High 5 Weekly Career Transitions Roundup: Getting Fired, Great Jobs for Veterans, and More

This is our weekly roundup of some of the best career-related articles, interviews, blogs, etc., we've read during the week. We share them so you have some great resources to prepare you for the coming week. Enjoy!

• 8 Great Jobs for Veterans in 2016: "An analysis of which positions were well suited to former military personnel looking for new careers."
• 10 Ways Successful People Stay Calm: "90 percent of top performers are skilled at managing their emotions in times of stress in order to remain calm and in control."
• 4 Unconventional Rules for Building a Better Professional Network: "To truly cultivate new ideas and harness the ones that will drive you forward, you need a team of mentors to rid you of your comfort zone."
• Why We Need to Stop Thinking of Getting Fired as a Bad Thing: "The duration for each mission is typically one to three years, and once that time is up, the manager and employee should work together to come up with a new tour of duty, depending on how to best progress the employee’s career."
• 4 Ways Millennial Women Can Boost Their Careers: "This includes speaking up at department meetings, getting involved in a variety of initiatives outside the scope of your job and strengthening ties with allies."

High 5 Weekly Career Transitions Roundup: 9 Tactics to Land You the Job

This is our weekly roundup of some of the best career-related articles, interviews, blogs, etc., we've read during the week. We share them so you have some great resources to prepare you for the coming week. Enjoy!

• 9 Tactics to Land You the Job: "Ask for the job enthusiastically. If they say they are 'still looking,' ask what for and explain how you are a perfect match, and then ask again."
• 11 Career-Related New Year's Resolutions: "Want a raise or a new job? Better work-life balance?"
• Veterans and the Holiday Job Search: "When a job seeker displays initiative in setting up informational interviews during the holidays, she communicates that she is resourceful and hard-working."
• 6 Qualities of a Non-Toxic Employee: "Look for employees who are good with taking direction and take full responsibility for their work."
• 6 Strategies to Transform a Job You Hate into One You Love: "Knowing that by sticking it out, you’ll be gaining skills that will aid you in getting to the next level in your career, and that can help to keep you engaged."

High 5 Weekly Career Transitions Roundup: Make Friends Not Contacts

This is our weekly roundup of some of the best career-related articles, interviews, blogs, etc., we've read during the week. We share them so you have some great resources to prepare you for the coming week. Enjoy!

• Networking 101: Make Friends Not Contacts: "Check your circle of friends. Surround yourself with people who aspire to do better."
• The Rainn Wilson Guide to Success: "For me, meditation is a great tool that I use in my daily life to ground me, to get me more connected to my soul. To the part of myself that’s beyond my thoughts. To God and to a higher purpose."
• 21 Ways to Unlock Creative Genius: "Consider this list of tricks and strategies your roadmap, all planned out with the benefit of the latest research and expert advice."
• Start Looking for an Internship!: "Interns that show professionalism and demonstrate their creativity gain a network of people who can mentor them, give recommendations, and collaborate on future projects."
• 4 Interview Tips for Veterans: "One of your greatest resources may be other veterans who have landed a job through mastering the interview process."

Veteran's Job Search Quiz - Test Your Knowledge, Part 2

In this earlier blog post, I started the job search quiz that will test your knowledge of job search methods. Following you will find part two of the quiz. Take the following test to see if your knowledge of interviewing is as up-to-date as your knowledge of resume writing, which we tested in Part 1 of the quiz.


1. Most employers are well-trained in the art of interviewing and selecting candidates.
False. There is no way to control who is interviewing you for the job you are seeking any more than you can control their skill at interviewing. Unfortunately, many people are tasked with hiring without every being trained in the art of interviewing. Keep in mind that the interview decision is often based on emotions. It is a bit of a "chemistry test" where the employer is evaluating whether or not you fit into the organization.

2. When you interview for a job, you should always address the interviewer as "sir" or "ma'am" the same way you were trained to do in the military.
False. While calling people by "sir" or "ma'am" is indeed a polite sign of respect, it can be disconcerting for a civilian who is used to being addressed by their first name in the workplace. Take your cues from the interviewer and if they are less formal, you should be the same way. Ease up on the formalities and you will demonstrate that you are ready to transition out of the military.

3. No two interviews are alike, therefore there is no true way to prepare for an interview.
False. While it is true that no two interviews are alike and every interviewer asks different questions, the theme of the questions is always the same. It is imperative to prepare your "talking points" about your skills and the benefits you can bring to the organization. The more you prepare yourself to discuss the value you can bring to an organization, the more comfortable you will be in an interview - no matter what questions they ask or what order they ask them in.

Veteran's Job Search Quiz - Test Your Knowledge, Part 1

There are many common misconceptions - both among veterans and non-veterans. Take part one of the quiz below to see if you have clear expectations of your military transition job search process.

1. Employers tend to hire a veteran over a non-veteran if they have two candidates that are equally qualified.
False. Unfortunately these common misconceptions I spoke of earlier can negatively impact the hiring decision for a veteran. Less than 1% of the population has served in the military. If the civilian that is making the decision does not understand that the veteran has transferable skills, they will tend to shy away from hiring the veteran. To be successful in the transition process, veterans must learn to speak the language of the industry in which they are targeting jobs.

2. Your salary will be up to twice as much in the private sector as you made in the military.
False. There are some cases where veterans have exceeded or even doubled their military pay in the private sector. However, that is usually the exception versus the norm. Do your research on websites such as www.salary.com and www.bls.gov to determine the salary range in your industry and where you want to live. Use military retirement pay calculators on websites such as www.military.com to determine the amount of retirement pay you will receive. Be sure to calculate the loss of benefits such as Basic Allowance for Subsistence (BAS) and Basic Allowance for Housing (BAH).

3. Private sector employers believe that military veterans do not have the ability to manage profit and loss.
True. The perception in the private sector is that the military has unlimited funds and they do not have to manage with budget constraints or staffing challenges. It is true that the military does not even come close to turning a profit - that is not their purpose. However, most civilians are not aware of things like force shaping or high year tenure that have drawn down the military significantly in recent years. As a veteran, you must dispel these myths by discussing your focus on cost reduction, efficiency management, and budget oversight.

So, how did you do? Check back on Thursday for a continuation of the Veteran's Employment Quiz.