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> TOPS Career Center is an excellent resource for transitioning from military to civilian life.

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It’s over. I have completed my transition from military to civilian life. I understand that the transition is never truly complete, as I will take my Air Force experiences with me forever—and will apply them to future situations of all kinds. But for all intents and purposes, I believe when a military retiree lands a job, puts on a business suit, and “clocks in” for the first time as a civilian, his or her transition process is essentially complete.

I attended MOAA’s TOPS briefing twice. I found the session so informative and so rich in plain talk about the transition process, that I grabbed my wife and brought her along for a second session, about three months later. The TOPS representative delivered both briefings with wit, a refreshing dose of philosophy, and candor. If an individual had only two hours to prepare for retirement, I would recommend he or she spend that two hours at the TOPS briefing — it’s that good.

As I went through the transition, I thought back often on what the TOPS representative had shared, and drew a few new conclusions of my own. I’ve appropriated the language of our operational defense planners to help describe the retirement process, as follows:

• When military operational planners say “shape,” they mean shape the international environment. In preparing for retirement, “shape” means taking steps long before retirement to give yourself the best odds of success in the transition.

• In defense-speak, “prepare” means to prepare for an uncertain future. In transition planning, “prepare” means getting ready to compete for specific career opportunities.

• In the operational world, “respond” means to be able to react to crises worldwide; to the new military retiree, it means responding to specific signals, cues, and opportunities from employers.

Shape Up to Ship Out

In addition to the TOPS briefing, I attended a number of other transition programs, read about the career change process, and talked to friends who had retired from the military. As a new retiree, I would say the “shape” phase is the one where I could have spent more time. Here are two quick examples of things a soon-to-be retired military officer can do to “shape up” for the future:

• Read “Who Moved My Cheese,” by Spencer Johnson, M.D. Why? Because the most important thing you will shape for the future is your attitude. Not your résumé, network list, or wardrobe. And I don’t mean just your attitude toward the military, or where you’re moving, or any other factor — I mean your attitude toward change itself. This book, only an hour’s read but a gem in terms of applied wisdom, will help you examine how you look at change, and will certainly help you take a more positive approach to the transition process. It’s worth an hour’s investment.

• Take time off to think about the future. Real time. Quiet time. Time alone. The kind of time the military lifestyle fills with activity and buzz and clutter and requirements and meetings and static. After taking time to think, you may find that you draw entirely different conclusions about the future than the “conclusions” you have in mind right now. I did. 

Remember that you are “shaping” yourself for the future. You are not taking your résumé or wardrobe into the future, you’re taking yourself. Invest the time in understanding how you approach change, and then think about the big things you’d like to do in the future. These steps will improve your chances of taking the right first step out of the military, which will draw you closer to your life’s goals.

Prepare
… or, as Dale Carnegie said, “Better Half-Dressed Than Half-Prepared”

As I prepared for retirement and talked to others going through the same process, it occurred to me that people were wasting too much time on three things in particular: Clothes, résumés, and Internet job searches. Meanwhile, I found many people spent too little time on more important things, such as logistics planning for the job search and working one’s professional network. The TOPS representative had touched on some of these points in the TOPS briefing, and he was right. Here are a few thoughts on the preparation phase: 

• Clothes: I bought nice, mid-range suits with a small variety of ties and a pair or two of comfortable business shoes. This is all you need — don’t compulse on clothes and waste thousands of dollars in the process! In most cases, even with a modest investment, I found I was the best dressed person in the interview.

• Résumés: If you assume, as I did, that your personal network is the key to your job search, then you assume your reputation is going to be the key to getting a desirable job. So don’t waste hundreds of dollars (or more!) on the résumé preparation game. Write a common-sense version or two that reflect your main targets, have someone edit it, and be done with it. 

• Internet job sites: I did, repeat did, waste valuable time on the Internet job search game. I filled in a few résumés on some of the big sites. On follow-up, I found these sites to be too big, too heavy, too slow, and not at all geared toward the military retiree with special skills and executive experience. I found the actual linkage between these sites, and the executives who make hiring decisions, to be non-existent in some cases. Bottom line: Hit the MOAA Web Base to see actual openings, scan some of the big national sites just to get a picture of employment trends nationally, then get back to your network to find a job.

A final preparatory command on logistics: If you are going to be interviewing during your period of house-hunting/job-hunting and terminal leave, you must make arrangements in advance to allow you to support an effective search from your home. If your home computer needs to be unplugged in order for you to send a fax, your kids are using all your printer paper on school projects, your home voice mail message features the sound of your voice singing a homemade jingle, and all your professional resources from your last job are in boxes in the basement, you’re going to be frustrated and ineffective. “Fail to plan and you plan to fail”— we’ve all heard this in the military. So make a plan to support your project — your job of getting a job — and things will go smoother.

Respond to the Opportunity, the Offer, and the Job

I’m afraid some of the military’s transition seminars lather people into a state of panic regarding interviews. Memo to readers: Interviews are easy! You sit in a room, where people ask you about yourself and what you want to do in your career. We’ve all done this for at least twenty years in the military, so set aside the anxiety! After all, the more confident and relaxed you are in the interview, the more they’re going to want to work with you. When you relax, you make it easy for them to hire you.

There are a few other tips I’d like to pass along in the “respond” department:

• If you find an organization that simply cannot plan, schedule, and run the interview process, don’t go to work for them. You’re asking for trouble.

• Bring a “sell-yourself sales kit” on every interview. Have 10 good-looking folders ready to go at all times, with work samples, résumé, technical exhibits — whatever applies to you in your field. Put these together before you leave active duty, because they might be impossible to create at your house. And always bring an extra “sales kit” or two for impromptu interviews that pop up on interview day.

• Your network is not just for referrals — it’s for jobs too! If you’ve carefully built your network you should personally know, say, 50 percent of the companies or even individuals you interview with. Given the choice of less salary, working with people you know and trust, vs. more salary where you’re an unknown quantity, I’d say take the job with the organization you know. It’s a rare thing in our professional lives to be able to pick our partners.

Once you start your new career, employers will want you to immerse yourself in the new enterprise. Jump in! The prize goes to the person who makes the quickest transition to the new firm — whether they’re a new hire from another company, or a new hire from the military community. 

Frank Cumberland is vice president for communications, marketing and strategic planning, Axiom Resource Management, Inc., Falls Church, Virginia. He can be reached at Frank.Cumberland@axiom-rm.com