I hope to build a list of personal stories from veterans about their transition to the tech industry. The goal is to help answer one of the most common questions: “how did you get there?”
I’m asking my fellow contributors to be as detailed as possible, and I will as well. We may not remember everything perfectly, but given enough honest perspectives, you can shape your own expectations and plans.
To be completely honest, one of the things that attracted me to the military, was the security of such a career. Once I decided to get out, I realized that I wasn’t very prepared to leave the bubble of the military community. We automatically had health insurance & other services. We had bases with stores that always sold things at reasonable prices. There is a lot of social & employment support in the military, including educational opportunities. So I felt that, perhaps my work experience was extremely different from ‘everyone else.’
I had some connections on social networks that got out of the military before myself, so I began to take note of what jobs they had. I saw that people were finding management jobs by joining with military recruitment firms, such as Orion or Bradley-Morris. These organizations provide an excellent opportunity to learn about and pursue post-military careers. Some of these companies will only work with you if you agree to attend their career conference first. I find that those companies, such as Cameron-Brooks and Alliance, seem to invest a little more effort into developing you as a candidate. I personally did not observe them as having clearly better job opportunities, though.
The recruitment firms helped me a great deal in transforming my resume. I used examples from other former officers to figure out how to word things in a more “civilian” way. The resume is only one small part, though. You’ve got to be able to talk the talk. The recruitment firms put me in touch with people who could help me prepare for interviews and elevator conversations alike. Looking back on this time, I now feel that I did not network enough – I didn’t really put myself out there on social networks and things like that; I should have. The recruitment firms helped make up for this.
I went to several job conferences through the recruitment firms. I did not see a significant difference in the type of jobs at different conferences. The larger recruiting companies just usually have more interviewers (and candidates) per conference. There were a few differences from a regional perspective, though. It appears the tech-related jobs pop up more in the west coast conferences, but I wouldn’t say its a huge difference. At that time, tech jobs weren’t much available at all.
I wanted to work at Google because of all the things I had heard (and read) about the culture and benefits. I started applying to jobs there when I was still in the Army, predicting it would be a long process to make it if I got a chance. That was around January 2013. I reached out to some vets that worked at Google, but I didn’t really ask them for referrals or anything, just advice on how to interview. I never really got close to making it to an interview, though.
I considered going back to school full-time out of the military, since so many of my classmates were doing so. Officers with West Point degrees can generally get into some very high-profile graduate schools, especially for MBAs. And high-profile MBAs lead to great jobs in finance or medical technology sales. That didn’t feel like my path, though, to do whatever paid the absolute highest salary. I decided to get a job.
I still felt I should be at Google, even if Google didn’t know it yet. But I also needed to move on with my job search. I had some decent offers via the recruitment companies, but they weren’t really tech jobs. One day, an Orion recruiter put me in touch with an Amazon recruiter, and that’s when my real plan started to develop. She could not get me into the tech jobs of Amazon, but they were taking massive amounts of former officers to work as managers in the warehouses. I had a very solid application process, and felt really good leaving my on-site interviews.
You may be aware that Amazon doesn’t have the *greatest* reputation when it comes to workplace satisfaction. I had done the research to know that they weren’t winning any competitions for ‘best workplace.’ But I also identified the strength of the brand, and most of all, I knew they had a huge technology part of the company that I could pursue. I told a few of my friends that I would take the Amazon warehouse job to see where it would take me- maybe one day, to Silicon Valley.
I took the position with Amazon and went to work as a training manager in the fulfillment centers. I participating in the launch of their warehouse in Tracy, California, just an hour or so from the San Francisco bay. I think Amazon likes hiring veterans because we can be steady leaders in high-pressure situations. We had a lot of young leaders going through their first peak season, but a 14-hour Amazon workday is not quite as stressful as a convoy mission with little (or no) air support.
After my first year at Amazon, it became apparent to me that nobody was making the transition from warehouse to tech side. Our particular building didn’t have a very good vibe among the management, and more people were leaving the company than being promoted. I was still trying to get a job at Google, but completely bombed a phone interview (which I had tried to take from a public location). There was a “veteran recruiting rep” that I was working with, but he wasn’t responsive and didn’t seem to have any specific guidance for me. I was discouraged, but decided to pursue a new tech transition. Pretty quickly after I started a new job search, I got a lot of interest from a tech company in Palo Alto.
I’m not going to go into much detail about that company here, because I was not there for very long, and because I don’t have too many positive experiences from it. I loved having a leadership job and working in the tech space, but I was underwhelmed by some of the ethical decisions being made in pursuit of success. I decided that I did not want to stick with them, despite access to a good amount of pre-IPO stocks options.
Once I realized I needed to job search again, I got extremely discouraged. I started to believe that my experiences were teaching me that I didn’t belong in tech. I reached out again to that Google rep, but discovered he was at a different company. I decided I would take one last shot – I drafted a quick message and sent this to every Googler recruiter that I found on LinkedIn:
Eventually, I was put in touch with a recruiter named Courtney, who had a phone call with me. I think I convinced her that I really wanted work there; I had read several books specifically about Google so I could really articulate what I liked about the environment. Over several stressful weeks, she looked for a place I could fit. When I thought time was going to run out, she put me in touch with another recruiter, Monica, who had the opening that I eventually got.
Monica got me into a video interview with my future boss. He is an outgoing guy, but he seemed really impressed with and interested in my Army experience. So many aspects of military leadership turn out to be directly applicable to tech operations in the corporate world. I felt good after that interview, and moved forward on on-site interviews. I had 4 interviews, with a diverse mix of employees.
I prepared for my interviews intensely. I bought the “How Google Works” book and re-read the chapter about the interview methods. I practiced speaking about my best projects from past jobs. I stressed over what would be appropriate to wear. I was very nervous and really had that “this is it” type of feeling. The interviews went well thanks to my prep, and I left with a pretty good feeling. One of my interviewers was a little less expressive, though. So when it took weeks to finally get a result, I got a little nervous that I had messed up something.
In January 2015, I got the offer and I took it. I can admit now that I was probably TOO excited to get a job offer; I made the error of skipping any negotiation. But I was (and still am) happy to have gotten the job. A couple of weeks later I started orientation. If you are tracking the dates, it took a solid 2 years of applications, research, networking, and working to make it to that point.
I work in partner operations, where we do customer support and make recommendations for product improvements. I use a lot of the leadership skills I developed in the military, along with technical skills I gained along the way. The military teaches you to approach and execute missions in a way that is very effective in corporate life. Veterans have experience working with diverse sets of people; we influence people above and below on the chain of command.
If you are in the midst of your transition, find as many stories as you can from those who have made the transition, and remember to expand your network. We have plenty of valuable skills and sometimes you just need to speak with that one person who can understand your qualities and assist. My experiences have made it clear that military experience is great preparation for high performance tech jobs. Sometimes it just takes a while to get your foot in the door.
