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BY Joel Junker

PCS to Corporate America 4th Ed., The Guide for JMOs Transitioning from Military to Business

A couple weeks ago I posted the introduction to PCS to Corporate America 4^th Ed. (Cameron, Alvarez and Junker) http://blog.cameron-brooks.com/2013/02/17/pcs-to-corporate-america-4th-ed-now-available/.  In that post, I said I would follow up with the major differences between PCS 3^rd Ed. to the 4^th Ed.

First, you will notice that the core of PCS to Corporate America remained the same.  This is because the core reasons of why leading companies value the JMO for Development positions has not changed.  They value the JMO’s leadership, critical thinking and reasoning, focus on self-development and real world experiences.  Most importantly they hire high potential JMOs who have the ability and desire to rise to higher levels of responsibility in the company.  What they look for in these high potential JMOs has not changed.   The style of the book is still direct because we believe that each JMO needs to have direct, accurate and objective information to make a good decision to separate and to reach his or her career potential.  We don’t sugarcoat the message of what it takes to be successful in corporate America and in the transition.

While the core of what companies want in a talented JMO and the basic fundamentals to be successful have not changed, there have been 12+ years since the 3^rd Ed. to the 4^th Ed., we have been at war in Afghanistan and Iraq during most of those years.  We felt it necessary to update the book to reflect the enormous amount of responsibility JMOs have undertaken during those years.  So much of PCS 3^rd Ed. used training type of examples and now, many JMOs have examples of accomplishments and stories that have made significant impacts in our military readiness and operations domestically and abroad.

Most importantly, during those 12+ years, we at Cameron-Brooks have continued to grow, learn, and become better at advising JMOs on career search strategies and interview techniques.  We have 12+ more years of experience and lessons learned that we want to pass on to our veterans.  Therefore, the chapters with the biggest changes are “Chapter 1: The Evaluation Process,” “Chapter 5: Interviewing Strategy – From Proving Your Fit to Closing,” and “Chapter 6: Facing the Big Questions and Developing the Best Answers.”  We also updated the Recommended Reading Program in Appendix C.

Finally, as one of the contributing authors, I would describe PCS 4^th Ed. as more robust.  It has more interviewing tips, book recommendations, example stories demonstrating success, sample interviewing mistakes, and in-depth explanation of today’s evaluation process including navigating company online resume posting, applications and other screening filters.

Even if you have read PCS 3^rd Ed., I highly recommend you purchase the 4^th Ed. on Amazon.com at http://tinyurl.com/d2m62qk/new-window.php.  A digital e-book version will be coming soon!

Joel Junker