Backward Planning
A solid tactic to follow in any kind of program is the backward planning process. In that process you identify the date or time that something is scheduled to begin and then start a count-down to it. At each step along the way you complete another task or item that will lead to final completion at the specified time. Most military operations are executed in this fashion, with a countdown to D-day or H-hour.
For the job search you need a timetable. It ought to start at least one year from separation and should include every step you need to accomplish along the way. If you wait until you receive your final separation papers to get started, it's going to take you a lot longer than 3.5 months to find meaningful employment. You should prepare your own timetable based upon mission and duty requirements, as well as the needs of your family and your military out processing schedule. If you are planning to go to a location different from your last duty station, you should make sure you save enough leave time to accommodate the trip(s). Throughout the process, use your installation transition office as the focal point for information. Here is a suggested countdown:
1. Twelve Months
- Visit the re-enlistment office or career planner and find out what your options are.
- If you're retiring, visit the retirement services office and attend a retirement briefing.
- Research, research, research. Make your first visit to the library. Check out the various geographic areas that interest you. Look into the requirements of different career fields and determine what skills you have that you can transfer to the private sector. Review the necessary trade journals and begin to build your own database of information.
- Conduct serious family discussions and establish goals for the job search.
- Assess your financial status and set up a plan to have enough money in savings to relocate and to cover expenses for at least four months.
Check with your service fraternal association to find out what help it offers. Also, check on insurance programs to cover you, such as CHAMPUS supplement and life insurance.
- Attend as many job fairs as possible from now until you find the job you want. Some installations conduct them annually. NCOA does twenty each year. Determine the schedules and plan to be there.
- Attend a career transition seminar, lecture, or workshop offered by your installation, the NCOA, or TROA.
- Subscribe to trade or professional journals.
- Decide what career path you're going to follow.
- Begin a draft of your resume.
- If time and funds permit, make an early visit to your area of choice to reconfirm your decision and to check out real estate and overall job opportunities. While there, visit the state employment service.
- Subscribe to the Sunday edition of the local newspaper in your area of choice.
- Continue your research.
- Finish your resume. Decide if you need to hire a professional to help you polish your work.
- If you're qualified, contact an executive recruiter for a consultation.
- Continue your research.
- Begin to develop prospect lists of potential employers.
- Identify friends in the private sector who might help in your job search and begin to contact them.
- Put a wardrobe together.
- Begin your mail campaign with broadcast letters and resumes to targeted companies.
- Establish a date to visit your new location to conduct interviews. Incorporate the dates into your broadcast letters.
- Continue your research.
- Gear up to your full mail campaign.
- Respond to advertising in newspapers and trade journals.
- Visit the state employment service.
- Follow up on earlier leads.
- Visit a couple of private employment agencies.
- Make phone calls and visits to companies who may be hiring, if possible.
- Visit the projected area in person to present yourself for interviews.
- Respond to specific advertisements with personal letters.
- Complete your out-processing.
A Final Word
The job search is a hill-time job, for it will require your total dedication. Great jobs are not going to jump out and grab you.
They must be actively sought after in a professional manner. If you are out of the service before you have found work, you should discipline yourself to maintain a regular schedule. A certain part of each day should be spent in preparing mailings, making telephone calls, and visiting companies in person. You should also ensure that you don't spend every minute of every day in the job search, or you will quickly reach burnout. So decide what needs to be done and then set up a reasonable schedule to make sure everything you need to do get accomplished. When you get an interview, don't count on that as being the end of your job search. Keep up the effort, because that job may never materialize. If you stop looking while you wait for some company to make a decision, you may miss out on a better opportunity.
However you proceed, do so with confidence and the sure knowledge that you can succeed. Don't try to reinvent the wheel. Use the principles of leadership, planning, and execution you have always relied upon. You got where you are today because you have been successful at proving yourself over and over again. You have served your country well and you will do well in any future jobs. Be confident and you will be a success.
Good luck. I wish you well.
