"The United States has an obligation to assist veterans in readjusting to civilian life. It is the policy of the United States to promote the maximum of employment and job advancement opportunities within the Federal Government for qualified covered veterans." [1]
For professionals in the careers industry, veterans have always been a special class of clients. Veterans who want to transition directly from active duty to serve in the Federal government are an important subset of that group. I wrote this article to introduce you to the first group in general and to help you support the second group specifically. I will start by offering tools you can use to work with transitioning military clients. Then I will describe the special considerations that apply when these men and women seek Federal employment.
Limitations:
I won't describe the details of how to apply for a Federal job. However, I will summarize the special preferences and restrictions that apply to veterans. Also, space won't permit me to explain the different procedures aimed at helping disabled veterans.
Assumptions:
Because of the population we serve, I assume you will only be working with skilled and experienced military professionals from any of the Uniformed Services, particularly top three NCOs and commissioned officers with skills and security clearances useful to the Federal government in responsible positions.
Meet the military professional:
Generalizations have limitations; however, what follows is an accurate description of a typical military transition client you may want to serve. Civilians move from job to job, company to company; military members do not. On a practical level, all their jobs are with the same company. On a cultural level, each assignment is part of their calling to serve. They take on very large responsibilities very early. Those who do well are happiest with responsibilities they know are vital to the mission. Over several years, the more senior military professionals will have worked in many different career fields. They have a strong sense of morality and work ethic. The majority look for solutions inside themselves first as they tackle new problems. They believe strongly in the immediate, real, solid facts they have gathered by experience. Their thinking tends to be objective and logical and they thrive in planned, orderly environments. Those familiar with the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator will recognize these clients as typical ISTJ. [2] Until January 2005, they were motivated to earn an advanced degree. [3]
Stereotypes military clients may encounter:
At the moment, the military is held in high esteem. However, because we have had an all volunteer force for nearly 35 years [4], fewer interviewers and career professionals have first hand knowledge of military life. They may hold the following stereotypic images-all false-about these clients.
Stereotype one: "Military clients are rigid. They only do things one way. Outside the military, we must be nimble, reacting to changing conditions fast." The truth: military people are trained to make the right decision in nearly any situation. Sometimes, they have seconds to act. Other times, they have taken months to develop carefully supported plans.
Stereotype two: "Military people never have to think. They just gave or take orders." The truth: I gave just one direct order in my 26-year career. That is more than almost any other senior officer I know. Today's soldiers, sailors, and airmen are too smart to accept what they hear without question.
Stereotype three: "Military people have unlimited funding and an unlimited work force. They don't understand profit and loss." The part about profit is true. But military professionals are evaluated rigorously and regularly on their ability to control cost. In addition, the military buys services through a competitive process that often pits other services against private contractors.
Potential rising demand from transitioning military professionals:
Two events combine to increase demand from military professionals. The Air Force is refining their plan to cut from 40,000 to 20,000 personnel in this fiscal year. [5] That will drive an immediate and large demand, particularly from retiring Air Force professionals, for career assistance. On a broader scale, the impact of the new National security Personnel System (NSPS) is just beginning to be felt. You will find more information below, in the section that deals with special differences and requirements.
Everyone who retires or leaves the military must attend a Transition Assistance Program (TAP) no less than 90 days before they leave active duty. [6] The Department of Labor developed the original TAP and it has improved over the years. However, many senior military professionals say the program is aimed too low for their background. Some of my clients report being the only senior person in a class composed otherwise of young airmen with vocational trade skills. Therefore, it is not surprising that we are seeing, increasingly, Executive Transition Assistance Programs at installations where many retirees end their careers.[7] However, even the advanced programs were never designed to provide the individual support many military people need.
Working with the separating or retiring military professional:
If you are a career coach, you will find military people among your best clients. They will take responsibility for their job search, carefully completing homework you assign. For them, keeping appointments is nearly a matter of honor. The few obstacles you might encounter center on preparing their resumes.
Consider the seemingly mundane business of translating job titles. There are look up tables the military uses to convert job titles to their civilian counterparts. [8] However, a simple table rarely captores all the impact. For example, your client may have been the Commander, 324th Recruiting Squadron. Dig a little deeper and you will find she was responsible for guiding 18 recruiters (sales professionals), spread over 12 counties (a sales district) to meet their (sales) goals. Your commander is really a district sales manager. You can certainly use the actual job title in the resume, but consider including the civilian counterpart, like this: Commander (District Sales Manager), 324th Recruiting Squadron, Madison, Wisconsin.
The training military clients bring can also be confusing. Often they want to take credit for all of it. But not all of it applies in the field to which they are going. A prime example is professional military education. All Services have a series of such professional schools they expect their leaders to attend. And all are designed for military needs. For example, the Air Force's Air Command and Staff College spends many hours educating its students to employ air and space power (for which there is no call in civilian life). But it also instructs about guiding employees, evaluating performance, and managing funds (for which there are great calls in civilian life). [9] Therefore, don't fall into the easy trap of listing the schools (the names are a form of jargon). Rather, concentrate on the appropriate course work.
In addition, get the most opportunity by showing how competitive these schools are. The schools exist in two versions, the distance education method and the in-residence mediod. Distance programs are open to virtually anyone who meets minimum (rank or grade) requirements. Inresidence courses are very difficult to get into. Your client can help answer questions like the following: of all the officers on active duty, what percentage attends the Air War College in residence? Of all those who attend Air War College in residence, how many leave as Distinguished Graduates? Even if your client does not know the answers, he can call Personnel to find out.
Treat awards and honors with special care too. Military people are as proud of their awards as thiey are of their training (though they rarely speak about the former). Almost all, however, receive a decoration (a medal) at the end of each assignment. Those awards recognize the totality of what the person did while in that assignment. Avoid including diem, as virtually every member gets such an end-of-tour decoration. Search for awards that were given for a specific achievement. For example, the Air Force Achievement Medal is a relatively low-level award. However, it was once given to a major for specific curricula he designed and produced. That's the recognition you are looking for, without the name of the medal: "Selected by senior management as one of very few to be recognized for specific contributions to training and development." Finally, it is usually not difficult to explain to a military client why you are not including a decoration given for valor. From your standpoint, these awards have little transferability to the civilian world. From your client's standpoint, talking about medals given for heroism and valor just is not done.
Matching military experience to the requirements of a federal resume: A quick review of forms the government required applicants to fill out yields an interesting insight. The old SF-171, Application for Federal Employment, and its successor, the OF-612, Optional Application for Federal Employment, led many applicants to concentrate upon responsibilities and give only passing attention to performance. It was not long before agencies sought better ways of finding best qualified applicants. Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities (KSAs) were the result. The instructions for KSAs leave little doubt as to their importance: "Be specific. Be precise. Get to the point. Use lots of examples. State specifically what you have done. Do not try to bluff the reviewer with words. Do not borrow language from the position description." [10]
Those are wonderful guidelines to use with retiring military professionals. However, military professionals will also be quick to tell you that everything they did "was just part of my job." You can employ the military's own evaluation system to give you the Context-ChallengeAction-Results outcomes you use with your civilian clients. The Services evaluate aperformance officially and regularly. The forms and guidelines vary, but the requirement to document specific performance is constant. That is why your military client may want to bring in Officer or Enlisted Performance Reports (OPRs and EPRs). You may not find them useful as you build his or her Federal resume. Military performance reviews are very concise. The language (jargon) that fills them is entirely appropriate for another military reader, but too often unintelligible by anyone else. Therefore, use the same techniques you use with your civilian clients to get success stories from your military clients.
Your senior military clients' careers can easily stretch back more than 20 years. If you were dealing with a civilian, it would be safe to focus on recent and relevant work history exclusively. Use the same approach with your military client, but do ask about her prior assignments. The Services identify their best early on. These outstanding performers are promoted faster than others who joined at the same time. Such a promotion is so competitive mere are usually wonderful success stories tied to it. Those particular examples are not only impressive by themselves, they also prove just how effective your client has always been. Ask about these below-the-zone promotions. They are powerful indicators of potential.
An interim summary:
Your experienced military client is an ideal candidate for most Federal positions. Like their public sector counterparts, they are comfortable working in large organizations. Detailed application requirements do not put them off at all. Because these clients take responsibility willingly and seriously, they are likely to have powerful success stories the federal application system demands. Since their retirement benefits are so much stronger than applicants who come directly from the private sector, and because the idea of service is so important to them, retiring military professionals are often more willing to take cuts in salary compared to what they might make in a similar job with a private company. [12]
A view from the Federal government's side:
Many veterans have taken advantage of policy to get Federal jobs. In 2005, 25.2 per cent of the Federal work force was veterans (compared to only 8.9 per cent of the civilian labor force). [13] Even so, there are some restrictions and differences your military client should know about.
Special differences and restrictions:
Some of your military clients seek the familiarity of working within the Department of Defense (DoD). After all, they know the people, they think they know the cultore, they may even know the details of the job. However, with few exceptions, many retired members cannot be appointed to similar civilian jobs in DoD within 180 days of retirement. [14] However, it is more than the law which can cause problems. In a February 2007 unscientific survey, I sought out recently-retired military professionals who now worked for their same branch of the armed forces, but as Federal civilians. All of them were very well qualified in fields which had civilian counterparts. Some had even worked for civilian companies for a few years before they joined the Federal ranks. All of them said how important it was for them to serve in government, to "give something back to our country."
Yet nearly all of them cited the same drawbacks. They found their Federal civilian colleagues did not have the same spirit, the same closeness, military members enjoy. Several said their civilian counterparts were less responsive to the mission. And some mentioned taking significant pay cuts when compared to their military rank. [15]
In May, 2006, the Department of Defense started converting to the National Security System (NSPS). Since large numbers of veterans work as civilians in the Uniformed Services and DoD [16], it will take some work to educate your military client about this plan. This far-reaching program is too new and complex for us to assess its impact on the civilian work force yet. Nor is there room to describe the program in detail here. The managers' guide to the program is more than 50 pages long. [17]
However, the new plan has the following features. It favors applicants from the local commuting area, but announcements open to candidates outside the agency must still be posted on USAJOBS.com. There is no minimum opening announcement period, the period being based on the type of position and availability of qualified candidates. Some jobs will be non-permanent, allowing Federal hiring officials to hire our clients for specific staffing needs that do not require a full-time manning slot. In other words, the job has a predetermined life span. Close cousins to the time-limited jobs are the term appointments. The jobs filled by term appointments are not filled permanently. Terms can range from one to five years, and can be extended for an additional one year. All permanent and term employees start on probation for a year. Finally, supervisors have more flexibility when it comes to offering salary. In short, the new system ties retention to performance, considering a reduction in force the last resort. You and your client should review HR Elements for Managers Supervisors and Employees-A Guide to NSPS for details, including how the Federal government plans downsizing under NSPS. One special aspect of Federal employment for the veteran has not changed: special preference points. Details about how these points are awarded change frequently, but here are the basic qualifications your clients must meet to gain these points:
* An honorable discharge.
* Must not be retiring in the rank of major (lieutenant commander in the Navy) or above (except if disabled).
To claim the five-point preference, your clients must meet these additional requirements:
* Must have served at least 180 consecutive days (or had service prior to 1 July 1955).
To claim the ten-point preference, they must meet these requirements in addition to the basic qualification:
* Be disabled or have the Purple Heart Medal awarded, or
* Be the unmarried spouse of certain deceased veterans, or
* Be the mother of a veteran who died in service or is totally disabled. [18]
Finally, it is worth a visit to www.opm.gov to search for OPM-led seminars given at military installations and at job fairs.
Summary:
In the short term, we should see a sharp increase in the number of retiring military professionals. Many of them are unsure of how to manage their next career. And while there is a mandated transition program, its quality leaves a lot of room for the value our industry can provide. Military clients are easy to work with and have the solid and very competitive backgrounds the private sector wants, provided we help overcome some outdated stereotypes many hiring decision makers have. They will need our help as we educate them to the differences between military and civilian lives. We must be sensitive to the special preferences and restrictions that face the retiring military job seeker. Retiring military clients are drawn to Federal employment for many reasons, all of which can work to the good of those clients and the Federal work force. They are certainly a known quantity within Federal circles. Finally, there is a strong common bond between you and your military clients. We and they are motivated by the idea of helping people, by a devotion to quality work, and by a need to act honorably. I hope this short article will equip you to better serve this special class of clients.
[Author Affiliation]
About the author
Don Orlando is President of The McLean Group, Montgomery, Alabama, a career coaching service. He earned the MBA at Auburn University. He was a career coach before being a career coach was cool. In fact, he was a career coach before he knew what the industry was. He retired with the rank of full Colonel in the United States Air Force. He had successful careers in the Air Force. And no, "careers " is not a typo. While always an Air Force officer, he served as an instructor, a quality assurance expert, a curriculum developer, a public relations executive, a senior administrative assistant, a research director, a navigator and a communications consultant. He clearly had a talent for career coaching because he got nearly every assignment using resumes, cover letters and interviews-a great rarity in the military. Along the way, he helped others fashion their own careers in both military and private sectors. After 26 years on active duty, he retired from the U. S. Air Force and continued applying his career development skills to find a new career.
One day in 1993, Nina, his wife, made him an official career coach with one penetrating question. "Why is it," she said, "that you have dozens of clients, that you provide a service that no one else offers, and you are not in business?" He thought a question that good deserved a compete answer. One hundred and fifty hours of research later, he had a business plan, a name for his company, an office, some business cards, a fax machine, a telephone, a 50MHz computer, and no clients. He began a concentrated promotion program and, in his first year, was recognized by the local chamber of commerce as one of the top 30 emerging businesses. He won the same award the next year as well. Memberships in professional organizations and certifications followed. Now he has clients spread across the nation and overseas. He teaches, writes and researches in career coaching regularly. Over the last two years, examples of his work have appeared in 13 nationally published collections of the best work by career professionals. He also works with businesses to help them build solid systems to find, attract, hire and retain the best employees. Every Friday, a select listing of recruiters gets his recap of exceptional applicants.
He overhauled the accreditation examination for the Professional Association of Resume Writers. Later, Wendy Enelow, President of the Career Masters Institute [CMI], chose him as one of a handful of charter Master Team Members to help build CMI, an organization that serves and supports the entire careers industry. He is one of the first Credentialed Career Masters in the southern United States, Alabama's first Certified Professional Resume Writer, and the state's first Job and Career Transition Coach. He was the lead-off speaker for the Professional Association of Resume Writers and Career Coaches' Convention in 1998 and spoke again at their 2001 convention. He is the author of the Career Masters Institute Code of Ethics, and directed CMI's first research study. His second study appeared in 2007. He held workshops for groups as diverse as VISTA, the United States Air Force, the local Bar Association and the International Institute of Internal Auditors. His workshops have also been a feature at every major job and career fair held in Alabama's capital city. Today, he serves as a career coach who offers assessment, career development, resume writing, interview preparation, and salary negotiation. He specializes in transitioning military professionals and senior executives. He is a former columnist writing on training job seekers to find rewarding careers in the Montgomery Advertiser. He makes regular appearances on local National Public Radio and Television affiliates. He wrote the Gallery of Best Resumes: A Collection of Quality Resumes by Professional Resume Writers; Professional Resumes for Executives, Managers, and Other Administrators; and Resume Winners from the Pros.
Contact him as follows:
Don Orlando, MBA, CPRW, JCTC, CCM, CCMC
The McLean Group
640 South McDonough,
Montgomery, Alabama 36104
(334) 264-2020
e-mail: yourcareercoach@charterinternet.com
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