Dobby gains his freedom
Duffel Blog - Mutant Super Soldier Can't Find Work After Service
Read the above Duffel Blog article and come back to me…I’ll wait.
Done? OK. Yes, the article is funny and for those unfamiliar with “Duffel Blog” it is meant to be like “The Onion” but for the military; and, like its civilian counterpart “The Duffel Blog” takes plausible and real world issues and frames them in entertaining and sometimes unbelievably hilarious ways. The plausible and real world issue that this article highlights is a not-so-funny reality for a lot of veterans: one day we are part of something larger than ourselves and the next day…you just aren’t.
The day I was handed my DD-214 (the document that officially marks your exit from the military) I drove off Camp Pendleton to start the rest of my life. I remember feeling exhilarated and excited. I was suddenly “free” from the regimented structure of the past nearly decade of my life. I was beholden to myself and no one else for the first time since my early 20’s.
I had a plan and had been contemplating/structuring what my life would look like after the military for quite a while. I knew I would be taking a year “off” before going to graduate school to pursue an MBA. I didn’t have everything exactly pinned down but I felt comfortable with what the future held even if the specifics were a little hazy (turns out the specifics included moving to Vermont, buying a house, meeting my soulmate, adopting a couple dogs, and deciding I want to live in Colorado; you know, details).
During my transition classes (more on those in later posts) I talked to several other service members leaving the military who had no idea what “day zero” of civilian life would hold.
“I think I’ll just go get a job at the plant back in my home town.”
“I’m going to go become a cowboy and ride bulls.”
“I have no idea what I am going to do and I get out in a few days.”
The goal and purpose of this blog is to document my journey towards my first real civilian job as well as to provide a resource for those veterans who fall into the “I have no idea what I am going to do crowd” to ensure they get an idea of what do to, know where to go, and how exactly to do it (or at least get started).
That is not to say that veterans who already have a plan won’t get anything out of reading this blog. I hope that I can write about topics that appeal to everyone, including non-veterans, to ensure that the hiring manager on the other side of the table from our Mutant Super Soldier James Logan understands what he is saying just as much as James Logan understands that maybe using the phrase “collaborating with multiple stakeholders in high pressure environments to ensure the success of business objectives” might be a better than “leading hundreds of heroes on a bloody warpath.”
It may be tongue-in-cheek but in a super cheesy way, we veterans are all James Logan trying to explain ourselves and to help Microsoft understand that we do, in fact, have management experience.
Endnote:
I have my first job interview this week! After sending out about a dozen applications and drinking about a million cups of coffee while networking with people it is nice to get a callback if even for just a phone screen. I will post an update on that experience later this week.
Lastly, as I get this project rolling please send any feedback to tommy@thehiredveteran.com. The more information and input I get on what would best be helpful for the audience I have the better product I can put out to the world. In the end, for me, this is about what I can do to help others not make the mistakes I made after “day zero”.