Transitions: A Field Guide for Military Professionals and Veterans Seeking Leadership Positions in the Business World

By Robert R. Ulin and Robert J. Myers

More than one million service-members will leave the military and transition into civilian life over the next several years, according to a recent Government Accountability Office report.

Robert R. Ulin, who retired from the Army as a colonel, knows that its hard to make a smooth transition to employment as a civilian. Geared for veterans age forty-five to fifty-five, he wrote this guidebook to help you:

prepare for the job search;
sell your skills at interviews;
adjust to a culture where leadership is persuasive instead of directive;
leverage your talents to climb the corporate ladder.

Youll also get a variety of tools in the appendixes, including a transition self-assessment, a transition task list, a job-hunting process for the military mind, and a transition checklist.

As a veteran, you know you can see tasks through to completion and exhibit strong leadership skills and professionalism, but its not always easy to translate these skills into a civilian world. Take the first step in becoming your own commander, and get an action plan to successfully navigate Transitions.

• Language: English
• Publisher: AuthorHouse
• Release date: Feb 2, 2015
• ISBN: 9781496967435

Robert R. Ulin

Robert R. Ulin entered the Army as a private and retired as a colonel. A seasoned business leader, he is chairman and CEO of the Center for Transitional Leadership, president of Ulin Solutions Group LLC, and executive vice president of Mobile Reasoning Inc.

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© 2015 Robert R. Ulin. All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means without the written permission of the author.

Published by AuthorHouse 01/31/2015

ISBN: 978-1-4969-6744-2 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4969-6743-5 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2015901522

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Contents

Foreword

Author’s Note

Introduction

Chapter 1: A Time to Transition: Making Plans for the Future

Chapter 2: Goal Setting: Leaving your Comfort Zone

Chapter 3: Networking: Exploring new opportunities

Chapter 4: Thoughts on Resume Writing: Target marketing

Chapter 5: A Sense of Urgency: Why don’t they return my calls?

Chapter 6: Hire Slow, Fire Fast: What it takes to get hired and stay hired

Chapter 7: The Interview: Making the sale

Chapter 8: Salary Negotiation: The Art of the Deal

Chapter 9: A Clash of Cultures: The Military are from Mars & Civilians are from Venus

Chapter 10: The Entrepreneur: Being your own boss

Chapter 11: Nonprofit Opportunities: Helping others

Appendix 1: Transition Self-Assessment

Appendix 2: A Deliberate Job Hunting Process for the Military Mind

Appendix 3: The Transition Checklist

Appendix 4: Nonprofit Startup Checklist

Appendix 5: The Energize@Lead™ Profile

Selected Bibliography

Acknowledgements

About The Author

About The Center for Transitional Leadership, Inc.

Endnotes

This book is

dedicated to all veterans who wish to make a difference in the business world.

Foreword

Bob Ulin has written a timely book for the transitioning veteran. While there are many books that provide advice for job seekers, this book was written to support the retiring or separating military professional between the ages 45 to 55, a segment of the veteran population that has the highest percentage of unemployment. It is well researched and thoughtfully written. It covers many important aspects of preparing, organizing and implementing a successful mid-life transition.

When I retired from the Army all I wanted to do was make enough money to replace what I had lost after retirement so I could continue to live comfortably. I returned home to Iowa expecting to take a job with a friend but his business was not doing well at the time so I applied for a job with Casey’s General Stores. Casey’s was in the process of building a new headquarters facility in Ankeny. Casey’s President and Chief Operating Officer Ron Lamb, a six-year Navy veteran, hired me. I had previously known the founder of Casey’s and Chief Executive Officer Don Lamberti. I was offered, and gratefully accepted, a job as a construction project manager overseeing the new corporate headquarters and distribution facility. Over time, as opportunities presented themselves, I moved up in the company eventually becoming an officer of the company in less than two years. With each new assignment, I applied what I had learned in the Army steadily moving through the organization. In 2004, I was appointed President and in 2006, Chief Executive Officer.

In 2014, I was appointed by the Governor of Iowa to co-chair, along with fellow veteran and former Congressman Leonard Boswell, to lead what was named Home Base Iowa, a private/public effort to provide veterans with resources that can open doors to job opportunities, welcoming communities, and on-going engagement with the military. With the passage of key legislation the Governor of Iowa signed into law Memorial Day 2014, Iowa moved from what some believed was a state unfriendly to veterans to a model veteran-friendly state.

Bob Ulin is well qualified to write about key challenges encountered by service members transitioning from the military to the private sector. He survived the downsizing of the Army after the Vietnam War and remained on active duty until he was caught up in the reduction of forces following the end of the Cold War. After his own difficult transition, he went on to enjoy a very successful private sector career in the for-profit and nonprofit sectors. I had the pleasure of serving as a Trustee of the CGSC Foundation when Bob was its CEO. The practical advice he offers in this book is based on his personal experience and that of others who made a successful transition. Bob’s book is highly informative and instructive.

While Transitions provides practical advice for the veteran job seeker, it includes a step-by-step approach that is useful for anyone who is making a mid-life transition.

Robert J. Myers

Lieutenant Colonel, U.S. Army, Retired

Chairman and CEO, Casey’s General Stores, Inc.

Co-chair, Home Base Iowa Foundation

Author’s Note

I was fifty years old when I retired from the Army. My decision to retire was made for me by the Army that was downsizing after the end of the Cold War. After a full military career, I’d had enough of government service so I didn’t want to apply for a government job. I was intent on re-entering the civilian workforce. During a break in my military service in the 1960s, I worked in the private sector for about four years and was confident of my ability to add value to any company. What I didn’t realize is that securing employment at fifty years of age is much more difficult than I had realized. I was totally unprepared. Although I did some odd jobs from time to time, I was unemployed for nearly two years. It was disheartening and humbling.

Back then, the Army did not have a transition program in any sense of the word. What they had was a brief program designed to get as many of us out of the Army as fast as they could. Today, while transition programs in all services are better, they still fall far short of what is required to help a diverse group of service members from privates to generals find meaningful employment in the private sector after they leave military service.

I realized from my initial job searching and periodic interviewing that I knew little about the business world. If I were to become successful, I would need to re-program my brain to think about how to make money instead of just spending it, something we have become all too accustomed to in the military. I read many of the Tony Robbins books because he was the motivational business guru of that era. I eventually came across a small but powerful little book by Napoleon Hill, Think & Grow Rich. Originally published in 1937, this little book would have a profound influence on my life. To clarify, I didn’t become rich, which is a relative term, but I did become comfortable. I’ve often thought about Hill’s book and just recently came across a recent edition published in 2012. As noted in the Publisher’s Preface, This book conveys the experience of more than five hundred men of great wealth who began from scratch, with nothing to give in return for the riches except thoughts, ideas, and organizing plans….It presents complete instructions on how to sell your personal services.¹ As Napoleon Hill reminds us, Whatever the mind can conceive and believe, it can achieve. In other words, if you believe in something strong enough and long enough, you can eventually achieve it.

Each group of retiring or separating service members has needs and desires because of family or other considerations. They also have varying degrees of education and experience. But, they have one thing in common: each could benefit from the expertise of those who have already made the transition, found meaningful employment, and built a successful business career. This field guide is designed primarily to help field grade officers (O-4 to O-6), warrant officers (W-3 to W-5), and senior NCOs (E-7 to E-9). In these