TRANSITION CENTER

“One key to successful leadership is continuous personal change. Personal change is a reflection of our inner growth and empowerment.” – Robert E. Quinn

I’m writing this article many years after my first shot at being in an upper management position, over a group of civilians. This position was offered to me after being in the military, where I was trained how to “manage troops”. First of all, if you’re a veteran, thank you for your service. I mean that from the bottom of my heart. I’m the daughter of a twenty year military veteran and my grandfather is a twenty year military veteran as well. I have several other family members who served honorably and I could list other family members who are presently serving in the military. I have a lot of respect for those who choose to serve our country.

I served in the Air Force as a reservist for ten years, working in the medical and flight medical service. I was honorably discharged as a Technical Sergeant (E-6). While being in the reserves, I also worked full time in civilian emergency medical services (EMS) as a Nationally Registered Paramedic, and I was often promoted to leadership positions at my civilian jobs because of my military training. I’ve learned a few important differences between these two leadership settings, and I wish to pass this along to other military veterans who may be placed in a position to lead civilian employees.

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In this interview, we ask a recently transitioned veteran about his journey of leaving the military and succeeding with perseverance and advice from mentors on Veterati.

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If you are in a career transition, before you do anything else, you must first answer this question, “Who am I?”

Transitioning from any position into a new one, unless you are going to be doing exactly the same thing, requires getting this question answered first. Spend time figuring out who you are before you start looking for that next great career step and you will be much happier during the search and especially afterwards. Yes, being unemployed is an awful feeling, however nowhere as bad as how you could feel if you jump into a job you really don’t want.  Here are four tasks that will help you answer the question, “Who am I?”

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I spent five months unemployed before I started my first civilian job and I wasn’t prepared for it at all. My plan was always to roll right into my next job, and I would have never believed that it would take me that long to start working again. I started planning my career transition a full year in advance to avoid this exact situation. How could this have happened to me?

No one ever told me that I should plan for this. Why would they? Up to that point, my career had been playing out perfectly. My peers who left the military before me were able to get on their feet quickly, or so I thought. The truth is, most service members experience a period of unemployment. It’s not ideal but it’s also not the end of the world. Here are a few things that surprised me about unemployment:

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As an HR Director for a growing retail grocery company, I interviewed, hired and worked with lots of people, including several veterans. Each time, I was excited about bringing our shared, time-honored and battle-tested values into my company to help accomplish my company’s mission.  When that happened, it was great. However, there were times when it didn’t always work out.

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