Getting a Job After the Service Not That Easy

I crossed over in the Air Force when Sept. 11, 2001 happened, after serving four years in the Navy. Transitioning back into the civilian world was like being a fish out of water. I spent months trying to find a job, but with no luck. I didn't know how to apply all the knowledge I gained from our Transition Assistance Program (TAP).

I didn't know how to apply all the knowledge I gained from our Transition Assistance Program (TAP). I couldn't figure out how to translate my military background into civilian terms so I could "sell" myself on paper, even with all the wealth of knowlegde and assistance that is out there. After months of looking for a job on the Internet and in the paper, I finally decided to go back into the military after the events of Sept. 11.

Once I completed my term of service in the Air Force, I spent a lot of time doing research and getting feedback on resume writing techniques and interviews. I searched online and talked to people. I continued to look online for jobs, went to Career Fairs and looked in the paper. Fin ally, I got a response to work for a company who had a contract with the military for a program on the base that I just separated from. I served there for two years until the program came to an end and I was out of a job...again.

After months of looking and applying online, in the paper, through e-mail, going to job fairs and talking to people, I finally got an interview with an Aeronautics company in the local area after I attended a Career Fair. Now, I am finally secured with a job and can put my military and aviation background to good use.

Transitioning from the military is not easy. It takes lots of research, determination, patience, networking, and prayer to get to where you want to go but, in the end, it pays to put in your time and effort.

Just keep working, talking to people, going to job fairs and obtaining helpful tips and tricks for perfecting your resume and interviews. Eventually, you'll get it.

(Submitted by Marilyn Richards)

I Know What I Don't Want to Do When I Get Out

Growing up in Texas, one got used to the heat, humidity and the bugs … lots of bugs. My worst summer job during high school, and I had many, was when I had the opportunity to work at a big lumber yard.

My job -- along with another young lad -- was to unload the train box cars of lumber that arrived weekly. All the unloading was done by hand. It was like a giant jigsaw puzzle, only in reverse. We would open the massive door of the car and inside was lumber stacked to the top, less the last three feet.

One would crawl into the top space and work on our knees handing out one board at a time. The other one would stand on the forks of the forklift and stack the boards as they were handed out. Once the “hole” was large enough for two, we both worked inside the car.

Inside the cars at midday was about 140 degrees. Most of the lumber was large planks rough sawn, which means there were plenty of splinters. It would take two days to unload one car. However, when the cedar shakes came, they were worse. Bundles of shakes also stacked to near the top. One bundle at a time was handed out.

Once inside the hot car, the sawdust was unreal and made you itch all over. Hard to breath, unbelievably hot outside in the sun (102 felt like 125) and the humidity would weaken even the strongest. Soaking with sweat, the bugs would land on you and you would suffer big time. The boss would check on us about four times a day and yell that we worked too slowly.

As soon as the last board or bundle was handed out, the switch engine would arrive to leave another full car and take the empty one away. After the first day, it was really hard to get up each day knowing what was waiting for you when you got to work. All for minimum wage of about $1.75 and hour. I learned early in life what I did not want to do for a living when I grew up!

(Submitted by Mr. Bob Edwards, Air Force)

What Recruiters Will and Will Not Tell You

After 20 years in the small community of the submarine service I have found it difficult to figure out what I want to do with the rest of my life, or as we say when I grow up. I began my search about six months before I retired in December 2005. I would recommend that anyone do the same, because some of the positions that are available are not immediate hires and have a lengthy hiring process.

The longest for me was a position I had interviewed for with TVA. The process was about eight months long. I have also tried the recruiting firms Lucas Group, Orion International, Military Stars, New Careers, Recruit Military, Bradley Morris, and NexusRG. Out of this group the most helpful were Lucas, Orion, Military Stars and NexusRG. I had a bad experience with Bradley's recruiter. The recruiter tried to set me up with jobs in locations I had told him I did not want to live and when I turned those down he never called back.

All of these recruiters are paid by the companies to find you and bring you to the hiring table. None of their money comes out of your paycheck after you are hired and for some of them there is a 90 day warranty on you. If you do not stay the full 90 days the recruiter does not get paid. I throw that out there to dispell a lot of rumors I heard about recruiters when I retired. I have interviewed with probably 20 to 30 companies. Some interviews were in person and some over the phone. There are a lot of 12-hour shifts being worked out there and some with mandatory production days on Saturday.

Supervisors and managers generally are expected to work 60 hour weeks. Some even more. I turned down an offer for a supervisor position with Amazon because the day shift supervisor was putting in 80-hour weeks on salary and no overtime. I found out the hourly employees had better time off and actually made more money than the supervisor on salary. Do your home work. The flowery picture some recruiters pa int is not always the case. Google search the company and the industry. I was offered an excellent paying job with a steel company. I searched and found a letter written by the CEO to the U.S. government that basically said if things did not change he will have to close up business in the U.S and go overseas.

The recruiter did not mention that and when I told him, he was unaware. I fell into the job I am working now by networking with friends. I work for a government contractor 40 hours a week and make very good money. There is no upward mobility and no challenge for me so the job is difficult. It pays the bills. Like others I am a doer, a fixer and like being the guy that solves problems. That's how it was for me while I was active. If it was broke or if no one could figure it out, I was the guy that got the call. My job satisfaction comes from being the guy that is depended on to get the job done. I have not found that challenging job yet and so I keep searching. I wish you all goodluck in your hunt and hope your transition is as smooth as possible.

(Submitted by David Marks )

'Civilians Don't Give a Rat's Patootee'

After serving 20 years in the Navy as a CTR, I thought I was hot poop since I had a high clearance. I thought I was going to be a hot commodity in the civilian world.

I retired to North Carolina, found a house, and settled down to try and get a job. I pounded the pavement and went to job fairs. Well, I hooked up with the head crypto person with a large company. He was all excited about me. I saw him on Thursday, e-mailed [my] resume Friday, and had an e-mail back saying return this paperwork no later than Monday. They wanted me bad.

I called him up and said why do you want me so bad. He said because of what I did in the Navy. I would be trained, have 2 weeks off and be shipped off to one of the "hot" spots. Where are those hot spots you ask? Iraq and Afghanistan. I was offered $60,000 a year and I would be deployed for 6 months at a time.

So, needless to say I turned the job down. I don't need the money that bad. I was not going to get my head chopped off for $60k and never be home to spend that money. I wanted a place to settle down.

So a friend of mine suggested using a temp agency. After 1 1/2 years of getting temp jobs and learning how to function in the civilan world I got a great job selling bottled water. It's great pay and I sincerely enjoy who I work for and with. But, I still had to learn I cant talk to civilans the way I talked to military.

In the military you tell your troops they best do something and do it now. In the civilan world they will tell you to go jump off a bridge and then you have lost a customer. It took a couple years to transition. So its not easy.

As far a resume: Civilans don't give a rat's patootee that you served with the Airborne command post or all the other stuff. They dont even care about your evals. You have to put things in civilan speak unless you're applying for a civilan position in the same type of job you're leaving in the military. And you may not get called back after an interview no matter how confident you are in your abilities.

You think you just nailed that interview. But sit around and wait for them to call back and you have rent/mortgage due. Be proactive. Talk to others who have been through the transition process, network for a job, go to job fairs and temp agencies. Contrary to what most people believe about temp agencies. They do not charge you to work for them. They charge the company you go to work for. The great thing about a temp agency is you can turn down jobs when you want. And if you dont like a job you tell them and you move on. Those companies are trying you on for size. If they like you, then they may hire you full time. It's also better to have a temp job than none at all.

Take care and good luck to all.

(Submitted by Lola Lewis)

Deciding to Stay in After Being Out

I was in the financial world of military, worked in Mil Pay, Civ Pay, Acctg and I was prepared to take on the civilian world. Got my resume ready started visiting Boeing, Microsoft, banks, credit unions for a job. They all reviewed my resume and some got job interviews and basically got the same response. Good resume, but they did not have a position right for my experience.

In 1999 I finally got a job with Capital One in Federal Way, WA. Started as a data entry, ended with an accounting job as the balancer, proving processed checks prior to submission to the Federal Reserve Bank for processing to the original bank. After 9-11 all plans for expansion were limited and in 2005 they closed the site and went to outsourcing to First Data in CA, NB, M O, TX, NC, SC and Staton Island in NY.

I ended up with Reserve/National Guard Pay at Ft Lewis, WA. With the new programs coming up at the end of this year, I am thinking about sticking it out until I'm retirement eligible. The civilian jobs were good, but they have lost their appeal in the past few years.

And that is my story and I'm sticking to it.

(Submitted by Donald True)

Lies on the Civilian Side

My experience in the active Marines and the Army Reserves has been both fullfilling and rewarding. I never really expected to end up being a lifer but after so much time spent in the military I realized that is exactly what I had become; by the way did I mention that I still continue to serve?

I also had a great civilian job that allowed me to grow and add to the knowledge and experience that I had received in the military.

Things were good until I came back from my second mobilization and found out that my job was being switched around with that of another co-worker.

Now I know the law which states that I'm guaranteed a comparable position but not necessarily the same position. Being in the military I've been placed in this situation before but when it happens in the military, one is given a chance to question certain decisions. Of course you don't always get what you want but at least the procedure is on top of the table and pretty straightforward.

I enjoyed my previouse position and supervisor and that is never going to come back. The new position is not so bad but not as challenging and interesting as my previous one. All this is acceptable.

What I find hard to accept is in the manner in which I got thrown into it. I was tricked and lied to.  I was told to try the position temporarily and that I could have my old job back if I didn't like it. My new supervisor asked me to do it for him as a freind.

Well I tried it and decided that it wasn't for me and that I wanted my old job back.

That is when I was told that there was no turning back and he hinted that I could quit.

The thing is that he had every right under the law to change my work enviroment; he didn't have to be so deceitful.

I have too much invested in time, money and benefits to leave now, but the incident has left me annoyed, bitter, and distrustful of my new supervisor and the boss that put me in this situation.

Of course the same thing can happen in the military but at least there are steps for recourse that one can take without losing everything in the process.

(Submitted by William Martinez)

The "Real" Rules of the Real World

1. There isn't anyone in charge out here, and those who claim to be don't know what they are doing.
2. There is no such thing as a mission statement.
3. Staff coordination is a battlefield.
4. The paranoids are out to get your job.
5. "Double dipping" is resentment for getting a real retirement when everyone else isn't going to get one anytime soon.
6. Free medical care is an oxymoron.
7. Nobody gives a damn about the time the bad guys almost got your scalp in the Battle of U Dong Do.
8. "Responsible for" on a resume means you sat on your duff while someone else did the job.
9. Seeking out and taking responsibility is poking your nose into what is some one else's turf. Something to indulge in while blaming others is, however, essential to a paycheck continuum.
10. Divide and Conquer is a key management tool and skip the "one for all" bit.

(Submitted by Gordon Fowkes)

The Dream Job that Wasn't Really

My retirement from the U.S. Air Force and transition into what we did then and do now call the real world. Not sure why that is; my real world for 22 years was the military. I wanted to find employment that was structured and organized and obviously fun to walk into everyday.

I started on my own with the paper. Jobs weren't so easy to skim through on the internet back in 1997. My first interview and selection for the job appeared to be an easy transition. I worked as a plant scheduler for a year and then was assigned to be a CSR as well.

This is when I felt the pressure of the real world workforce. I was expected to tell lies to contracted customers. To make this long story short. I left. I moved on to temporary work working under a reputable Temp Service. I continued to search on my own and landed a beautiful position in a large car dealership overseeing 3 stores. I was the Human Resource and Process Manager for all department in all three stores. What a dream come true.

The basic love of my position was centered around meetings with all departments and creating or changing process maps to ensure employees followed structured processes consistantly. Wow, this was what I wanted. Structure. It pulled me into every department of the company. I trained all employees and oriented any and all new employees into their new positions. This included managers of departments.

What a fantastic opportunity. It was a constant focus on process improvement to meet factory expectations on customer satisfaction levels. It worked. All of our stores were in the top 20 percent of the national scores. My secondary job (but first priority) was taking care of 102 people with benefits, monitoring schedules, attendance and basically resolving any employee need. I sat on the Corporate Board of Directors. This should have given me clout to enforce the responsibilities I had as Process Manager and Human Resource.

Now to make this story come to an end, I must say that over a 4-year period, it all started to fall apart. My owner did not support or endorse my attempts to correct a numerous amount of illegalities that were on going in this large company. I was expected to control (EOT) favoritism, harrassment, and discrimination. One of the top managers was guilty of many violations but went on working there for 9 years.

My dream of working in a structured, ethical workforce fell apart over a period of time. I did end up leaving this position as I could not walk into an environment every day that condoned racial name calling and sexual harrassment and ongoing discrimination.

When searching for your perfect working life after the military take some pertinent questions with you to the interview. You have the right to know if the company has a history of problems in any of these areas. Looking back, when I interviewed for the position, it took four interviews, and one month to finally get this position. This impressed me. I had a strong straightforward resume and excellant references.

Be prepared with a list of job references that can be contacted. With the military personell moving around it is helpful to try to find the civilian assistant or counterpart that will be available for contact about your background. Anyone can create their own resume. One page is most often the most viewed. Keep it short. The big business's don't have or take the time to read a lot of flair. Be ready to face a different work ethic.

Good luck and God Bless.

(Submitted by Mary A Boggs, MSgt USAF (ret.))

Working Woman's Wardrobe

I will never forget one of the most embarrassing moments of my TAP class. It was the day where you have to come in dressed in a civilian suit, as if you were going to a job interview. I had to line up along with the seven other officers in my class as our "image consultant" walked down the line to inspect us.

I had bought what I thought was a very stylish Ann Taylor jacket and skirt, and stood proudly, and a little wobbly, in my new high heels. When she got to me, she gave me the once over and said in her eastern European accent, "Tsk,tsk, that skirt is much too short. You need a longer length; those thighs are a little too...hmmm..." "Muscular?" I volunteered, but she just grimaced and said, "Take out the length another two inches, that will be much more flattering."

Clearly, she had never watched Ally McNeal! I thought short skirts were in. As it turns out, they were in....just not for um, muscular-legged gals like me. The point of this story is that style-wise, it is a whole 'nother world out there in civilian-land. The size of my thighs was never an issue in my flight suit, and wearing high heels was something I only had to do at changes of command. I had to start paying attention to what businesswomen wore. Should I wear pants or a skirt to an interview? Could I interview in business casual clothing? What exactly is business casual clothing for women?

I read magazines for women and noted what they wore. I asked for advice from my women friends who had already made the transition into the civilian world. They recommended wearing a conservatively colored (meaning black, grey or navy) suit with either a skirt or pants and feminine accessories, ie. wear a dark suit with a light pink blouse, but not a pink suit. After ten years of not wearing perfume or anything that was feminine to work, it look a little while to get used to being able to acknowledge that I was a woman through what I wore.

The joy of not fretting over wearing dangly earrings to work turned into anxiety over which earrings matched which suit. For a while I fell back on the gold posts I wore in uniform. But eventually I made the transition to civilian working woman and I now have the wardrobe to match. And the image consultant would be very happy to know that there is not a single short skirt in my closet.

(Submitted by Loree Hirschman)