Page 1© Copyright 2009, TheLadders. All rights reserved.

DON’T UNDERESTIMATE the power of military experience for

executive roles.

While they may appreciate the ser-vice of those in uniform, some hiring managers don’t recognize the qualifi-cations veterans can bring to their or-ganizations.

To prepare this exclusive cover-age for TheLadders, former naval officer and freelance journalist Sean Gallagher talked to a variety of sources on both sides of the desk and learned about opportunities and im-pediments that face folks on the move from a military career to a civilian one.

Some paths, such as positions with the Department of Defense, are smooth for veterans. (“You just take off the pickle suit and put on a regu-lar suit, and you’re ready to work at the Pentagon,” Col. Dick Crampton, director of placement services for

‘Pickle Suit’ to Executive SuiteBy Matthew Rothenberg, Editor-in-Chief, TheLadders.com

What did you think of this package? Got a story of your own to tell? Have ideas for future coverage? Please write Editor-in-Chief

Matthew Rothenberg at matthewr@theladders.com.

Page 1

JOB SEARCH

Preparing to leave the service for the high end of the civilian job market? These tips will get you locked and loaded.

Your Camouflage Parachute:Work After the Military

By Sean Gallagher

IF YOU’RE MOVING from a military career to a civil-

ian one — whether after re-turning from mobilized duty as a reservist, separating from the service or retiring — you’re facing more than a job change. You’re facing a whole new world. And especially in today’s challenging job mar-ket, how well you prepare

your switch from the service to civilian life will have a ma-jor effect on how smooth and quick that transition is.

Indeed, this may not be an ideal moment to leave the service, Col. Dick Cramp-ton, director of placement services for the Military Of-ficers Association of America (MOAA) told TheLadders.

“Unless you have to get out, or you have a job locked in and ready to go to, I would be very careful about this,” he said. “This is probably not the best time to be getting out of the military right now.”

And for reservists com-ing off active duty, there’s an even bigger barrier. Jim Deimer, a member of

TheLadders who’s now a human-resources manager for the Department of Vet-erans Affairs, said employers often balk at the commitment asked of reservists. Deimer, a former infantry officer in the Army Reserve, had been in HR in the banking industry and was mobilized in 2005. “That mobilization put me at

• Hired! From Army Reservist to Veterans HR Page 2

• From Uniformed to Civil Servant — Getting a Government Job Page 3

• Around the Web: Resources for Military Transition Page 5

• Fatigues to Pinstripes: Four Tips for Interviews and Resumes Page 5

See EDITOR’S NOTE Page 2

IN THIS PACKAGE:

Dept. of Defense photo by U.S. Air Force Master Sgt. Jerry Morrison

Page 2 Your Camouflage Parachute: Work after the Military

a disadvantage” re-entering the workplace, Deimer said. “Em-ployers would look at my resume and say, ‘Every five years, you’re going to be called up and asked to serve 18 months?’ A lot’s being asked of reservists.”

All this leaves service members on the cusp of the end of their careers feeling no small amount of trepida-tion. Chief Warrant Officer Trevor Dempsey, a Marine Corps personnel officer at Camp Pendleton, outside San Diego, is two years out from his retirement, and he’s already begun to work on his transition plan. “I have 18 years now, and I didn’t want to wait until the last minute to start looking for a job,” he said. “I wanted to get as much information and a head start on things as I possibly could.”

Dempsey said he’s seen his peers linger too long. “They waited until the last minute, or they waited until six months

out or a year out to start collecting information. They didn’t have enough to get them the job that met their requirements.

Or they ended up doing something com-pletely different that’s something that they hate and they’re looking for another job just as soon as they get the first job.”

The fastest year of your life

So start your move well before you’re leaving the service. The best first step is to use what’s available to you from the military to get the ball rolling. The ser-vices themselves provide a good first step, through the Transition Assistance Program, or TAP. TAP, a joint program of the Department of Defense, Depart-ment of Labor and Department of Vet-

erans Affairs, offers classes and career counseling for service members who are preparing to leave the military.

“The Navy recommends getting TAP as early as two years before separation,” Crampton said. “We say start at least a year out. The last year of active duty is the fastest year of your life.

I didn’t want to wait until the last minute to start looking for a job. I wanted to get as much infor-mation and a head start on things as I possibly could.

By Sean Gallagher

JIM DEIMER FACED a real challenge at the end of his active duty. A former hu-

man-resources professional in the financial sector, the Army reservist was coming up on the end of a long activation in support of operations in Iraq and Afghanistan as a personnel officer.

“For my occupational specialty, it meant sitting in a concrete bunker,” he said. “I was an infantry officer, but I was in charge of personnel detachments that processed sol-diers in theater. If you went into Afghani-stan, you would pass through my unit.”

“I was in banking for the past eight years, and you know, that mobilization and being

From Army Reservist to Veterans HR

“

”—Chief Warrant Officer Trevor Dempsey, USMC

HIRED!

the Military Officers Association of America, told Sean.)

Others require more ingenuity: re-tooling resumes; translating military jargon into corporate parlance; and,

frequently, disabusing hiring managers of the idea that military training limits flexibility in the private sector.

As Jim Deimer, a member of TheLadders who’s now a human-

resources manager for the Depart-ment of Veterans Affairs, said, prep-aration is the key: “So you don’t feel like, ‘I won a Silver Star, and I can’t get a job? Something’s wrong with that picture.’ ”

Deimer

Traveling from the finance industry to Iraq and Afghanistan, Jim Deimer found an inside line at the Department of Veterans Affairs.

4EDITOR’S NOTE

Page 3 Your Camouflage Parachute: Work after the Military

IF YOU’RE CONSIDERING A JOB IN THE PUBLIC sector, there’s at least some good news: The federal government

is hiring, and veterans have a foot in the door for interviews.

“I can tell you that if you’re interested in this type of work, your skills would be very applicable,” said Jim Deimer, a mem-ber of TheLadders who’s now a human-resources manager for the Department of Veterans Affairs. “There are over 53,000 jobs posted on USAJobs.gov, and those vary from very entry-level positions that pay $30,000—$40,000 a year to the select executive-service positions that could pay up to $150,000 a year.”

More military retirees are now moving into government service, thanks to a change in laws about dual compensation.

From Uniformed to Civil Servant — Getting a Government Job

If you’re moving on from the military, remember: You’ve got an inside line with the feds.

By Sean Gallagher

And unfortunately, you still have a full-time job, and as you know, looking for a job is a full-time job, so give yourself some time — I think the two most important things we tell them is one, start early, and two, involve your family.”

Demier added, “They do a good job preparing you to get your resume together, mock interviewing and setting expecta-tions. So you don’t feel like, ‘I won a Silver Star, and I can’t get a job? Something’s wrong with that picture.’ ”

While Deimer found a position quickly (see story, Page 2), landing your first civilian position could take months. If you’re looking to move to a government civilian job — though the transition might be easier — it could take as long as six months. So it’s important to start your job search early as well – even if it’s just to help you practice.

“I would say a good lead time is if you know you’re get-ting out in 24 months — and that’s it, there’s no extension — to start interviewing, start getting some practice,” Deimer said. “It takes six months just to flesh out your interview style. As six months to separation approaches, you want something lined up.”

While interviewing is good, just interviewing for its own sake is a mistake, according to Mark Henderson, a retired Army colonel and one of the founders of Palladian International, an executive-search firm in Waynesboro, Va. “One of the bad pieces of advice I hear people repeat is, ‘Even if you don’t think you want the job, go do the interview.’ I hear people say, ‘I want to see if I can get a job offer out of this and then turn it down.’

away from my industry group didn’t cripple me,” Deimer said. “But it put me at a disadvantage, because employ-ers were looking at my active service and saying, ‘Wow, so every five years you’re going to be called up and asked to serve 18 months on active duty?’ ”

So, as he prepared to come off ac-tive duty, Deimer turned to TheLad-ders to help him network. “I think I was doing everything I was supposed to be doing,” he said.

”I found TheLadders to be a good resource – not just for the $100K jobs. It gets your name in front of people.”

Deimer also turned to his military network and looked up an old col-league from the reserves. “This indi-vidual, the last time I had made con-tact with him it was well over 10 years ago,” Deimer says. “We served togeth-er in a National Guard unit. He was in human resources like myself, and we had shared resumes and just stayed in contact over the years.”

Deimer’s contact worked as the chief of a human-resources section in the Department of Veterans Affairs. “And he said, ‘You know, I’m sure you’ve seen a variety of government opportunities, and I can tell you that if

you’re interested in this type of work, your skills would be very applicable.’ ” So Deimer began the process of ap-plying for a position with the VA.

Applying for a federal position, however, wasn’t a shoo-in. Even with a contact in the VA, he still had to go through the same process as anyone else. “The Office of Personnel man-agement mandates that all applicants go through USAJobs.gov, create a user profile and create an online re-sume.” Almost all federal employment opportunities are posted on the site – over 53,000 jobs, ranging from posi-tions that pay $30,000 a year to senior-

4 See CIVIL SERVANT Page 84 See PARACHUTE Page 4

Page 4 Your Camouflage Parachute: Work after the Military

I think that’s a disservice to the individual and to the com-pany they interview with. Know what you want, and go after that. “

Henderson said that reputable search firms won’t charge to help prepare for interviews and will do mock interviews with candidates to help them get their interview style polished.

The key to preparation for the job search, Henderson said, is honing a personal story that commercial managers can under-stand — an elevator pitch of your key strengths. “They have to learn how to tell their story, and do it suc-cinctly. In the commercial market, a hiring manager is asking, ‘If I hire you, how are you going to make my company profit-able?’ They can talk about how they man-aged budgets, how they were innovative.”

An army of one

Part of the preparation is preparing for the cultural shock of the civilian job mar-ket.

“When I retired, I didn’t get a call from the chief of staff of the Army asking me how my job search was going,” Crampton said. “You’ve got to start thinking about yourself. And that’s one difficult thing, too, because in the military, you’re programmed — it’s the military first. That’s just the way it is. Well, the time comes — and this is a difficulty many have — when you’ve gotta start thinking about yourself, and we’re not programmed that way.”

Include your family in the preparation as well. “Get your spouse involved in this because, you know, you’ve been a team for so long, especially for retirees,” said Crampton. “You

know, the last thing you want to happen is — this happened to one guy, he interviewed for this job, and he did so well, and they called to invite him back, and his wife didn’t know that he interviewed, and she thought it was telemarketing, and she said, ‘We don’t want any,’ and she hung up on them. And then a week later, they’re talking, and he said, ‘Gee, honey, I forgot to tell you about this interview I had, and I really felt good about it, and I’m surprised I haven’t heard from them.’ The family is important in transitioning.”

One aspect of the culture of the private-sector job market that often surprises veter-ans is the absence of any response. “In the military, we’re used to, you correspond with someone, and they get back to you, whether it’s e-mail, whether it’s a letter, whether it’s a telephone. I had one guy tell me he was so angry because he was shooting out his resume and he wasn’t hearing from anybody. And, of course, he’s programmed thinking that way, and not understanding that IBM receives three million unsolicited resumes a year.”

A culture gap

There’s also a cultural barrier to overcome with employers when explaining how your

military experience is relevant. Part of the problem is a mis-conception about the nature of military service. While the past seven years have raised the profile of the military in the civilian world, less than one percent of the U.S. population has served in the military, and employers in the private sector may not have a good understanding of how the leadership and man-agement skills of the military apply to the commercial world.

level executive service positions that pay in the $150,000-per-year range.

“You have to upload your service record and your discharge docu-ments, and there’s a federal applica-tion for employment in which you will fully disclose a variety of person-nel related questions, and you’ll have to upload transcripts,” Deimer said. “It’s not hard, you just have to put the time into it.

“I compare it to applying to a law school or applying to college. I re-member the same sort of tasks – preparing and requesting transcripts, and personal statements and all that. It was intense but well worth it.”

Once Deimer got past the appli-cation process, he went through a performance-based interview “that was scored by three other people I didn’t know,” he said. “It was one of those things where you had to show

your worth on paper and through an interview, and it worked out, and I’m fortunate.”

Deimer’s job search lasted only a month after leaving active duty. “Re-ally, it was phenomenal – I tell my wife every day how lucky I am, in the job climate that exists. I know friends in the private sector who are still out of work – it’s been two years and counting.”

You’ve got to start thinking about yourself. And that’s one difficult thing, too, because the military, you’re pro-grammed — it’s the military first.

“

”

4PARACHUTE

4 See PARACHUTE Page 6

—Col. Dick Crampton, director of placement services for the Military Officers Association of America

Page 5 Your Camouflage Parachute: Work after the Military

THE MILITARY COMMUNITY IS A TIGHT ONE, and there are many former servicemen and service-

women out there waiting to help you make a successful transition to civilian life. Here are five organizations that are focused on the needs of service members hanging up their uniforms:

• Military Officers Association of America

An association serving active, former and retired military of-ficers. Provides networking opportunities and other transition services. MOAA’s job fairs are open to anyone.

• HireAHero.org

A social networking site for veterans leaving the service to network with employers, recruiters, volunteers and mentors to assist in their job search.

• Corporate Gray

An organization serving the veterans community, providing job-seeker resources, job fairs, and career-transition education books and services, as well as promoting veterans as employ-ees to employers.

• Hire Vets First

A job-search and transition-assistance program run by the Department of Labor with career resources online, and events and information for employers, including a skills translator and career centers.

• TAOnline.com

Claiming to be the “largest single source of transition as-sistance information and tools for today’s separating military,” this site offers locators for Transition Assistance Program of-fices, Veterans Employment Representatives, and other infor-mation and resources to help service members find civilian employment.

SIZING UP THE LEAP FROM A military career to the private sec-

tor? Take some tips from Mark Hen-derson, a retired Army colonel and one of the founders of Palladian Interna-tional, an executive-search firm based in Waynesboro, Va.

Bottom line: Don’t narrow your search too quickly, and don’t try too hard to translate your experience into civilian terms.

Know what you want — and make sure you know what’s out there.

A lot of people leaving the service, particularly retirees, focus on the de-fense industry for employment, Hen-derson said. “That’s valid, but they over-look the fact that there’s a commercial world out there where the sky is the limit. They sometimes overlook what they could go after if they looked at the commercial world and thought about what they bring to the plate.”

Translate into terms businesses will understand … But don’t overdo it.

When it comes to building the resume “the biggest thing is translating military experience into commercial words,” Henderson said. And that goes beyond the acronyms — you have to convert what you did in each role you had to business terms.” However, he said, don’t push your luck trying to convert military titles to equivalent corporate ones. (A company commander is not a CEO.)

Don’t just list responsibilities – sell your accomplishments.

Just listing off the responsibilities you held won’t explain to a potential em-ployer your value to a business, and it won’t set you apart from the crowd. To do that, you need to talk about what you achieved, in business terms.

In the military, “we’re taught to be humble,” Henderson said. “But you

need to explain things by accomplish-ments — how you innovated. Everyone in the military has a story like that.”

An interview goes both ways.

Preparing for an interview means do-ing research on the company you’re in-terviewing with and being prepared to ask questions yourself that show you’re prepared. “An interview is a lot more detailed than standing up and answering questions,” Henderson said.

A frequent mistake in interviews is failing to follow through on tell-ing your story about your accomplish-ments. Many candidates “think that if they put it on their resume, that’s good enough,” Henderson said. Be prepared to talk about your achievements, and tell your story in a way that resonates with the interviewer.

Fatigues to Pinstripes: Four Tips for Interviews and ResumesArmy veteran-turned-executive recruiter Mark Henderson tells you how to ace your interview.

Around the Web: Resources for Military TransitionHeaded for civilian life? Here are five sites you can turn to for networking, leads and advice.

Page 6 Your Camouflage Parachute: Work after the Military

“A lot of the employers don’t understand the functionality or the transferable skills we can bring to the organization,” Deimer said. “In my case, HR is pretty much HR wherever you go. But when you’re talking to people in sales, logistics, general manage-ment, it’s hard to figure out what a supply-management officer did in the reserve; or a Navy logistics officer; or a quartermaster; or even combat-arms people, who have had significant leadership opportunities.”

“I think a lot of people don’t understand who we are,” Cramp-ton said. There are false perceptions maybe about the military. Lieutenant General (William) Pagonis — who was responsible for logistics planning during Desert Shield and Desert Storm — went to work at retail giant Sears. Sears executives admitted after they hired him that they (had been) concerned, that they’d never hired anyone from the military at the higher levels at Sears. They used words like ‘autocratic’ and ‘not a team player’ (to describe the military culture), and they (asked), ‘How would a Rambo fit in at our headquarters?’ ” Pagonis was a key player in engineering Sears’ turnaround.

“Companies get a flawed perception of what a military guy is capable of,” added Henderson. “They’re much more flexible than [employers] believe. I was a colonel when I interviewed with my first company — they asked if I was going to be able to answer my own phone!”

Crossing that cultural divide will require translating your experi-ence and skills into terms private employers will understand. It also may require educating employers about the scope of what military service entails. “So many vets are afraid of listing military experience, or maybe any applicable experience that has a hint of the military to it, “ said Deimer. “Because sometimes you get un-intentionally discriminated against. I’m not faulting anyone for it , it’s just the ignorance of folks, who once they know more about it they won’t discard it as they have in the past.”

Locate those who have transitioned

Networking is key to bridging those gaps. People you’ve worked with in the service who’ve preceded you into the civilian world are a good place to start — Deimer found his position through a former reserve colleague he had worked with 10 years ago. And there are several associations and organizations that can help you expand your network quickly. MOAA, for example, has made net-working a major focus of its transition assistance efforts, with re-gional networking services available through its Web site to mem-bers. “We have over 400 chapters throughout the United States,” Crampton said, “and what we’re doing now with our networking program is trying to pull the chapters in to be involved with us, too. For example, we are having a networking meeting here in the Washington, D.C., area in April at the Army/Navy Country Club

4PARACHUTE

Page 7 Your Camouflage Parachute: Work after the Military

for the two local chapters here — for the Mt. Vernon chapter and the NoVA chapter — to get people together who are MOAA members who are in the workforce to be networking contacts. But also we’re bringing some employers.” MOAA also holds large job fairs.

Who is military friendly?

Some organizations have been set up recently to specifically as-sist veterans’ job searches. HireAHero.org has set up a social net-working site specifically to connect veterans with a network of other veterans already in the work force, and with employers. And there are a number of other organizations that offer networking opportunities.” (See “Fatigues to Pinstripes” Page 5.) There are a lot of organizations out there wanting and trying to help our service members as they get out,” Crampton said. “So, definitely take advantage of that. They’re out there, you know, people are very patriotic, they care about our service members, and they want to help them.”

Some employers are military-friendly by nature. In the public sector — such as the Department of Veterans Affairs, where Deimer now works — there’s a preference given to veterans in the selection of candidates. Veterans are given a five-point prefer-ence in the candidate-selection process for civil-service positions — 10 points if they have a service-related disability. But that just gets you higher on the list of candidates to interview. (See story, Page 4.)

Also inherently veteran-friendly are defense and government contractors — especially for those who’ve held a security clear-ance. There’s no problem in translating your military experience for them, in general. “The DoD contractors out there, they want to see that stuff,” Crampton said. “Because who are they? They’re just you, but a little bit older. And they’re looking for people like these men and women who are getting out, and they understand the lingo, and they’re saying, ‘Don’t hide it, let us know.’ ”

But more and more private employers are seeing the benefit of military service. Deimer remembers speaking with an executive at corporate recruiter Korn/Ferry, “They did a really nice article for clients on junior military officers, and how they developed signifi-cant leadership and management skills in the reserve. Not having been afforded those opportunities in the private sector, that really put them ahead. And it wasn’t until a lot of CEOs read that ar-ticle or became familiar with what junior military officers or career military people bring to the table that now we’re starting to get some more opportunities for veterans.”

Perhaps the most important thing to bring to your preparation for transition is something core to military culture — a can-do attitude. “It’s just persistence,” Deimer said. “You can’t give up.”

Page 8 Your Camouflage Parachute: Work after the Military

Retired service members no longer have their retirement pay reduced when they take a federal job.

“We find more and more people go-ing into the government now,” said Col. Dick Crampton, director of placement services for the Military Officers As-sociation of America (MOAA). “And that is a very smooth transition. … You just take off the pickle suit and put on a regular suit, and you’re ready to work at the Pentagon.”

However, applying and landing a federal job can be a long, arduous process. It can take as long as six months to complete the process of applications, screenings and interviews.

Jim Deimer compared the process of applying for a fed-eral position to applying for college or law school. “The Of-

fice of Personnel Management mandates that all applicants go through USAJobs.gov, create a user profile and create an

online resume. You have to upload your service record, your discharge documents, submit (college) transcripts … and there’s a federal application for employment that you will fully disclose a variety of person-nel related questions. It’s not hard, you just have to put the time into it.”

Much of that time will go into collecting the documentation required by USAJobs.gov’s lengthy online application process. Once that’s complete, you’ll likely need to create multiple online resumes, tailored to each position you apply for. Applications

are then screened, and while your veteran’s preference points will boost you in the rating process, they’re not a guarantee of getting the job — they just get you closer to the top of the candidate list.

You just take off the pickle suit and put on a regular suit, and you’re ready to work at the Pentagon.

“

”—Col. Dick Crampton

Sean Gallagher is a former naval officer and freelance journalist. He has spent

much of the last 19 years covering defense and technology and is the former

editor-in-chief of Defense Systems magazine. Gallagher lives and works in

Baltimore, Md.

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4CIVIL SERVANT

Dept. of Defense photo