Military to Civilian Transition Timeline
In my previous seminars at two military bases, the general, collective wisdom is to embark on a P& P (planning and preparation), roughly 18 months before your departure from military service.
Take the time to compile a checklist, to expedite your transition strategically from military service to “civvie street.” The 18 month timeline allows for identifying any barriers to employment, or uncovers gaps in your educational background (it’s possible that you may have to upgrade your education before your transition date).
18 months prior to your departure date
Start to gain clarity about what you want to do (NOT what you can do) in your upcoming civilian career. It’s important to choose 3 skills that you want to use.
Do some career self-assessments with the help of a career professional. The essential points are:
Your interests
Your passions
Your work style and personality
Your transferable skills
Your motivators
Your intuition (one of the best indicators of career success). What is your intuition telling you to do? Similar job that you did in the military (it is highly unlikely that it will be the same). Different job? Similar industry, field or occupation?
Unless you devote ample time to knowing yourself through self-assessments, you will likely be unsuccessful in career planning. Self-awareness is the first step; don’t overlook it.
Take a personal inventory
Record your milestones and accomplishments in the military. Refer back to performance evaluations (PER’s in Canada) and look for any patterns in key words that led to your successes.
• Start career goal setting and action planning
• Subscribe to career and job search blogs. The nature of the 21st century has changed exponentially, especially in the last decade with the proliferation of social media and a shaky economy impacting the growth of jobs. My blog is http:// webinarcareercoach.blogspot.com
The current civilian workforce is the most competitive ever! Soak up all the information you can about the current civilian workforce. It’s the most competitive ever!
6 – 4 months prior to your departure date from military service
• Seek out recruiters, headhunters and employment counsellors to help your planning and goal setting, on and off line. You can find recruiters, headhunters and hiring managers on Twitter and Linkedin. Start to follow a number of these individuals. As for employment counsellors, they generally work at MFRC’s (military family centres in Canada) and Fleet and Family Support Centers, Army ACAP, and Airman & Family Readiness Centers in the U.S.
In the U.S., reputable recruiters include Lucas Group, Orion International and Bradley-Morris.
Equally helpful is to get a mentor, who has already made a successful transition into the private or government sector. Mentors offer the unique advantage of imparting invaluable information, such as familiarizing with “civilian/corporate culture.” The difference between civilian work culture is vastly different from the military equivalent. As a transitioning military member, it is in your best interest to become familiar with the “new” culture you are entering (more on that later, especially in relation to civilian job interviews).
4 months prior to your separation date
Seek out a certified career coach to act as an accountability partner and help you achieve your short-term and long-term goals. Research has proven that hiring a career coach for a set period of time will result in landing a satisfying job or career faster, than the usual route of “going it alone” in a job search
With the rise of accessibility to social media sites, look for webinars and teleseminars which you can view in the comfort of your home.
In the same vein, invest in professional development by taking classes and courses online. Some are free, low cost and are university courses. I recommend online courses on www.udemy.com or www.coursera.com. The course subjects are limitless, and can only benefit you by showing potential employers that you understand the current trends, expectations and issues that affect the civilian workforce. There is also MOOC, which stands for “ massive open online course.”
As we speak, I am taking a brilliant coaching course on Udemy.com, delivered by a highly successful coach in the U.S.
3 months before departure date
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Start removing your military uniform “mentally.”
By this I mean, come to terms with the fact that you are either making a choice to enter the civilian workforce or you are releasing from the military for medical reasons. Leaving the military is likely to affect you from psychologically, from the standpoint that it has been your identity for 20-30 years. In North America, identity is closely aligned to one’s occupation, so creating a “new” professional identity needs to be considered.
Attend workshops to “demilitarize” your military resume. Don’t shoot the messenger here! While working at 2 military bases, I developed a “how to de-militarize your resume workshop.” Nothing exited before I spent months preparing resources to develop such a workshop, which led to dozens of military members requesting individual appointments to create an appealing and powerful civilian resume.
It is imperative that you create a resume that a civilian employer can understand. All too frequently, civilian employers do not understand buzzwords, acronyms or abbreviations that are specific to the military. In the worst case scenario, well qualified military applicants are passed over because the military jargon is too complex to understand.
Attend a workshop and work with a career professional one-on-one to highlight your unique selling points (USP, speaking of acronyms!). Consider at least two resume formats for attracting civilian employers.
If you are unclear about what job titles represent what would did in the military, check out www.Onet.org (US) or www.workingincanada.gc.ca to find equivalent job titles.
• Likewise, attend as many career transition workshops as you can, while you are still on base. The most popular ones I delivered were:
Emotional intelligence
How to use social media in your job search
SurvivAbility (TM): career strategies for the world of work
Interview preparation
Start preparing for civilian interviews
Clearly, the 20-30 military interview is diametrically opposed to the format that civilian employers use. Be prepared for the “behavioural interviewing” format, whereby employers ask questions related to the past that may help them decide what your present or future performance may be. Practise your answers with a career coach or career professional at your local military centre and inquire about interviewing strategies that will set you apart from your competition.
Research potential employers by checking Google News, setting up Google alerts about desirable companies and using Linkedin to network and get introduced to current AND past company employees. Find out what the competing company does (known as “competitive intelligence”) and glean that valuable information during your civilian interview.
Melissa C. Martin is a bilingual career/military to civilian career coach and military spouse.
For almost 10 years, I worked as an employment counsellor and seminar leader at 2 military bases. In the last 4 years, I have specialized in mental health as a vocational rehabilitation counsellor. Recently, I started my own business, military2civilianemployment.com.
Presently, I offer on-on-one career coaching. (Coming soon, group coaching and webinars!)
Check out my blog at webinarcareercoach.blogspot.com
Follow me on Twitter @ravingredhead and @melissacmartin
Need a certified career professional to help you achieve your career goals?
Email me at melissacynthiamartin@gmail.com
