Strategies and Secrets for Transitioning from Military to Civilian Life - http://skyvaultpublishing.com/LDDNet/veteranjobs.html

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Late-career veterans have more challenging career transitions than they did 20 years ago where
job experience ruled the day and they were the only ones with it. But in today's world, employers
can connect with many skilled job candidates via Internet job boards or social networking websites
like LinkedIn.com so the late-career vet is competing against many candidates.
In addition, employers run tighter budgets than in the past. Hence, compensation (salary +
benefits) can be a deciding factor whether to hire the very experienced guy or hire someone with
just enough skills to fulfill the needs of the employer yet requires much less compensation.
Adding to the above toxic mixture is the phenomenon of job outsourcing or off-shoring. Employers
more and more hire overseas workers to perform work that was previously accomplished in-
house. This is already happening in the overseas work environment (e.g., Log Cap contracts) for
cost savings and/or contract requirements.
In general, military career transitions play out in the following way:
Between ages 18 to 30, you are in the early career phase and are just learning your job and
developing new skills. Your compensation is still fairly low. Employers can afford to hire you.
From ages 30 to 45, you are in the middle career phase and are highly sought after because you
have a lot of job skills yet the cost of those skills to the employer is moderate.
By the time you are 45 years old, you are in the late career phase and you have become so skilled
and your compensation is so high, you are often too expensive to remain on staff unless there is
no one available who can replace you and what you do is critical to the employer's business.
After age 45, you will find less opportunities where employers are interested in hiring you full time
and more opportunities in consulting or project work as an independent contractor, where the pay
can be very high for short periods yet the benefits either are limited or null.
In response to these challenges, the late-career group overwhelmingly choose to pursue a
government job where pay is good and job security is high and they have the benefit of veteran's
preference. This can work but does not necessarily work or even hold true given current economic
conditions.
We are living at a time of economic instability. At the time this article was written about 15 million
people are unemployed in the U.S. and unemployment is 9.1 percent. These conditions have
created an oversupply of job candidates and many of these unemployed people will seek jobs in
the government, which increases job competition.

2. There is one bright side to this realistic portrait: the late-career veteran can be more competitive
for overseas work than either early- or mid-career veterans. For one thing, money is not an issue;
everyone is getting a great salary because of the risks (hazardous duty). An employer does not
want to send someone who doesn't understand the risks. Late-career people are much less risky
hires in this respect. The major overseas contractors are basically structured like the US military
so many of the positions will have a a familiar level of correspondence with the military.
When you assemble your overseas application, put it in the Federal style. Be detailed and targeted
to the specific job application. Address every MUST HAVE requirement in your resume. One more
thing to know about overseas work: it may look like the military but people don't get hired like the
military so job networking is critical. Contact your buddies and colleagues to see if they know
someone who can move their cause forward. There is some preliminary evidence that social
networking websites like LinkedIn.com facilitate job networking.
Finally, an active clearance, a clean record (no bad credit or legal history), a current passport, and
experience in the area where you want to work always help persuading the employer that you are
a viable job candidate.
Randall Scasny is the Director of http://MilitaryJobHunts.com, a veteran-owned, job search
assistance business that specializes in assisting military veterans.
Article Source:
http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Randall_Scasny
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For more strategies, secrets and tips for transitioning from military to civilian life, visit
http://www.skyvaultpublishing.com/LDDNet/veteranjobs.html
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