In reality, being a top performing JMO right now is preparing for a potential transition or any next step in a career.  In other words, being a top performer is setting the foundation for whatever you want to do next whether you choose continued service in the military, pursuing a business career, going to graduate school, going back to the family business, etc. 

Even if you think you might stay in the military, remember: even the best laid plans can change.  And regardless of the path you ultimately choose, it pays big dividends long-term to be well prepared for a broad range of options. 

So, where to begin?  

SUCCEED NOW

Past success begets future success, and all employers (military or otherwise) are looking for candidates who have proven their mettle.  Poor leaders lean on their rank; powerful leaders develop themselves and those around them.  Jump into these steps to ensure a solid foundation of success from which to leverage your career direction:

1)  READ, READ, READ – regardless of your location or OPTEMPO, commit to a professional reading habit now to continue for the balance of your career. 

• Biographical, historical, and leadership books offer valuable life and work lessons.   
• Books and periodicals on economics, business trends, and current events help you anticipate issues and prepare for contingencies.
• Concepts like LEAN, Six Sigma and higher level Project Management give you an edge for affecting positive impact.
• In PCS to Corporate America, 4^TH ed.,  discover how the civilian sector views your JMO background, how to avoid common pitfalls in a transition, and what top-tier transition preparation entails.  Here is the link:

http://www.cameron-brooks.com/difference_book.html 

• Consult the comprehensive recommended reading list in PCS to Corporate America, 4^th ed.,  or link to our reading program online:

https://cas.cameron-brooks.com/CandidatePortal/CP/MediaHome.aspx?ParentGroup=E2EF37A8-7E16-4D2B-90F7-BDE06093532F&sltd=apDynamic0

2)  KEEP A PROFESSIONAL JOURNAL

• Make notes of new concepts and the ideas that resonate with you.
• Use your findings to refine your skills, define your natural talents, and guide your path for career fulfillment.

3)  BROADEN YOUR KNOWLEDGE

• Become familiar with a variety of topics such as process improvement, LEAN, Six Sigma, Project Management, and Self-Directed Work Teams.  While these are business topics, you can use them in the military to get even better results.

4)  RESEARCH ADDITIONAL EDUCATION

• Does your degree demonstrate an interest or make you competitive in the career fields you may want to pursue?
• NOTE: when and how you choose higher degrees make a difference.  Sooner is not always better. Later in this blog series, we’ll explore how to strategize higher education. 

5)  CONSIDER CERTIFICATIONS

• Your branch will likely offer programs in Six Sigma, Project Management, Leadership, or process improvement.
• There are many universities and companies who provide reputable – and portable – certification programs.  We’ll discuss these further in a later blog.

FOR THE BUSINESS SECTOR

If Corporate America intrigues you, then take the following action steps to gather a wide range of information in a relatively short period of time:

• Follow the steps above.
• Browse the Cameron-Brooks website.
• Connect me on Linkedin. I lead the recruiting effort here at Cameron-Brooks and post periodic updates on this page.
• Add PCS to Corporate America, 4^th ed. by Roger Cameron, Chuck Alvarez and Joel Junker to your professional library (available at Amazon.com and BarnesandNoble.com). Use it like a workbook.
• Attend a Career Information Meeting when we visit your area, or request a recorded version in webcast format.
• Schedule a Personal Marketability Assessment with one of our recruiters to learn how you can best prepare for your potential transition.

So, even if you have time, I encourage you to take these steps be a great JMO now – continue to read, develop yourself, and apply what you learn to maximize your growth and make your organization great.  Only then will you be in a position to make well-informed decisions about your career path.

In the next several blog posts, we’ll begin to outline important points to consider as you map out your individual path for success.

Joel Junker and Aimee Martin

A couple of weeks before one of our recent Career Conferences, I talked with an officer who was having a hard time connecting his military accomplishments to business.  It turns out several of his most significant accomplishments  were not on his resume.  I felt he missed the point of making his resume an “inventory” of his accomplishments, but perhaps most importantly, I felt that I had missed the opportunity to coach him before he got so close to interviewing with companies at the Conference.

One of the first steps to compiling an impactful resume that will connect to a variety of positions is fully “inventorying” your accomplishments (the first 3 Tabs in the Cameron-Brooks Development and Preparation Program© help you do this).  Write a bullet for each of your accomplishments that shows what you did and the result/impact it had.  Then prioritize the most important ones, which may vary depending on the company/position for which you will be interviewing.

Determining your career fields of interest comes next, even if you don’t know company/position specifics.  Getting involved in a thorough business reading program will help give you an idea of what’s out there, where your interests lie, and what fields fit with your background and experience.  For Cameron-Brooks candidates, the C-B Reading Program, Tab 4, and the career field percentages you discuss with our team can guide you. (Visit http://www.cameron-brooks.com/candidates_career.html for more on potential career fields in business.)  Also, see PCS to Corporate America, 4th Edition.

Next, you will want to focus the accomplishment bullets on your resume to the career fields in which you have the most interest.  Your top one or two bullets under each job should relate to your top career fields of interest.  Keep in mind that many bullets can connect with multiple career fields (e.g., you can bring out project management aspects of a team leadership bullet when applicable).  Make sure that your most significant accomplishments are at the top of their respective time block/job on your resume and are written in a way that show competencies that connect to your top career fields of interest.

This may seem like common sense, but many military personnel miss making the connection from their best military accomplishments to resume bullets and ultimately into answers they will verbalize in an interview.  Fortunately, we were able to help add the significant accomplishments to the officer’s resume I mentioned, and he interviewed well at his Conference.

Consider the role of a Sales Manager

Sales managers have a vested interest in your success.  Part of their overall compensation is tied to the performance of their division, which is affected by the performance of each territory within the division.  That being said, sales managers are looking to hire the next sales representative of the year.  They are looking for driven and organized people who know how to communicate and build rapport.  So, how do you translate your background and experiences to a sales position considering you have not held an official “Sales” position in the military?  Listed below are some common competencies for which most sales managers are looking:

     Achievement Drive – Sales Managers are looking for people who have, as Ron Willingham describes in Integrity Selling for the 21 Century, fire in the belly.  They are looking for people who are driven to achieve a high level of results – for people who are competitive and strive to be the best in everything they do.  The way that you demonstrate this in an interview is by highlighting times in your military career when you were the best among your peers and other units, when you developed programs that became the unit standard, or when you were recognized for leading teams and projects.  You should demonstrate times when you were motivated to be the best and set yourself apart.

     Organized – Good sales representatives possess the ability to process and assimilate large amounts of information in order to develop an actionable plan and drive for success.  If you think about it, sales representatives are constantly taking in information and adjusting their sales plan in order to maximize their time and activities.  In an interview, you should describe times when you were thrown into a situation, assessed all of the factors and with very little guidance, achieved a high level of results.

     Good Communicator – There are many aspects to being a good communicator.  A good communicator knows how to read people and interact accordingly.  He or she can build rapport by engaging in conversation and displaying a genuine interest in those to whom they are talking.  They have the ability to interact with difficult personalities to find common ground and they are, perhaps above all, good listeners.  In an interview, show that you are a good communicator by listening to the recruiter’s question, delivering answers succinctly (don’t ramble), all the while delivering depth (addressing how and why).

Delivering Value – This is a critical component of being a good sales representative.  Delivering value means understanding the needs of others and delivering solutions to problems the meet their needs.  In an interview, talk about times when you spent time interacting with your commander or a senior leader, making an effort to understand their needs and goals and providing a solution to satisfy his or her needs.

I sometimes hear JMOs try to connect to the altruistic nature of the job.  They want to tell the Sales Manager that they are interested in the position or company because the products they produce and sell help people.  There is absolutely nothing wrong with that, but please don’t lead with it.  Lead with your strong track record of success, your competitive nature, your organization skills, and your desire to bring value to people by understanding their needs.  Use your background to connect to the position.

I also hear JMOs say they want a career in sales because they are a “people person.”  As a former Sales Manager, when candidates would tell me that, it told me that they didn’t truly understand the nature of the work.  Instead of telling the recruiter that you are good at building rapport, show him or her by being engaging in the interview.   The recruiter will be able to assess your ability to build rapport by the way you communicate.

I look forward to working with you to help you reach your potential.  Please let me know how I can be of assistance.

Pete Van Epps

At the April Career Conference, 29 distinct companies that attended but several companies had multiple divisions attend and there was an average of nearly 2 openings per candidate.  The size of the companies attending our April Career Conference varied from several companies with 15+ employees to a company with over 2 million employees worldwide. There were privately held companies represented, as well as some of the largest companies on the FORTUNE 500 list.  Industries included Oil & Gas Exploration, Medical Device, Consulting, Banking, Industrial, Consumer Products, and more.

Some of the various locations represented included New York City, Houston, Chicago, Atlanta, Nashville, New Orleans, Saint Louis, Philadelphia, Tampa, Las Vegas, Dallas, Boston, Phoenix, and many more.  The list of client companies at the April Conference included the following:

• One of the world’s largest food manufacturers in the world and  they are the world’s leading confectionary and petcare company with over 8 billion-dollar brands.  From its humble beginnings in the Tacoma, WA, it has grown into a company of global scope with operations in North America, Africa, India, Middle East, Australia, New Zealand, Asia, Europe, and Latin America.  As a family owned company for nearly a century, the company guides their business by 5 principles:  Quality, Responsibility, Mutuality, Efficiency, and Freedom.   They were most recently named to FORTUNE‘s 2013 “100 Best Companies to Work For”.  They attended this conference recruiting for business analysis and brand management opportunities.
• A U.S-based consulting firm specializing in business continuity strategy design, development, implementation, and long-term program maintenance.  Founded in 2005 and based in Cleveland, OH, this company focuses exclusively on helping organizations build and improve business continuity programs.  The company’s clients are among the largest in the U.S. to include the world’s largest automobile manufacturer, the country’s largest retailer, and the largest healthcare company in the U.S.  The organization prides itself on building strong relationships with its clients and becoming a long-term resource and partner.  They have attended conferences in the past recruiting for various consultant positions.
• A FORTUNE 500 company who is a leading developer, manufacturer, and marketer of medical devices for international medical specialties around the globe.  With 26 manufacturing, distribution, and technology centers worldwide the company produces more than 13,000 products in 45 different countries.  A long-standing client of Cameron-Brooks, they regularly attend Career Conferences recruiting for various sales, engineering, and manufacturing opportunities.  The company attended this conference recruiting for various marketing and sales positions.
• A FORTUNE 500 company and the largest steel producer in the United States and the largest of the so-called “mini-mill” steel makers (those using electric arc furnaces to melt scrap steel instead of the traditionally more expensive steel blast furnace).  They are also North America’s largest recycler of any material, recycling one ton of steel every two seconds.  For nearly 50 years, the company produces a wide array of products to include carbon and alloy steel, steel joists, steel deck, cold finished steel, steel grinding balls, steel bearing products, fabricated concrete reinforcing steel, steel fasteners, metal building systems, etc.  The company attended the Career Conference recruiting for different project engineer positions.
• The world’s leading general aviation company producing the most desired business jets and propeller aircraft.  Since its inception in 1927, they have designed, produced, and delivered nearly 200,000 airplanes around the globe.  Today, the company operates two principal lines of business:  aircraft sales and aftermarket services.  Aircraft sales include business jets, single-engine utility turboprops, single-engine piston aircraft, and lift solutions.  Aftermarket services include parts, maintenance, inspection, and repair services. 
• A global leader in the design, manufacture and service of state-of-the-art compression systems to the energy, oil, natural gas, and chemical industries worldwide.  With industry roots that stretch back 30 years including fielding millions of horsepower of compression systems, this company has amassed industry-leading knowledge vital for upstream, midstream, and downstream compression applications.  From the well-head to the pipeline, and regardless of the technical and engineering challenges, companies across the globe turn to this organization for their single source, modular, highly customized, engineered solutions.  They have attended several Career Conferences in the past and attended the April Career Conference recruiting for project engineer positions.

To learn more about the Cameron-Brooks Career Conference experience, I’ve posted several videos from candidates who attended the April 2013 Career Conference on our Facebook site – http://tinyurl.com/dfqoq4.

Rob Davis

Sample industries for the April 2013 conference include: Consulting, Medical Device, Consumer Products, Financial Services, Industrial, Oil & Gas Exploration, High Technology, and more.  Sample companies include: Boston Scientific, ExxonMobil, Cargill, Johnson & Johnson (multiple divisions), Gallo Winery, L-3 Communications, Unilever, Campbell Soup Company, Cintas, Mars, Inc.,  Shell, Wal-Mart, and many more. 

Sample positions include: Consulting Associate, Corporate Procurement, Field Clinical Representative, Corporate Audit, Applications Engineer, R&D Engineer, General Manager, Project Engineer, Operations Manager, Operations Team Leader, Quality Control Supervisor, Business Analyst, Brand Manager, Manufacturing Manager, Territory Sales Manager, Reliability Engineer, and more.   As we finalize the interview schedules, we expect the average number of interviews to be ~12, which matches the trend of previous Career Conferences over the past 12-18 months. 

Continue to follow the blog. Next week, I will write a post on the results from the April 2013 Career Conference.

Rob Davis

————————————-

Changing career direction from the military to Corporate America is one of the most important moves JMOs make in their lifetime. It affects their futures and those of their spouses/significant others.  This is why Cameron-Brooks highly encourages spouses/significant others to be involved with the entire career search process to include attending our Information Meetings, Personal Interviews, and Career Conferences.

We feel spouses/significant others need to be involved in gathering and analyzing information so they can make an informed decision with their JMO spouses.  They both should have the same degree of knowledge regarding the business world and the same degree of commitment to a successful transition to business.

I recommend the following 7 steps for spouses/significant others to get involved with the Cameron-Brooks program and be a key partner with his or her JMO candidate.

1. Watch the following Webcast I conducted with a candidate spouse who attended the Conference.  She and I provide advice on how spouses/significant others can get involved with the program and their role at the Career Conference.  To view the webcast go to https://cameron-brooks.webex.com/cameron-brooks/lsr.php?AT=pb&SP=TC&rID=110783447&act=pb&rKey=eb988bf5a0b9e1e6 and enter the password, “support”.
2. Attend an Information Meeting where we discuss the Development Candidate concept, the mission of Cameron-Brooks, the role of location in a career search, benefits and compensation, and much more.  If the spouse/significant other cannot attend a live Information Meeting, e-mail candidates@cameron-brooks.com and ask for a recorded Webcast, which is an abbreviated version of the live presentation.
3. Read PCS to Corporate America by Roger Cameron.  You can order it from our website (http://www.cameron-brooks.com/difference_book.html) or read it for free online in our ResourceCenter (http://www.cameron-brooks.com/candidates_resourcecenter.html).  Pay specific attention to Chapter 3 where Roger provides advice on how a spouse/significant other can support the candidate.
4. Attend the one-on-one personal sessions when the JMO candidate meets the Cameron-Brooks Recruiter.  This is a great opportunity to ask those burning questions and learn more about the process.
5. Read Tab 5 of our Development and Preparation Program^© (DPP^©) and listen to the some of the Interview Preparation Podcasts in our ResourceCenter.
6. Help your JMO candidate prepare by taking him or her through mock interviews.  Chapter 3 of PCS and the webcast listed in the first point provide advice on how to do this.  Reading PCS, reading Tab 5 of DPP^© and listening to the Podcasts will give you the right tools and knowledge to provide constructive feedback.
7. Attend the Career Conference.  You will learn so much about the opportunities and be better prepared to provide input into the final decision on the choice of company, position and location.  You will also be a good study partner.  Two heads are better than one!  Finally, the Conference is busy.  You may have to step in at times and be a “logistician” for your spouse JMO to help him or her get to the right place at the right time.  The webcast in point 1 addresses spouses at the Conference.

Spouses/significant others:  We want you to be a part of the process and feel included.   Please let us know what more we can do for you, and if we can answer any other questions.

Joel

http://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/most-admired/2013/list/?iid=wma_sp_full.

We are proud that several of our clients made the list.   FORTUNE lists the Top 50 and then also has a larger list broken down based on industry.  Within the top Wal-Mart, J&J, ExxonMobil, St. Jude Medical, Unilever, 3M, FedEx, and several others made the list.

When broken down by industry, several other of our clients made the list to include EMCOR, Linde Group, HCA Healthcare, Prudential, and several others.

Congratulations to our clients, and our Alumni who work at these companies, for their achievement.

Joel Junker

A little about me:

I am originally from San Antonio, Texas.  I graduated from the United States Military Academy in 1998, majoring in Systems Engineering.  After graduating from West Point, I branched Field Artillery – my first choice!  I was stationed at Fort Hood, TX and served multiple roles in 1-82 Field Artillery including Fire Support Officer, Battalion Ammunition Officer, Service Battery Executive Officer and Firing Battery Executive Officer.  I also served as the Battalion Adjutant for 5-3 FA (Fort Sill, OK), from where I deployed to Iraq in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom.

When exiting the Army, I chose to work with Cameron-Brooks because I knew they would partner with me to facilitate my transition to Corporate America. After attending the January 2003 C-B Career Conference, I accepted a Sales Leading to Management position with Ethicon Products, a Johnson & Johnson medical device company.  I started my career in Dallas, TX as a Sales Representative and was soon promoted to Specialty Sales Representative, then Field Sales Trainer.  I received numerous awards including multiple incentive trips and restricted stock grants.   I was promoted to Sales Training Manager after 3.5 years in my territory, moving to Somerville, New Jersey to work at Ethicon’s Corporate Headquarters.  There I trained both domestic and international sales representatives.  After a year in the training department, I was promoted to Division Manager, managing an 8-person team of sales representatives in the New York City metro area.  After 2 years in this role, I was selected to build and manage a team of representatives in a new market development role in Dallas, TX.

I am proud of my accomplishments in Corporate America and look forward to partnering with Junior Officers in their transitions.  As I consider my transition to Johnson & Johnson 10 years ago, listed below are a couple of keys that helped me have a successful Career Conference.

Be ACTIVE in a Study Group

I realize that at first, it may feel uncomfortable to answer interview questions in a group.  It may seem awkward and perhaps even a little embarrassing.  I would encourage you to overcome all of those feelings as quickly as possible.  The more time you spend verbalizing answers to interview questions, receiving feedback from colleagues and peers, the better you will perform at the Career Conference.  At the conference, we will put you in front of companies for which you are qualified and in which you are interested – it will be your job to communicate your ability and interest to each company recruiter you meet.  Your first interview on Monday morning of the Career Conference should not be the first time you say your answers out loud.  You should be saying them in front of your mirror, to your spouse or significant other and, yes, to your study group weeks and months before the conference.

At the conference, each candidate’s level of preparedness is pretty obvious.  Those who are unprepared typically do not perform well on Monday, but have a better Tuesday after coaching and self-reflection.  At the January 2013 Career Conference, I received feedback from a candidate who admitted his preparation was lacking, but after 6 interviews on Monday, he finally felt prepared to interview.  That is a shame – he essentially threw away 6 potential opportunities because of a lack of preparation.  Invest time in a study group – your investment will pay off.

Consider the types of jobs for which you will interview and practice accordingly

When practicing in your study group, ask your study group partners to take you through mock interviews that are specific to the career fields for which you will be interviewing.  This helps you connect with the types of positions for which you will interview at the Career Conference.  Typical feedback on candidates from recruiters at the conference includes, “John was too general” or “I don’t feel like Sue understood the position.”  If you are interviewing for a sales position, ensure you highlight the times that you influenced someone with whom you did not have any authority, or the times you made an impact with very little direction and supervision.  If you are interviewing for a team leadership role, highlight times when you assumed responsibility of a team and made an immediate impact, or a time when you changed a team member’s behavior, or led a team to achieve a difficult objective.  If you are interviewing for a project management role, focus on the times when you led an important project through difficult circumstances to achieve outstanding results.  Smart interviewing is not just knowing the answers to the 26 Flashcard Questions found in Tab 5, Module 5.4 of the DPP; smart interviewing is specifically connecting your background and experiences with the position for which you are interviewing.

I am extremely grateful to be a part of the Cameron-Brooks Team and look forward to serving you to help you reach your potential and dreams.

Pete Van Epps

First, you will notice that the core of PCS to Corporate America remained the same.  This is because the core reasons of why leading companies value the JMO for Development positions has not changed.  They value the JMO’s leadership, critical thinking and reasoning, focus on self-development and real world experiences.  Most importantly they hire high potential JMOs who have the ability and desire to rise to higher levels of responsibility in the company.  What they look for in these high potential JMOs has not changed.   The style of the book is still direct because we believe that each JMO needs to have direct, accurate and objective information to make a good decision to separate and to reach his or her career potential.  We don’t sugarcoat the message of what it takes to be successful in corporate America and in the transition.

While the core of what companies want in a talented JMO and the basic fundamentals to be successful have not changed, there have been 12+ years since the 3^rd Ed. to the 4^th Ed., we have been at war in Afghanistan and Iraq during most of those years.  We felt it necessary to update the book to reflect the enormous amount of responsibility JMOs have undertaken during those years.  So much of PCS 3^rd Ed. used training type of examples and now, many JMOs have examples of accomplishments and stories that have made significant impacts in our military readiness and operations domestically and abroad.

Most importantly, during those 12+ years, we at Cameron-Brooks have continued to grow, learn, and become better at advising JMOs on career search strategies and interview techniques.  We have 12+ more years of experience and lessons learned that we want to pass on to our veterans.  Therefore, the chapters with the biggest changes are “Chapter 1: The Evaluation Process,” “Chapter 5: Interviewing Strategy – From Proving Your Fit to Closing,” and “Chapter 6: Facing the Big Questions and Developing the Best Answers.”  We also updated the Recommended Reading Program in Appendix C.

Finally, as one of the contributing authors, I would describe PCS 4^th Ed. as more robust.  It has more interviewing tips, book recommendations, example stories demonstrating success, sample interviewing mistakes, and in-depth explanation of today’s evaluation process including navigating company online resume posting, applications and other screening filters.

Even if you have read PCS 3^rd Ed., I highly recommend you purchase the 4^th Ed. on Amazon.com at http://tinyurl.com/d2m62qk/new-window.php.  A digital e-book version will be coming soon!

Joel Junker

There are times that attending a full-time MBA program could make sense depending on a candidate’s goals, timing, financial situation, etc. but there are no quick fixes to top 10% success.  Coming from someone who has an MBA, I definitely believe these programs are worthwhile, but not as a way to “shortcut” your way to success and corporate leadership. 

http://online.wsj.com/article_email/SB10001424127887323884304578328243334068564-lMyQjAxMTAzMDAwOTEwNDkyWj.html?mod=wsj_valettop_email

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887324296604578175764143141622.html

Rob Davis