I'm Transitioning Out. Where Do I Actually Start?

The Challenge

You've got somewhere between six and eighteen months, and everyone has advice.

Update your LinkedIn. Get your resume "civilianized." Go to the career fair. Talk to the guy from your unit who got out two years ago and seems to be doing fine. Apply to everything. Take the first offer, because a paycheck is a paycheck and you have a family.

Most of that advice isn't wrong. It's just out of order.

Here's what often happens to people who start with the resume. They write a document that describes what they did in language a civilian can almost understand. They send it out. They get interviews for roles a level or two below where they belong, because the resume didn't say what they're actually capable of and nobody in the room knew how to ask. They take one, because the clock is running.

Four months in, they're bored, under-used, and reporting to somebody who has no idea what they're sitting on.

That's the pattern. It's common enough that half of Veterans still aren't in their preferred career field by their sixth post-military job.

I'm not telling you that to scare you. I'm telling you because it is avoidable, and the thing that avoids it happens before you ever send a resume.

The Data

Start with what you're carrying, because it's more than you think.

Veterans with bachelor's degrees have 2.9x more work experience than non-Veterans with the same degree. You're 39% more likely to be promoted early once you're in the right seat. And Veterans who land in a career field that actually fits more than double their career earnings, their retention, and their job satisfaction.

Read that last one again. It's the difference between a career and a series of jobs.

Now the honest part. The person interviewing you probably hasn't served. That's not hostility. It's silence. He doesn't know what an E-7 is, he doesn't know what you were responsible for, and he isn't going to figure it out from a bullet point.

That's the whole gap. Not your capability. His vocabulary. And a gap in somebody else's vocabulary is a solvable problem, as long as one person in the room speaks both languages.

Why Always Forward VTA

Here's the honest version of who I am.

I grew up in it. My father served. Both of my brothers served. I was an Armor Officer in the 1st Cavalry Division and I deployed. Then I spent twenty-six years in corporate leadership, and in that time I've hired people and I've had to fire people. I've been the one seeking a job and I've been the one being sought.

I also sit on the board of a Veterans nonprofit run by the 12th Sergeant Major of the Army (Retired), Jack L. Tilley. That work did not start when I founded this company and it will not end with it.

I'm not a recruiter who found a Veteran niche. I'm a bridge. I speak both languages, and the job is standing in the middle and making sure each side actually understands the other.

Which also means I'm not trying to place you fast and move on. A match made quickly is not a match made well, and you'll be living with the difference long after my part is done.

So I don't start with your resume. I start with you.

A first conversation with me is thirty minutes. It's not an interview and it's not an intake form. It's a self-discovery process, and it grounds both of us. By the end, we know the what and the why of where you're headed. Then we work together on the where.

Because finding the right fit takes two things. You have to be able to tell someone what you want to do, why, and how you'll add value. And you have to actually believe you have everything it takes to succeed.

You do.

If you can't answer all of that yet, that's a completely normal place to be. It's what the thirty minutes is for.

I'll be honest with you on that call. If I don't think I can help, I'll say so, and I'll give you my read on your best next steps anyway. You may also decide not to work with me, for your own reasons, and that's fine. I'm not going to waste your time, and I'd ask you not to waste mine.

And it costs you nothing. Ever. The employer pays. You are our mission.

Landing the role is just the beginning. I stay with you for six to twelve months after you start, because the first year in a civilian company is its own kind of terrain, and nobody should have to navigate it alone.

Nothing to prepare. Just show up.

Give me a little background so I'm not asking you questions you've already answered, and we'll set up thirty minutes.

Always Forward.

Sources

Sixth-job statistic: Matthew J. Louis, Hiring Veterans, Career Press, 2023. 2.9x work experience and 39% earlier promotion: LinkedIn Veteran Opportunity Report. Doubling of career earnings, retention, and job satisfaction in optimal career fields: Matthew J. Louis, Mission Transition, HarperCollins Leadership, 2019; Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2018.