict said. He’s turned that insight into a business, Battlefield Résumés, which offers military transition training, one-on-one employment coaching, self-paced video training and a series of on-demand workshops and webinars. He’s also written three books: “Operation: Job Search,” “Operation: Federal Résumé” and “Operation: Civilian Résumé.” As the book titles suggest, Benedict relies on familiar military tactics, terminology and procedures to help veterans approach a job search, get an offer and negotiate a salary. Trying to enter the civilian workforce, he said, is like deploying to a foreign country. You need to analyze all aspects in order to have an advantage. “The analysis, for me, comes first,” he said. “I look at every job, every job announcement, as a battlefield. That’s why I chose the name Battlefield Résumés.” Some of Benedict’s clients first learned about his services through his free introductory webinars. The next one, which is on preparing for a federal job interview, will be held from 7 to 8 p.m. Sept. 20 through eventbrite.com. He said that about 150 people usually participate, including some who are stationed abroad and considering their futures after the military. “I think everyone is scared of applying for a federal government job because they don’t know anything about it,” he said. “The federal government understands military language, so there’s less translation. It’s easier for someone in the military to transition into a federal or federal contractor job than a non-defense job.” He tells veterans to consider writing a résumé for a federal job opening, or any job posting for that matter, as an operations order, or op ord, for short. “Military veterans understand what that means,” Benedict said. “If you use the same op ord for every battle you fight, people would think you’re crazy because every battlefield is different. Every job announcement is a battlefield. That’s how you tailor it.” That’s just what Benedict did when he helped Terry Adams of Destin, Fla., a retired Army sergeant who was applying for a government position earlier this year. “I’ve applied for several federal postings and never had any luck,” Adams said in a phone interview. “As soon as I got him to help me with it, it was a totally different résumé.” Benedict showed him how to pinpoint what an employer was looking for and how his military and civilian experience fit the requirements rather than just listing his duties. “It got more specific,” said Adams, who is a Geographic Information Systems, or GIS, engineer. “It pulled out what kind of equipment I’d been using.” Adams was offered the position he was seeking, but ended up not taking it. “I’m still looking,” he said. “I would probably use him again unless it’s for a very similar-type position.” Military spouses can have an even harder time finding a job once their husband or wife enters civilian life. Their work history tends to be spotty and scattershot since they had to leave one job behind and find another as they followed their spouse, said Benedict, who also helps them. That was the case for Erica Ramos of Stafford, who moved four times during her husband’s 20-year career in the Marines. It would take her about a year to find a new position each time, and then she’d have to leave and start the process all over again. When he retired and they settled in Stafford, Ramos decided it was time to redefine herself as something other than a military spouse. “This is what I’ve been for so long, what do I really want to do?” she said in a phone interview. “I knew I didn’t want to work for the military anymore, although that was what was most comfortable. I needed to decide what I wanted to do for Erica.” Ramos went to college to get a nursing degree, and then Benedict, who is a neighbor, helped her distill information that would have filled page after page of a federal job application into a one-page résumé that focused on the skills that her potential employer was looking for. “The military looks at résumés very differently than the civilian world,” she said. “Bruce was able to tailor it to be functional. It defined who I am professionally so people could say, ‘We know who Erica is professionally in a snapshot.’ ” Thanks to his help, she landed the job she wanted at a LabCorp branch in Herndon. “I absolutely love it,” Ramos said. Cathy Jett: cjett@freelancestar.com
©2016 The Free Lance-Star (Fredericksburg, Va.) |
To Be Hired, Use Email Effectively© Copyright, 2016, Susan P. Joyce. All rights reserved. You want to — and need to — respond as quickly as possible, but… 9 Steps to Better Email for Your Job SearchTake care not to give the impression that you would be someone best ignored or eliminated from consideration. 1. Do NOT send a message when you are angry.I’ve seen so many job seekers blow future opportunities by responding angrily to the thanks-but-no-thanks message when they don’t get a job offer. Most of us understand how disappointing that rejection is, but before you hit the “Send” button on the I-hope-you-go-out-of-business message, take a few minutes (hours or days) to “chill out.” Then, don’t send a nasty message. Burning bridges is never smart in the business world. Bonus tip: I’ve also seen many job seekers move to the head of the line for the next job with that employer when they respond positively and politely to the thanks-but-no-thanks message, expressing their appreciation for the opportunity to learn more about the organization and meet the people. 2. Remember your message may be shared and stored (for a long time).Be very professional and careful in what you write related to your job search and career. Don’t trash anyone, don’t make threats, and also avoid making promises you can’t keep. An unprofessional message may haunt you for many months or years. See # 1 above, and don’t send an angry or nasty letter. 3. Send TO one person; CC others if appropriate; use Reply All very cautiously; avoid BCC and read receipts.When sending an inquiry or follow up to the recruiter or hiring manager, put their email address in the TO field. If other people should also receive the message, add those addressees to the CC as appropriate. Using BCC (Blind Carbon Copy) can backfire badly because someone BCCed is able to reply-all to the message. If someone needs to see the message, include them in the CC list or forward the sent message to them later. Avoid using read-receipts on your out-going messages. They may be considered hostile — I don’t trust you, so I’m going to check to see if you opened this message. Avoid giving that impression to anyone in a potential employer’s organization, even if it is true. Bonus tip: When you send your thank-you email messages, don’t TO or CC everyone you spoke to in one message. Send a unique message to each, and don’t BCC anyone, not even the recruiter or hiring manager. 4. Send job search messages from a good email address.A message from ImKool@whatever or HotMama@whatever probably won’t be opened by someone who isn’t expecting a message from that email address, particularly if the subject isn’t relevant or interesting (see # 5 below). For a job seeker, a trashy email address can be the kiss of death. The best email address includes your name in it so that the message can be found in an email system when someone searches on your name. Bonus tip: If you are worried about age discrimination, do NOT include your birth year in your email address. Guess how old BillSmith1965@whatever is? If you must use a number, pick the telephone area code or the Post Office Zip Code for your current or target location. 5. Make the subject short, clear, and relevant.Often the subject and the sender are the only parts of the message that get read. On smart phone screens, only the first 35 to 40 characters may be seen, so put the most important words at the beginning of the subject. When people the subject provides an obvious reason to open the message, they are more likely to read it. Or, at least, to save or forward it. Example 1: “Admin Assistant Position Applicatio|n, Job #12345” is short, clean, clear, and obvious. Although it is longer than 35 characters, the first 35 characters (Admin Assistant Position Applicatio) describe the contents and provide the reason the message should be opened. Example 2: “Thank you for Opportunity to Interv|iew for the Admin Assistant Position” is longer, but the first 35 characters (Thank you for Opportunity to Interv) make it clear what the message is about. 6. Keep messages and paragraphs short, clean, and clear.I’ve seen numerous studies that indicate long messages are seldom read or are read only partially (first paragraph or two). This is why it is smart to put the most important information in that first paragraph. Avoid the “wall of words” effect — opening up a message and seeing only one or two long paragraphs. Include plenty of “white space” in your messages:
Example: Dear [person specified], I am interested in applying for the administrative assistant position (# 12345) open in your Boston office. My experience includes three years providing administrative support to a group of life insurance sales people. My responsibilities include:
These responsibilities closely align with the requirements for your position… 7. Don’t attach anything, unless an attachment is expected or requested.Unless they have requested that you send them your resume as an attachment to a message, avoid including attachments. Otherwise, sending an attachment can almost guarantee that the message will be ignored, deleted, or automatically dumped into the junk mail folder. These days, few people open attachments they haven’t requested or aren’t expecting. 8. Include a “signature” at the bottom of your message.The signature should contain your full, professional name and your current (or target) job title. Also include some of your relevant professional accomplishments like Employer ABC Sales Person of the Year (2015) and professional certifications. Do include your LinkedIn Profile URL so it will be easy for the employer to find. They will most likely want to compare your resume or application to your Profile, so make it easy for them to find the correct Profile. Don’t make your signature longer than the message — 6 lines should be the maximum. Bonus tip: Double-check the content in your application or resume compared with your LinkedIn Profile to be sure they match. Employers will compare them, and they will assume that the LinkedIn Profile is accurate. 9. Be sure to include a phone number in your email signature so you can be reached quickly if necessary.This is a separate tip because it is SO important to recruiters. Put the phone number immediately below your name. Often, recruiters are in a hurry, and they prefer to call you directly for the quickest response. Bonus tip: If you are employed, do NOT include your work phone number! Your employer will not be pleased to discover you are job hunting. Use a personal cellphone number or a Google Voice number. When you are employed, follow these steps, above, to be more effective in your job. More About Being HiredTo Be Hired, Be Found Where Recruiters Look To Be Hired, Be Found: Your Best Keywords To Be Hired, Be Focused and Clear About the Job You Want To Be Hired, Be Referred for the Job 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+ |
California turns to civilians as inmate firefighters dwindle©2016 The Associated Press - Reprinted with Permission SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — Faced with a shrinking pool of inmates to help fight major wildfires, California is increasingly turning for new recruits to its state Conservation Corps, a program with roots in the Great Depression and a motto that promises "hard work, low pay, miserable conditions ... and more!" Prisoners last year made up about 20 percent of California fire crews on several major blazes, where they used chain saws and hand tools to chew through tinder-dry brush and trees to stop the flames. But the number of available inmates is declining because counties now oversee most lower-level felons under a law aimed at easing prison overcrowding. In addition, there are fewer incentives for inmates to risk their lives since a federal court broadened an early release program for firefighters to include other inmates. The state is about 600 inmates short of the 4,300 prisoners who could be available for fire lines. So this year, the California Conservation Corps reopened a camp to train three crews of young civilians to do the same backbreaking work as the inmates. Corps Director Bruce Saito expects to create at least four more fire crews with roughly 15 members each by next summer and a half-dozen new crews during each of the next two years. The corps has more than 1,400 members, but fewer than 200 currently work alongside local, state and federal firefighters battling blazes in rural areas. The members include both men and women and range in age from 18 to 25. They enlist for one year and earn the state's minimum wage of $10 an hour. Military veterans can enroll until they turn 30. Several recruits said they were drawn by the chance to work outdoors, to make a difference as they decide what to do next with their lives and to improve their chances of landing permanent jobs as wildland firefighters. "You're kind of like sacrificing a lot to gain experience and get ahead in life," said 21-year-old Jacint Duenez of Camarillo. Participants said the program lives up to its motto. They recalled tense hours trying to stay ahead of a fire that burned more than 72 square miles (116 kilometers) on California's central coast and threatened the historic Hearst Castle. They hiked past "maybe a 100-foot wall of flames — you could feel the heat coming off of it," said Bobby Falagai, 23, of Oroville. Then they helped other firefighters save a home and outbuildings. "You could barely see. You could barely breathe. Your eyes are burning. It's a great time," Duenez said without a hint of sarcasm. "I was having a lot of fun." Conservation Corps firefighter Adrian Valdivia, 22, of Pomona hopes to turn his experience working under the direction of the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection into a career battling wildfires. "I think the future of the CCC is to fill more fire crews," Valdivia said. "Then CalFire can use the CCC as a potential hiring tool for future employees, so it works out for everybody." The dependence on corps crews has occurred as the California drought drags into its fifth year and millions of trees have been killed by bark beetles, Saito said. "Not in a great way, all those stars have aligned," Saito said. "There's increased need as those inmate crews decline in size." The California corps bills itself as the nation's oldest and largest organization of its kind. President Franklin D. Roosevelt's original Civilian Conservation Corps put more than 3 million unemployed young men to work on natural resources projects between 1933 and 1942. Decades later, California Gov. Jerry Brown used a similar model when he launched the California Conservation Corps while serving his first two terms in the 1970s and 1980s. Brown, a Democrat, piggybacked that effort on the California Ecology Corps camps that his predecessor, Republican Gov. Ronald Reagan, created to allow conscientious objectors to perform public service instead of being drafted during the Vietnam War. "It's pretty amazing that the organization's still here. We had some pretty close calls," Brown said while celebrating the corps' 40th anniversary in June. It has survived repeated budget cuts, including one that closed the Butte County CCC camp in 2003. The camp in the Sierra foothills reopened this year with 57 firefighters. They joined 30 corps members who have fought fires since 2009 from a CCC camp in Ventura County. Another 105 corps firefighters work with the U.S. Forest Service, about 30 more than last year. The numbers change as members enter and leave the program. When they're not responding to fires, floods and earthquakes, corps members work on outdoor projects such as thinning forests and removing dead trees. More than 550 were sent to recent big fires, with about a third actually fighting the flames. The rest help in firefighter base camps, setting up and tearing down temporary tent villages, serving hot meals, handing out equipment and keeping the camp clean. |
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