www.CivilianJobNews.com
JULY/AUG
2011
The Essential Military-to-Civilian Transition Resource INSIDE
Three steps to hiring your perfect employer C3: Career Coach’s Corner Flexibility in job relocation can provide endless opportunities for candidates. Tom Wolfe explains a straightforward 10-step exercise to help you narrow down your options into a more productive search .................................... page 10
Job fair calendar Find a job fair near your base with our job fair calendar ...................................... page 8
DEPARTMENTS Publisher’s Letter ...................................... page 2 Hot job listings .................................... page 11
by HEIDI RUSSELL RAFFERTY Contributing Editor
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here’s no way to sugarcoat it: Sometimes civilian employers just glaze over in vapidity when you describe your job in the military. As a result, you may feel like they have all the power when it comes to hiring. But now it’s time to turn the tables. Instead of putting yourself in the position of being hired, be the one to hire your employer, says Jim Beqaj of Toronto, Canada, author of, “How to Hire the Right Employer: Finding the Job and Career That Fit You Through a Powerful Personal Infomercial.” Beqaj has hired more than 800 people during his career, and, as founder of Beqaj International Inc., he helps hundreds of companies find the right employees. “Everyone defines themselves by their job, rank and title. You might say, ‘I’m a weapons specialist at Fort Bragg,’ but actually most people don’t even care what that is. What I try to do with people is get them to figure out what they’re good at. What it is that you just love? You come home and go, ‘God! That was just ooo! If I could just do that every day!’” Beqaj says.
Three steps to hiring your employer In his book, Beqaj lays out a three-step plan to help you find the employer that’s right for you rather than relying on employers to tell you if you’re right for them. Ironically, you focus on evaluating your own interests and strengths. What you’ll discover is that when you crystallize those things, as well as your personality and the way in which you prefer to solve conflicts, you can find the company or organization best suited to your needs, Beqaj says. Recently, Beqaj counseled an exiting veteran who did algorithms for work on missiles. To help him “hire” his employer, Beqaj had him go through the following three-step exercise: Step One: Conduct an in-depth personal assessment of what you’re good at, what you love to do, how you are “wired,” and your personality. In the case of the missiles expert, “he loved to work on calculations,” Beqaj says. “And who needs a person like that? The actuarial world, the derivatives world, the risk management world needs those skills. Keep in
mind that they’re not looking at you like a military guy. Look at your skills and what you love; not what you did in the military, but your skills.” Step Two: Find companies in your “TargetRich Environment” – those with a philosophy similar to yours, including vision, culture, conflict resolution techniques, and size, growth and opportunity. Beqaj borrowed the term “TargetRich Environment” from a scene in the movie, “Top Gun,” when Goose and Maverick are at a bar and are surveying the “target-rich environment” of women. So think of your prospective companies in the same manner – those which will be most attractive to you and vice versa. Examine your personality. If you haven’t done so already, take the Myers-Briggs personality assessment test, which reveals your “wiring” and also how you interact with those of similar or different personalities, Beqaj says. For example, successful military leaders score Introvert/ExtrovertSensing-Thinking-Judgment (ISTJ or ESTJ) on the Myers Briggs. “These are the people that love the military, the comfort and
certainty of rank and file, and having corners defined. So look for companies that share the same qualities: governmental or large corporations with a commandand-control structure. Don’t look for entrepreneurial, out-of-thebox, Google…places like that,” Beqaj says. Or, you may score as a freewheeler – an ExtrovertIntuitive-Feeling-Perceiving (ENFP). If that’s the case, the military environment wasn’t right for you. You’re more suited to the entrepreneurial lifestyle. Beqaj adds that pointed questions like these will also set you apart from your competition. “It’s different than what recruiters see all the time. So it makes a difference in how people think about you,” he says. And before you show up for the interview, try this trick: Call the company’s switchboard operator. “The line support people are a good indication of what the company is like. Ask them what it’s like working there. Get information on the company by researching what articles have been written about it or the CEO,” he advises. continues page 4
Young and (already) retired How to leverage your military experience if you’ve rarely – if ever – worked in the civilian world by CAROLYN HEINZE Contributing Editor
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t’s a common scenario: A young veteran is released from the service and it’s on to the hunt for a civilian job. Every employer wants to know about his/her prior work experience, but because the veteran joined the military straight out of secondary school, he/she hasn’t had the opportunity to gain any. Not only does this make the
‘work experience’ section of one’s resume difficult to fill out, the space under ‘education’ isn’t that easy to write, either – not for those who did, indeed, enlist right after high school graduation. An impossible challenge? Not at all – it just depends on how you examine your situation. John O’Connor, president and owner of Career Pro, Inc., an outplacement and career consulting firm based in Raleigh, N.C., reminds us that veterans
spend their entire time in the service facing – and resolving – impossible challenges… and a few other things, too. “If they’ve only been in the service – no matter what part of the armed services that we’re talking about – they’ve done a lot more and have accumulated more experience than they will probably ever give themselves credit for,” he says. Remember, continues page 6