FOCUS IN. Drive the energy of the conversation by being fully present during the call. You may wish to take notes, but make sure your attention is fully on your mentor so you respect their time—and don’t miss any key insights!


BE PREPARED. Get ready for your call by reading your mentor’s profile and preparing some questions ahead of time. What made you choose this mentor? What do you find interesting about this person’s experiences, skills, or background? What questions are top-of-mind for you at this point in your life, that your mentor might be able to answer? 


SET A PURPOSE. Be up front with what you need, intentional with your goals, and honest with your mentor. What are you hoping to learn or take away from the call? Express that goal in the first 5 minutes of your conversation.


GIVE THANKS. All USO Mentorship Mentors are volunteers, motivated by knowing they could make a difference in your life—and they’ll only know they’ve met their goal if you let them know! After the call completes, you’ll receive a text message with your mentors email address to follow up with a thank you.

  1. LISTEN FIRST. Allow the Military Spouse to set the scene for their current life goals, as well as their hopes for your call. Give them the space to share what they’re going through, free from your preconceived notions, before offering your input. And give yourself space to learn something new, too! Chances are you’ll come away with a new perspective.
  2. PROMPT WITH QUESTIONS. This may be this Military Spouse’s first time engaging in a mentoring conversation—there’s a chance they may be nervous! Try one of these questions to help break the ice and help them think through their own situation. The right answer may already be in front of them—they may just need your fresh eyes to help them see it!
    1. What do you want to achieve for yourself? For your family?
    2. How do you picture your ideal situation/career/outcome?
    3. What are the options or resources you’ve come up with so far? Have you tried them?
    4. What are some small, actionable goals that will get you closer to your ideal situation? How can I help you achieve them?
  3. BE A CONNECTOR. There’s a chance that you may not have the answers to every question you’ll be asked—but someone you know might! Use this opportunity to be a connector and expand this military spouse’s network. After your call is complete, you’ll be texted this Military Spouse’s email address so you can follow up with introductions.
  4. MOTIVATE, THEN STEP BACK. Remember that you’re helping this Military Spouse build a roadmap, but after your call, they’re the one at the wheel! Plan to end your call with a few achievable, actionable items for the Military Spouse to tackle—and then empower them to make it happen. If you’re willing, offer a second call and remember the goals you set today, so you can check in on their progress next time.

Remember the movie “Castaway” with Tom Hanks? He played a man who crashed landed on a deserted island in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. And he lived there for many years, alone, until one day the tide washed up a piece of metal that he used to build something that helped him get off the island. The point was that you never know what will wash in with the tide and how it could be the very thing that will save you. This has been my experience with job hunting. You never know what will happen, so be prepared to use every resource.

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As a digital mentorship platform where mentor-mentee conversations take place over the phone, think of your first call with each mentee as a chemistry match. With strong chemistry matches, you and your mentee may decide to continue building the relationship, perhaps off-line, or it might be easier to just continue scheduling via Veterati. Or, your mentorship session is more an informational interview where the mentee is trying to get specific questions answered. 1 conversation might already make a big difference to your mentee, and you might not need to build the relationship forward. It is ultimately up to you and your mentee.

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Before the Internet, we had Tribes.

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I spend a lot of time on LinkedIn — it’s part of my job. While there, I see many veterans and military spouses using LinkedIn very effectively to brand themselves and position themselves as the next key employee at their target company. But I also see those who use it very, very poorly, hindering their chances to make a good impression with potential employers. So in this article, I wanted to talk about how to use LinkedIn the right way and avoid making some common mistakes.

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