June 2017 |
Transition-e-news Volume 4 Issue 131 |
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Corporate Gray Military-Friendly Job Fair * June 22, 2017 * Springfield, VA
You are invited to attend the June 22nd Corporate Gray Military-Friendly Job Fair at the Waterford Reception Center in Springfield, Virginia. Meet face-to face with representatives from Lockheed Martin, Leidos, AECOM, National Security Agency, Central Intelligence Agency, U.S. Customs and Border Protection, U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, Booz Allen Hamilton, YRCI, New York Life, MillerCoors, and many more! The job fair will be held from 9 am to 12:30 pm, with an employer panel discussion for job seekers starting at 8 am. To ensure you receive the job fair employer directory in advance, pre-register at corporategray.com/jobfairs/385. Especially for transitioning service members and veterans. Free and open to all job seekers.
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Bolstering America’s Defense – Who'll do the Work?
by Barbara Adams, CPRW, CEIP, MFRW, MMRW, MFCA-T and Lee Kelley What’s the real prognosis for defense-related employment? It’s probable that the Department of Defense will finally see an increase in appropriations after multiple years of declines, but will that translate into federal jobs? And what are the implications for defense contractors? If you’re considering a transition from the military, or if you’re currently employed in a defense-related federal job or within the defense industry, the answers to these questions will impact your career decisions. If the Trump administration’s proposed budget can be used as a barometer, it looks like the winds are shifting to fill the sails of America’s defense establishment. The administration’s budget calls for a $54 billion increase for defense to $603 billion. Hawkish Congressmen, including Sen. John McCain and Rep. Mac Thornberry would like to see a defense budget of $640 billion. Optimistic projections for defense appropriations presume that Congressional Republicans will get behind Trump’s “hard power” agenda. They also assume that the Congress will actually pass a regular appropriations bill on time. If previous experience holds, it’s more likely that there will be a continuing resolution as in 2017. Worse, the possibility of sequestration imposes at least the chance of debilitating short-term cuts to military budgets. The impact of defense increases on federal jobs isn’t clear Even if the budget increases progress unscathed through the Congressional appropriations process, the money will likely be targeted towards hardware. The President is calling for a 350 ship Navy, up from today’s 274. That would be the largest naval buildup since the Cold War. Air Force readiness is also targeted, and the 2018 proposed budget would include additional F-35s to the arsenal. The impact of these major acquisition programs on federal hiring would be indirect. The situation is further complicated by the administration’s continuing efforts to reduce the federal workforce. The hiring freeze, lifted April 12, created disruption within the civilian workforce at the DoD. While hiring can now resume, OMB Director Mick Mulvaney’s “smarter, more strategic” plan for federal hiring hasn’t been unveiled. The director’s statement that agencies can’t begin onboarding new employees “willy-nilly” does little to clarify policy. A better indicator for federal defense jobs may come from a February 1 directive from Deputy Secretary of Defense Robert Work that clarified the implementation of the hiring freeze at Defense.1 That memorandum identified 16 categories of positions that were exempted from the freeze and considered “necessary to meet National Security or Public Safety Responsibilities.” The exempt categories represent immediate opportunities for DoD jobs. Included in the list are:
Finally, the possibility of sequestration throws another kink into the prospects for near-term DoD hiring. Congress has already missed a debt ceiling deadline that passed on March 15. The federal government is currently operating on emergency funding measures and technically running out of cash. April 29 is the budget deadline to avoid sequestration. Sequestration imposes automatic spending caps across all federal agencies, though there has been clear indication that the administration would call for exemption of Defense. Another continuing resolution would maintain funding for all departments at 2016 levels. Private Sector prospects look more promising What’s clear is that global political instability is good for the defense industry in the U.S. That’s one of the conclusions of Deloitte’s recently released 2017 Global Aerospace and Defense Sector Outlook.2 The report predicts that U.S. outlays with defense contractors will increase in 2017, reversing five years of decline. It also projects increases in both demand and profits for defense contractors resulting from higher defense budgets across the globe: Several governments have already started increasing their defense budgets to address security threats and to battle against terrorism. For instance, China, Russia, Saudi Arabia, and South Korea’s 2015 military expenditure rose by 7.4 percent, 7.5 percent, 5.7 percent, and 3.6 percent year-on-year, respectively. For defense contractors, this represents an opportunity to place more equipment and military weapons systems with these Countries. Key defense products which are likely to experience increased interest from buyers, include armored ground vehicles, ground attack munitions, light air support aircraft, intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance electronic sensors, cyber protections, maritime patrol ships and aircraft, as well as provision for equipment maintenance and sustainment, as the military operations tempo continues to increase.3 According to the Deloitte report, US defense contractors have an operating advantage over their global competition. The graph below compares operating earnings/employee of US defense firms and foreign competitors: Earnings/employee is a direct indicator of efficiency and productivity and it also provides a clue to job seekers who might be considering entry into the defense sector. Tune up your skills. An intimate acquaintance with Agile manufacturing, Six Sigma, and the latest manufacturing trends could give you the edge in your job search. Smaller Companies could be good targets The defense industry is massive and the Big 5 defense vendors – Lockheed Martin, Boeing, Northrop Grumman, General Dynamics, and Raytheon – have typically accounted for around 30 percent of DoD contract obligations. Another newly released report from the Center for Strategic International Studies projects the large company share of defense allocations to remain stable as defense outlays increase.4 In contrast, the share of smaller companies has increased dramatically from 16% of allocations prior to 2013 to 19% in recent years. Increased opportunity for smaller contractors stems partially from policies that promote small business participation, but also possibly from a Defense Innovation Initiative, started during the Obama administration. That strategy was intended partially to diversify opportunities for innovation by investing in a broader array of platforms and technologies, at least partially replacing the focus on large defense contracts. If you’re considering a transition to the private sector from the military or from government service, the Defense Acquisition Trends report can provide valuable background information about what the DoD buys, how they buy it, and the kinds of contractors they use. Charting Your Course While the barometer reading and the forecast for defense-related jobs are somewhat uncertain at present,increases in defense spending are likely to occur. Presumably, the OMB will produce an approach to streamlining the operations of the federal government that is more rational than a hiring freeze. While there may be some pent-up demand to fill support positions that were tied up by the hiring freeze, near-term prospects in the private defense sector look brighter than those within the federal government. Over a longer period, bigger military budgets will inevitably produce associated increases in employment within the DoD. Chart your course carefully. Regardless of your decision to wait for federal openings or steer for the private sector, you’ll need to prepare a great resume for your next career move. The Master resume writers at CareerPro Global are here to assist. Since 1986, we have helped thousands of job seekers like you to reach their career goals. If you’re considering a military transition, a federal career move or a new private sector job, we hope you’ll get in touch for a free consultation. Sources: 1 Memorandum for Secretaries of the Military Departments, et. al., Deputy Secretary of Defense, 2/1/17. 2 2017 Global Aerospace and Defense Sector Outlook, Deloitte, 2017. 3 Ibid. 4Hunter, Andrew et. al, Defense Acquisition Trends, 2016, Center for Strategic International Studies, March 2017 Photo Credits: McCain and Thornberry, Breaking Defense Shipbuilding, Wikimedia Commons. 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. |
VA to Congress: Go ahead and fix the GI Bill, if you can find the money
by Nikki Wentling - Reprinted with permission ©
Stars and Stripes WASHINGTON — The Department of Veterans Affairs is agreeable to extending Post-9/11 GI Bill benefits to more servicemembers and their families, providing Congress can find the additional funding, a VA official testified Thursday. The Senate Veterans Affairs’ Committee discussed 14 bills during a Thursday hearing, five of them to alter the GI Bill. Together, the GI Bill proposals would require at least an additional $360 million in VA spending during the next five years, according to the VA’s written testimony. “VA has outlined support, with some concerns and a caveat that [the proposals] are subject to offsets,” said Curtis Coy, VA deputy undersecretary for economic opportunity. Conversations about GI Bill fixes were derailed in the House in April, when veterans organizations became divided over a controversial idea to require servicemembers to absorb the cost of the expanded benefits. A written draft of the idea, set to be discussed at a House hearing that was later postponed, stated $100 would be deducted from new enlistee’s basic pay each month for two years – for a total of $2,400 -- in order for them to receive GI Bill benefits. Veterans lined up on either side of the issue, and the argument culminated in May with a private meeting, where 35 veterans groups were represented. The groups decided to pursue GI Bill changes and leave it to Congress to find the money. One of the bills discussed Thursday would fix a Pentagon deployment authorization that is unfairly preventing thousands of reservists and National Guard members from earning GI Bill benefits. About 4,700 reservists and guard members who deployed under Title 10, Section 12304b have been restricted from accumulating education benefits. A measure to bring the mobilization authority up to par with active-duty entitlements was set to be discussed in the House in April. The Senate’s version, the Educational Development for Troops and Veterans Act of 2017, was widely supported by veterans and lawmakers Thursday. “It’s not just a National Guard and Reserve issue, it’s an issue the country needs to pick up on,” said retired Brig. Gen. Roy Robinson, president of the National Guard Association of the United States. “Because the readiness of those forces are tied to the benefits they’re not currently going to receive.” The additional cost to the VA is estimated to be $53.7 million during the next 5 years and $140.5 million during 10 years. Another bill discussed in the Senate committee, the Yellow Ribbon Improvement Act of 2017, would expand eligibility for the Yellow Ribbon Program to surviving spouses and children of servicemembers killed in the line of duty. The program allows veterans to attend schools or enroll in programs that cost more than the GI Bill tuition cap. The committee is also considering a bill to expand full GI Bill benefits to all Purple Heart recipients. Currently, a veteran must be medically retired from the military or have 36 months of active-duty service to qualify. The Military Order of the Purple Heart has said there are approximately 1,500 Purple Heart recipients who aren’t eligible for full education benefits. The Senate committee has not yet scheduled a time to vote on the bills. A full list of the bills discussed Thursday can be found at veterans.senate.gov.
wentling.nikki@stripes.com |
6 Rules for Smarter Email for Your Job Search© Copyright, 2017, Susan P. Joyce. All rights reserved. Effective e-mail is critical to your job search success, and it’s not difficult to achieve. When you are conducting a job search, try to think like someone in your “target market.” Put yourself in the position of the recipient of your message. Why would they read your message? How will they react if they do read it? The Rules for Improving Your Job Search Email.It’s surprising how poorly email is used for job search. Remember whenever you are in any interaction with a potential employer — what you do in your job search is viewed as a “sample” of your work. So, show them your best! 1. Follow the employer’s directions, if there are any.Duh, you say — who wouldn’t do that? LOTS of people! Missing this seemingly obvious point is emphasized as a significant, but common, error by many recruiters. If the directions are not followed, you appear either inept (can’t follow directions) or lazy (didn’t bother to read the directions). Obviously, neither is good for your job prospects in that company. You look particularly “clueless” if the job posting specified that you address your message to a particular person or e-mail address, but you sent your message to another address or you didn’t address it to the person specified (“Dear Sir or Madam”). 2. Don’t send job search messages from your employer’s network or system, using your work e-mail address.If you lose your job (and using your employer’s assets for your job search will definitely increase that possibility), you lose your identity, your address book, and your ability to stay in touch with the people you’ve contacted. Don’t assume that e-mail you send from your employer’s e-mail system is private, even if you haven’t been warned that it’s not. Before the Internet, employers viewed job-hunting employees with suspicion (and, unfortunately, with some justification), often firing those employees before the job search was successfully concluded. Such an employee usually was (and still is) considered a security risk – client lists, company trade secrets, etc. could be copied and taken to the new (competing) employer. Monitoring of employee e-mail and Internet use just makes it easier, now, to identify those who are job hunting. So, use a personal account for sending and receiving job search e-mail — for privacy, control, and continuity. If possible, don’t use that account with your employer’s computer, network access, or any other company asset, even if you are doing your job search during “personal time.” 3. Be very careful of mass e-mailing! It is full of traps, even for the technologically savvy.Cookie-cutter messages can’t be customized for each specific opportunity and are less effective because they can’t address the unique situation and needs each opportunity represents. Think of the different “spins” you would use describing your new “significant other” to your mother, your best friend, and a co-worker in an e-mail message. You would probably use different words and emphasize different things in each message, although you would be accurately describing the same person. You would be customizing the description to the differing interests of your audience. This is the same approach you should take with cover letters and resumes. You should customize your cover letter/message and resume for the separate interests and needs represented by each different job opportunity. Mass e-mailing has other disadvantages in addition to lack of customization. These messages are more likely to get caught in “spam filters.” Messages that look like spam frequently get deleted by system-wide filters before they enter an organization’s e-mail system. These days, with the dramatic growth in spam, a second set of filters may reside on individuals’ computers, customized to the spam sensitivities of the person using the computer. If someone thinks that you have spammed him or her, they could report you to a site like spamcop.net. As the result of such a report, your e-mail address could be added to one of the blacklists of “known spammers” accessed by the system-wide spam filters used by many ISP’s and other organizations. If you are blacklisted, e-mail from you will be stopped before it enters any protected systems, for at least a week. This could be particularly embarrassing if you are using your employer’s e-mail address for your job search, and your job search mass mailings result in your employer’s entire domain being blacklisted. 4. Address your messages like a marketing consultant / journalist.Unless the recipient is expecting a message from you, you’ve got to get their attention to get your message opened to be read. So, pay attention to the messages header – it’s as important as the contents of your message. If it fails, so does your message. You want MOST of the words in your subject to be visible when your recipient sees your message in their inbox, so make the subject line a short attention-getter (in a positive way). Think “headline!” For your message to standout among all the other messages, the subject must be a “grabber” like the headline for a news story. A message with a nondescript subject like “Information” or “Resume” will probably be ignored. Your subject should be honest and accurate, but interesting enough to have someone open it. Good subject lines:
5. Complete the “TO” field LAST (applies to the “CC:” addressees, too, if you have any).This rule is based on painful, personal experience. Don’t put the recipient’s address in the “TO:” field until your message is perfect and ready to go. This way you won’t embarrass yourself if you accidentally hit the “Send” button before your message is ready. Sending “Ignore last message!” messages are ineffective and credibility destroying (or, possibly, a clever-but-very-risky ploy). 6. Use the CC function to keep people in the information loop and to increase your personal credibility.Copying relevant people on your messages is good professional courtesy (maybe that’s why it’s now called “courtesy copy” vs. the “carbon copy” of the past). Hopefully, it’s also good marketing. For example — • Send an interview follow-up message TO the hiring manager and CC the recruiter or HR manager If you’ve already committed all of the errors above, don’t jump off a bridge. The good news is that you aren’t alone in committing them – most employers receive hundreds or thousands of unsolicited resumes, and most just get deleted. So the “silver lining” in this e-mail avalanche is that its very size makes it difficult to be so outstandingly bad that you are memorable. Obviously, that’s the challenge, as well as the benefit. More About Effective Email To Be Hired, Use Email Effectively 20 Email Mistakes That Can Kill Your Job Chances Avoid the Resume Black Hole: How to Get Your Emailed Resume Noticed How to Accept an Emailed Job Interview Invitation 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+ |
Status of military raises part of study on converting to civilian-like salary system
ByTOM PHILPOTT | Special to Stars and Stripes Reprinted with permission ©
Stars and Stripes By year’s end the Department of Defense expects to launch its 13th Quadrennial Review of Military Compensation (QRMC), which will assess the pros and cons of converting servicemembers from traditional basic pay and tax-free allowances to a single, civilian-like salary system. That’s a slower pace of study than Congress wanted last December when it ordered the department to prepare a plan to begin to transition to a salary system no later than Jan. 1, 2018, and in the interim to provide “an initial assessment and progress report” on the effort by March 1 this year. The understaffed department delivered that initial report April 17, as a two-page letter to Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., and Rep. Max Thornberry, chairmen of the Senate and House armed services committees. The letter advised that assessing the ramifications of moving to military salaries is an enormous task, and “necessarily and most appropriately” performed by the next QRMC. The department takes “very seriously” that order from Congress, wrote senior defense executive A.M. Kurta. However, he explained, transitioning to a salary system “would be a change of historic proportions” requiring “significant additional study [of] second and third order effects, the potential risk to readiness, if any, and the effects on DoD’s ability to recruit and retain” a volunteer force. By law, the president every four years must direct a QRMC to review principles and concepts of military compensation. Lawmakers agreed that the work of the Military Compensation and Retirement Modernization Commission in 2015-16, which resulted in enactments of a new Blended Retirement System to take effect in 2018, satisfied the legal requirement for conducting the 12th QRMC. The next QRMC will be chartered by President Donald Trump, perhaps in the next several months, said Jeri Busch, the department’s director of military compensation policy, in an interview Wednesday. A QRMC draft charter is being prepared. A director and staff could be named and begin its review by December. “For something like this,” she said, “the work might take two years or more.” Meanwhile, the Trump administration soon will unveil its first defense budget request, for fiscal 2018. That will reveal whether Defense Secretary Jim Mattis and the White House accept the last administration’s playbook on capping pay raises a half percentage point below private-sector wage growth for a while longer to free up more budget dollars for training and other readiness needs. Busch said she couldn’t discuss what the pay raise request will be for Jan. 1, 2018, until the budget is unveiled. A 2018 raise to match private-sector wage growth would be 2.4 percent. Last year then-President Barack Obama sought a 1.6 percent increase. But Congress interrupted a string of pay caps, voting a 2.1 percent pay hike instead. The Congressional Research Service in April released for interested members of Congress a report on military compensation. It described how lawmakers, in the decade following the 9/11 attacks, used various pay increases to improve recruiting, retention and overall force quality in wartime. But more recently, to deal with tighter defense budgets, Congress accepted the view of military leaders that compensation growth needed to slow so they could “rebalance” defense spending more toward weapon modernization, training and readiness accounts. From 2014 through 2016, basic pay raises were capped a half percentage point below private-sector wage growth as measured by the government’s Employment Cost Index. Congress voted to trim annual adjustments in Basic Allowance for Housing for five years so that, by 2019, servicemembers living off base will pay 5 percent of their average rental costs out of pocket. Congress and the department also committed to cutting the $1.3 billion annual subsidy for commissary stores. The goal is to slice the subsidy at least by half through more business-like operations while still preserving shopper savings. Commissary reforms are underway. Busch indicated the department will not seek repeal of the statute dampening housing allowance adjustments. But whether it will push for full pay raises or something less will be known soon. The department’s view of pay overall, said Busch, is that there is no gap currently in comparing military pay with private-sector wages or salaries, though bonuses and special pays continue to be needed to keep high-demand skills. “We do believe, as of today, that we still have a very robust compensation package that compares very favorably to the private sector,” said Busch. “As of today it meets our needs in helping us recruit and retain the talent we need.” The 9th QRMC, which issued its report 15 years ago, embraced the notion that if Regular Military Compensation (RMC) matched or exceeded the 70th percentile of wages in the private sector for workers of the same age and educational background of military folks, then military pay is deemed adequate. RMC is defined as a member’s basic pay plus average tax-free allowances for their pay grade, plus a calculated value of the tax advantage on allowances. Busch said RMC remains the foundation for judging adequacy of compensation, with the understanding that special and incentive pays also are needed to retain different skills. “RMC is what we [use] to make those comparisons between the military and the private sector,” Busch said. The Congressional Research Service noted that by 2012, when the 11th QRMC reported, RMC had grown past the 70th percentile benchmark set a decade earlier. Officer pay was at the 83rd percentile of college-educated private-sector salaries; enlisted pay had reached the 90th percentile compared with their civilian peers. That finding made military leaders comfortable in asking Congress for a series of annual pay raise caps to rebalance defense spending toward other needs. Is the 70th percentile standard still relevant and useful? “We think we need to review and validate whether that’s the right benchmark,” said Busch. “After more than 15 years of war, does that need to be in a different place?” The department has the think tank Rand Corp. studying the issue, she said. Busch reinforced another point that congressional analysts also underscored in their April review of military pay issues: that the nature of service life makes pay comparisons to the private sector imperfect. The “conditions of military service are frequently much more arduous than those of civilian employment, even in peacetime, for families as well as military personnel themselves,” the Congressional Research Service report explained. This factor “is sometimes cited as a rationale for military compensation being at a higher level than it otherwise might be. “On the other hand,” said the report, “the military services all mention travel and adventure in exotic places as a positive reason for enlistment and a military career, so it may be misleading to automatically assume this is always a liability.”
Send comments to Military Update, P.O. Box 231111, Centreville, VA, 20120; email milupdate@aol.com; Twitter: @Military_Update. |
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