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BY Joel Junker

Launching Post Military Careers: April 2023 Conference Follow Up

We have now concluded our second Career Conference of 2023 and are already busy working with our candidates and client companies to conduct follow-up interviews to continue launching post-military careers.  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.  In 2022, the average number of days from the Career Conference to offer acceptance was just 12.2 working days.  But with more companies going back to in-person follow-up interviews, the average working days will most likely increase to ~18 working days, which is more in line with what we saw before the pandemic.

So, for the next two to three weeks, the candidates will be involved in the follow-up interview process, earning offers and then launching their new careers.  All of us at Cameron-Brooks want to give a very sincere and heartfelt thank you to all of the candidates and client companies who decided to partner with us.

So what were the statistics?

We had 49 candidates, 32 distinct companies, and 40 different hiring groups attend the conference.  Additionally, 18 Cameron-Brooks alumni returned to recruit and find top JMO talent for their organizations.  While there were fewer companies and hiring groups at this Career Conference compared to the January Career Conference, there were more openings at the April Career Conference!

The candidates conducted over 450 interviews, with an average of 9.4 interviews per candidate!  The pursuit rate for this Career Conference was 68.8%.  The “pursuit rate” is defined as the number of interviews in which the candidates achieved success divided by the total number of their interviews. “Achieving success” in an interview at the Career Conference simply means the candidates got over the “bar” set by our client companies, and the companies expressed interest in moving forward with the candidate.

As I stated in the pre-April Career Conference blog post, the candidates are playing a different “sport” thus far in 2023 when it comes to interviews and their career search.  This is not 2021 or 2022, where we saw many remote positions, and companies were willing to bend a bit more on specific locations, etc. to make accommodations for the candidate because the need to hire was so great from coming out of the pandemic.  This is an economy where it is more about quality over quantity.  In other words, it’s important to focus on the quality of the company and having a quality interview to get pursued rather than a certain number of interviews.

The good news is there are plenty of opportunities out there for JMOs wanting to transition to the business world and each of the hiring groups at this Career Conference attended with open positions they are looking to fill with top JMO talent!  And 100% of the April candidates have companies expressing interest in moving forward in the interview process!

So, we are off to a fantastic start in helping our JMO-to-business candidates with their career transition and pivot from successful military leaders to successful business leaders.

Stay tuned!!  On May 2nd, I will conduct a post-Career Conference webcast that will include several Conference candidates who are in the middle of launching post-military careers.  Our alumni will share their experiences, recommendations, and answers to your questions. Soon we’ll post registration information on our website’s webcast page.

If you are a JMO considering a transition to business and would like to be part of a future Cameron-Brooks Career Conference, reach out to us for a personal consultation with one of our Transition Coaches.

Rob Davis