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BY Brock Dudley
The JMO Resume – Career Conference Recap
Hello everyone, and welcome back. We just finished up our August 2024 Career Conference and I wanted to provide everyone with an update on how it went. First off, a huge congratulations to all the Officers we’ve partnered with who attended the August Conference. They’ve taken a HUGE leap towards the next steps in their business careers and are now in the follow-up process.
The follow-up process consists of a mix of virtual and in-person interviews with companies where there was mutual interest in moving forward in the interview process. For the next two to three weeks, the candidates will be involved in the follow-up interview process where they will conduct site visits, learn more about companies, and earn offers. On average, the entire process takes 18 working days to attend the Career Conference, conduct follow-up interviews, earn offers, compare options, and choose the right fit!
So, what were the statistics?
The candidates conducted a total of 371 interviews in two days, with an average of 10.6 interviews per candidate! The pursuit rate for this Career Conference was 68%. That means, on average, candidates were winning 7 out of 10 times on interviews. For my sports fans, their batting average was 700. Not bad.
The “pursuit rate” is defined as the number of interviews in which the candidate achieved success divided by the total number of interviews. “Achieving success” in an interview at the Career Conference simply means the candidates got over the high “bar” set by our client companies, and the companies expressed interest in moving forward with the candidate.
All the companies who attended the conference had been to a conference before except for 2 companies! So, what does that mean? A couple of things:
- Companies value the JMO background, and they’re looking to diversify their talent pool. It’s worked for them in the past, and they are coming back to hire. 90% of these openings were back-filling open positions where the predecessor had taken a promotion. And keep in mind, these positions are for experienced-level hires.
- 6 C-level Executives came to the Conference to Interview JMO’s. CEOs of companies conducted interviews. Over half the companies that came back to interview had Cameron-Brooks Alumni conducting the interviews.
- We maintained strict adherence to our commitment to bringing the right companies to the Career Conference who: Understand your background, have open positions with a start date that aligns with your timing, a job description with a start date that aligns with every candidate’s timing, and the position is set up and designed for you to transition out and up into a developmental career.
The JMO Resume
I also wanted to talk about something that often gets overlooked as it pertains to JMO’s making the transition: Writing an effective, and powerful resume that portrays a JMO’s unique leadership experience and potential.
The purpose of this is to help provide some insight into building a resume which is a powerful tool for interviewing and making a positive impact with company recruiters. There are certainly many ways to create a resume, and you may have undoubtedly received advice from colleagues, family, etc. Sometimes, this advice doesn’t apply if transitioning into a developmental role in Business.
Writing the JMO resume is an integral part of the transition.
Your resume will be the first impression you make with company recruiters and Hiring Managers. Investing time to make a resume an accurate reflection of your experiences and abilities is critical and will pay dividends in the long term.
One of the “Pillars” of the Development and Preparation program is having the opportunity to work with our Professional Resume Consultant, Danielle Granville. Danielle joined the Cameron-Brooks team in 1998 and has shepherded thousands of Junior Military Officers in their resume writing process. You’d also have the eyes of the entire management team on your resume. Our mission in this process is to be your guide and help you write a resume that accomplishes three things:
1) Demonstrates that you are Business Ready!
2) Provides you with the confidence that you are Interview Ready!
3) Positions you as a LEADER and is loaded with specific accomplishments that give you, as well as the companies, a pallet of information to pull from.
You are making an industry change as a non-traditional hire.
It is important to realize that as a JMO transitioning to the business world, you are making a change to an industry where you are considered “non-traditional”. Your resume format will be designed to conduct a broad career search across a variety of industries, companies, and career fields. If you were interviewing within the same industry or trying to target a specific role, the resume format would most likely be different. However, this resume can and will serve as a baseline for you as you continue to advance in your business career. It can be easily modified and made to be more targeted as needed once you have established yourself in Corporate America.
Your resume is a conversation starter.
Most resumes are designed to generate a company’s interest in setting up an initial screening interview with you. As a candidate in the Development and Preparation Program and attending a Career Conference, however, we do that on your behalf with our client companies, so the resume serves a different function. In your interviews at the Career Conference, your resume will allow the companies to get to know you before you walk into the interview and will help drive the conversation during the interview. Essentially, your resume will be a selling tool for you in interviews that are already scheduled based on the strong reputation we have built with our client companies for bringing top-notch officers to the marketplace.
Your resume demonstrates direction and a track record of success.
Because you are making an industry change from the government to the business world, your resume should include information from high school and college in addition to your military service. Our client companies want to see the “total person” and are interested in your track record of leadership and experience. By including key accomplishments and activities from high school, college, and the military, companies can see that you have had direction and success in your life. If they can see your thought process, direction, and success, it is easier for them to envision you delivering immediate value to their company.
We often receive feedback from our client companies about how unique and special your resumes are. We believe the JMO background is unique and special, and it’s a direct reflection of what you’ve accomplished. We’ve found that being able to market yourself as a Leader on your resume and loading that resume with specific accomplishments gives you a pallet of information to pull from and is one of the keys factors to a successful transition.
Stay Tuned!
In a couple of weeks, my colleague Pete Van Epps will conduct the post-August 2024 Career Conference with several Cameron-Brooks alumni who attended the August Conference and have successfully launched their post-military business careers. Our alumni will share their experiences in the Cameron-Brooks program, at the August Career Conference, and in the follow-up process, and why they chose their companies!
Pete will tackle a wide array of topics during these real JMO transition stories and most of the questions will come from the group who attend the live webcast. Sample questions are:
- What was the best part of the Conference?
- How do you professionally handle a business interview in a virtual environment when there is more than one person in the room?
- How do you prepare for back-to-back interviews when meeting different industries, companies, and functional career opportunities?
- What was the follow-up interview process like?
- Were there any professional certifications you pursued before the Career Conference that set you apart?
- Was your college degree a factor in your interviews?
- What type of training will you receive at your new company?
- How do you manage the vast amount of information at the Career Conference?
If you’re interested in learning more about your options or what could be next for you after the military, feel free to give me a call to discuss your options. Even if you want to hop on the phone and talk about the JMO resume and what that might look like, that works too. If you don’t want to chat on the phone, I recommend giving PCS to Corporate America a read, where we provide you with an example of a JMO resume.
My information is below. Often, a short conversation with someone can be helpful in the process.
Brock Dudley
Principal, Transition Coach
