Advice from the Trenches (My First 30 Days as a Job Seeker)

First and foremost, I am keenly aware that I am living, breathing human, one who is capable of, and experienced in, professional work. So it pains me at times why finding a new career is not working all that well. I am a marketable job candidate, or at least I think so, one who has an effective communicating style, shows courage during adversity and remains passionate in my tradecraft. But, hiring managers are going much deeper when examining potential job candidates. Translating “soft-skilled” attributes is an exceedingly difficult. In fact, from a job-seeking point of view, the amount of effort exerted just to make the “cut” for a face-to-face interview is overwhelming.

Professional job consultants, life coaches and others have created a unique niche-market. While I am not in total disagreement with the profession, it has actually stripped some of the basics skills away from the average job seeker. Let’s take resume writing, a skill which every job seeker should at least understand, and of course, accomplish to some degree. This niche-market convinces job seekers that it would be better to place the creative writing capability into a complete stranger’s hands, one who may be more skilled at articulating finer points about your abilities and contributions to the tradecraft, but will not be the candidate filling the intended job, and certainly will not be sitting in the room during a face-to-face interview. Here’s my analysis of why I am “going it” alone, Say a job seeker hires a resume writer for a package deal, which includes a position-specific resume and the matching cover letter. Now let’s further imagine that the targeted job is seeking a candidate who must possess excellent computer skills and strong written communication. Now the way I envision this story unfolding is like this: the professional resume writer makes the applicant out to be strong within those areas and presto, interview landed. But ask yourself these critical questions: What if this candidate knows nothing about computers or even how to compose a business letter? Would these be questions that were asked during the interview? Not with a resume that wasn’t written by the actual job-seeker.

Now call me a dinosaur, but as an average job seeker, I am not willing to part with well-needed resources (i.e. the money) for a resume writer. And if in fact I did, I would still face stiff creative-design challenges. Insomuch as how can I say this resume is really mine when I didn’t write it. Eventually, my resume will meet the judgmental eyes of a hiring manager. I am not a person who can sit in a room of interviewers and go on about information put on paper that may not be entirely accurate, especially when it entails such personal attributes like my talents and skills. As a transitioning veteran, I find resume writing as the singular issue which is the most demoralizing and downright frustrating part of job seeking. So in my first 30 days, here is what I have learned:

Tidbit 1: Deliver creditable information that is relevant to the position you want to have

Transitioning military members are up against a huge knowledge gap as they re-enter the professional workforce. Those which offer generic job-seeking advice have little to no experience with the military culture. Help-gurus may banter all day about unforeseen pitfalls and marketing mistakes, but still have no clue how steep a recently separated veteran’s learning curve is. From my limited knowledge, the information contained in job descriptions telegraph strong clues concerning their ideal candidate. If 70% of the description fits me, then my motto has been to just submit an application. By using both science and art, I have massaged my military job descriptions into civilian job descriptions and found some reasonable success. But as you would expect, the movement toward success is challenging and time consuming, especially if you are unwilling to pay for professional help.

Tidbit 2: Make use of your social connection points by getting a Veteran mentor

Most veterans who now reside in the civilian workforce are used to their former military culture of “silent professionals”. As I have stepped away from the military thinking model, I have found a mentor who is willing to advocate and guide me through this crazy time. It has been important for me to lean on my mentor and find out what will work and what won’t. My mentor is quick to explain what is relevant to the civilian workforce, and this has gone a long way in helping my transition. Of course, no matter how impressive my resume is, if I come off unsuited or unprofessional, then without hesitation, any hiring manager will quickly move on to the next candidate. But, I am noticing that hiring professional are only mildly influenced by a veteran’s job history and rarely look deeper to see if a candidate’s military experience will benefit a position vacancy. That is why I got a mentor.

Tidbit to Hiring Professionals

Military experiences have unusual leadership and management challenges. In my slightly biased mind, this is the very reason that most choose not to enter military service. Military leadership and management challenges are complex, convoluted – and by the way –transcend all aspects of life. And overlooking a former military member as a potential candidate (especially one with over 10 years of service) may make a company lose out on a valuable resource.

Finally, over the past several weeks, I have been reading propaganda (i.e. other articles) which suggests that veterans (especially retired ones) are more of a liability than an asset for companies. Nothing could be further from the truth. Granted, every organization has their albatrosses, but seemly, these “freak of nature” stories grow legs and become the new standard gossip around the water cooler. From a statistical viewpoint, only 2.5% of all citizens in the United States have ever even served in the military, so we know that there is a HUGE knowledge gap between professional and military cultures. Over my short one month of looking for a job, I have come to the conclusion that these very stories are just that: freakishly rare. So give the veteran candidate a fair shake, you won’t be disappointed.