July 2018 |
Transition-e-news Volume 4 Issue 144 |
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Foxholes, Wardrooms, & Ready Rooms© 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. Several years ago one of my clients asked me if he should expect the same level of camaraderie in a civilian job as he had in the military. My answer was no, and yes. There is nothing in the civilian workforce that can approximate the bonding that occurs in the wardroom, ready room, or foxhole. Military personnel in those environments put up with much hardship – long hours, stressful working conditions, danger to personal safety, separation from loved ones, and more. However, because they all in it together, they get through it. This mutual self-sacrifice, teamwork, and covering each other's six contribute to individual bonding, unit cohesion, and, ultimately, the camaraderie in question. Other than perhaps the professions of law enforcement, fire fighting, and emergency medicine (notice the common denominator), it would be difficult to find a civilian occupation that approximates the conditions of the foxhole. It follows therefore that finding the military version of camaraderie in a civilian occupation is almost impossible. Some people do get close however and often it is simply a matter of time. "Hail and Farewell Parties," the Welcome Wagon, personal sponsors, turnover period, contact reliefs—these are examples of the military's effort to ease the transition from one duty station to another. Because of the high frequency of duty station rotation in the service, it is important that the system accommodates these transitions. Getting onboard and up-to-speed quickly contributes to the automatic "welcome to the club" experience that awaits most military personnel when they report to a new duty station. This contributes to the camaraderie of military service. Civilians do not do it that way. Many military-to-civilian career changers will tell you that although they did not find the camaraderie and esprit de corps initially in their civilian jobs, it did start to develop in the first 12 to 18 months of employment. This delay is due in part to the fact that unlike in the military where you are quickly welcomed "to the club," in the civilian sector you have to earn this membership over time. You might also have to take the initiative. Do not expect the Welcome Wagon to pull up in front of your house the first week on the job (if ever) nor should you line up a baby sitter in anticipation of your "Welcome Aboard" party. Those things or their equivalents will come, but it takes time. The kind of people with whom you work and the corporate culture of the organization will influence the feeling of camaraderie. Take a look at the people in those military foxholes. They share much in the way of values, ethics, commitment, sacrifice, reliability, citizenship, and courage. Can the same be said of the civilian workplace? Maybe yes, maybe no. Is there a lesson here? How about this. As you transition from the military to civilian sector and as you appraise opportunities and offers, in addition to things like money, location, benefits, growth potential, and job satisfaction, perhaps there is one more issue to consider—are these my kind of people? © 2018; 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. |
Veterans seeking elected office get boost from Craigslist founderBy Drew Brooks The Fayetteville Observer - © STARS AND STRIPES, reprinted with permission All rights reserved A new master's program meant to help veterans and their spouses launch careers in public service has received a boost from the founder of Craigslist. Craig Newmark, who founded the classified advertisements website, donated $200,000 to create a scholarship in support of a new veterans' civic leadership program created by the University of San Francisco and the Veterans Campaign, a nonpartisan organization that encourages, mentors and prepares veterans for a "second service" in civic leadership. The scholarships will help provide full tuition for up to 10 students in the Master of Arts in Public Leadership program, which is meant to prepare veterans and military spouses to run for elective office or for careers in legislative affairs, campaign management or advocacy. The master's program includes eight online courses and five in-person workshops and is designed to allow students to participate while working full-time jobs. Officials said they expect to enroll 20 students in the first year of the program. The deadline to apply for fall 2018 enrollment is July 1. Seth Lynn, a Marine Corps veteran and executive director of the nonprofit Veterans Campaign, said the masters program is designed as the next step after workshops the organization has hosted since 2009. Those workshops give participants much-needed information, he said. And the masters program builds on that by providing the knowledge of how to run a campaign and seek elected office. The military is apolitical, Lynn said. But veterans are often good choices to continue to serve their communities through elected office. "There's this great pool of potential leaders out there," he said. "We're teaching them how to run. We're teaching them about civic leadership." Lynn founded Veterans Campaign in response to the stark drop off of veterans in Congress in the past several decades. While more than three-quarters of Congress were veterans during the Vietnam War-era, Lynn said that number had dropped to less than a quarter in recent years. The lack of a military draft and public perception of veterans during Vietnam were contributing factors to the decline, Lynn said. Veterans Campaign held its first workshop for veterans in 2009. It has since worked with thousands of veterans, many of whom later launched campaigns and some of whom have found success at the Congressional, state or local levels. Today, there are 80 veterans in the House and 19 in the Senate, according to officials. And Lynn said that number is set to grow, with Newmark's help. "The military community is a valuable, yet largely untapped, source of civic and political leaders," Lynn said. "Craig's generous gift will provide veterans and military families access to a world-class curriculum that will not only prepare them to succeed as elected officials, but also in a variety of professional settings outside of politics and in their individual commitments to public service." The scholarships will support veterans who have already used their G.I. Bill benefits for undergraduate degrees. Qualified veterans can receive full tuition reimbursement through a combination of G.I. Bill and Yellow Ribbon Program funding. Newmark said funding the program aligns with his personal commitment to supporting veterans and military families.
"Through this scholarship, we can help them continue their civic leadership beyond the military, both in and outside of government, where their values and leadership skills are sorely needed," he said. |
Best and Worst Terms to Use in Your Resume – Ranked by Hiring Managers© Copyright, 2018, Susan P. Joyce. All rights reserved. In a recent CareerBuilders survey, over 2,200 hiring managers were asked to rank the terms they typically see in resumes as good or bad terms to use. The results really weren’t too surprising, but they are interesting to note, particularly if you are currently submitting resumes for job opportunities. The 15 Best Resume TermsThese are the 15 terms those hiring managers preferred to see on resumes. Notice that these are mostly action verbs, probably describing the accomplishments (bet they were quantified accomplishments, too): 1. Achieved: 52 percent 2. Improved: 48 percent 3. Trained/Mentored: 47 percent 4. Managed: 44 percent 5. Created: 43 percent 6. Resolved: 40 percent 7. Volunteered: 35 percent 8. Influenced: 29 percent 9. Increased/Decreased: 28 percent 10. Ideas: 27 percent 11. Negotiated: 25 percent 12. Launched: 24 percent 13. Revenue/Profits: 23 percent 14. Under budget: 16 percent 15. Won: 13 percent Notice that “achieved” (at 52%), “improved” (at 48%), and “trained/mentored” (at 47%) were preferred over “#8220;managed” (at 44%)! And “under budget” and “revenue/profits” were very near the bottom of the list. Interesting! Achievements, improvements, and training/mentoring are more important to these hiring managers than profits. Or maybe these managers weren’t responsible for profitability… The 15 Worst Resume TermsThese are the 15 worst terms to include on your resume, based on this sample of hiring managers. Notice that most of these are adjectives people would use to describe themselves, basically meaningless terms unless backed up with quantified accomplishments. Perhaps that’s how the surveyed hiring managers viewed these terms – empty and meaningless: 1. Best of breed: 38 percent 2. Go-getter: 27 percent 3. Think outside of the box: 26 percent 4. Synergy: 22 percent 5. Go-to person: 22 percent 6. Thought leadership: 16 percent 7. Value add: 16 percent 8. Results-driven: 16 percent 9. Team player: 15 percent 10. Bottom-line: 14 percent 11. Hard worker: 13 percent 12. Strategic thinker: 12 percent 13. Dynamic: 12 percent 14. Self-motivated: 12 percent 15. Detail-oriented: 11 percent Notice that, mostly, these terms are hated by fewer than 20% of the survey participants, so I’m not sure that I would automatically eliminate them from my resume if I felt they were appropriate. What I would definitely try to do is back up those “empty” adjectives with proof that they were not empty at all. We think of many of these characteristics as desirable in a great employee. Perhaps these terms were used in resumes that offered no proof that someone was “best of breed” or “detail-oriented.” If you describe yourself as accomplished, obviously adjectives are not enough. Include some details about achievements that help the prospective employer believe that those are not just empty terms. If you want more details on this CareerBuilder study, find it here. More About Effective Resumes5 Reasons You Should Customize Your Resume How to Quickly and Easily Customize Your Resume for Each Opportunity Resume Customization Cheat Sheet Before You Apply, 4 Questions You Must Ask Yourself 5 Resume Rules You Should Ignore 3 Assumptions You Should Never Make About Your Resume Why You Don’t Hear Back After You Submit Your Resume Keys to a Good Resume and Cover Letter
About the Author… |
Transition summit helps veterans return to civilian lifeBy DAMON CLINE | The Augusta Chronicle, Ga. © Stars and Stripes - Reprinted with permission, all rights reserved. FORT GORDON, Ga. (Tribune News Service) — In case the hundreds of soon-to-be-civilians at Fort Gordon needed a reminder, Charles Hodges gave it to them: There is life after the military. "No one stays in the Army or the the Navy or the Air Force or the Marine Corps their entire life," Hodges, senior director of programs and events for Hiring Our Heroes, said Thursday during the kickoff for the post's Transition Summit. "You started off as this thing called a civilian and you will end up as this thing called a civilian." The U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation-sponsored program is designed to help military veterans and spouses transition to private-sector jobs and lifestyles. "I've been a civilian for 2½ years, and it's pretty darn good," said Hodges, a retired Army colonel. "I have not woken up at 5 o'clock in the morning and said, 'Man I wish I was going to PT formation right now.' " An estimated 1,800 service members separate from the military annually at Fort Gordon, which is home to numerous electronic warfare and military intelligence battalions, as well as the future headquarters for Army Cyber Command. Fort Gordon Transition Services Manager Angela Gaston said workshops on résumés and interviews help service members better communicate their skills to private-sector employers. "Many of them have been in the military for 20-plus years, so the military is a lot of all that they have known," she said. "We help them to translate the experience and the knowledge they have gained so that civilian employers will be able to interpret it better." One service member who will soon be job hunting is Chief Warrant Officer Abel Salazar, who is retiring in January after 24 years in the Army. He hopes his experience as an electronic systems maintenance technician with the 7th Signal Command – as well as his master's degree and top-secret security clearance – will help land him a job in Augusta's IT industry. "I've been blessed to have a great Army career," said Salazar, 42. "But I'm definitely ready. It's about time." Marnie Holder, Hire Our Heroes' Transition Summit director, said 72 summits have been held since 2014, with about 55 percent of attendees receiving job offers. Employers represented at the fourth annual Fort Gordon summit included Starbucks, Microsoft, Bank of America and Verizon. "You guys are the most popular for all of the employers – they all want to come to Fort Gordon," Holder told the crowd while introducing Maj. Gen. John B. Morrison, commanding general of the Army Cyber Center of Excellence.
Morrison told attendees the military has a duty to help all service members successfully return to civilian life. |
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