Our Blog

BY petevanepps

The “Transition” in Action

Our mission at Cameron-Brooks is to help military officers “transition.” Often when I say that to a JMO who is considering moving from the military to the business world, they look at me the same way my 16-year old daughter does when I tell her something she thinks she already knows.

Let me explain. A true transition from the military to Corporate America is a 3 to 5 year process whereby a JMO essentially changes they way the market themselves. Their professional brand morphs from “an experienced leader with business potential” to “a business leader with a skillset in their industry who happened to come from the military”. We have dedicated the last couple of podcasts to further explaining and developing this idea – listen to these episodes here and here (you can also find it on iTunes, Spotify and Pandora.)

In this post, I want to share with you an actual letter I received recently

from a Cameron-Brooks alumnus who launched his business career in late 2018. His experience is not uncharacteristic and exactly what we are referencing when we describe a “transition.” I hope his words give you encouragement.

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It has been quite some time since our last interaction back at the Career Conference and I hope all is well on your end.

Life has been good since my ETS from the Army and Conagra has provided me with quality work opportunities thus far and a great corporate culture.  I started working in Materials Cost Savings on our Productivity Team and, in just under a year, accepted a role as the Automation Subject Matter Expert for Supply Chain Finance.  I never imagined that I would be leading cross-functional teams to create bots and overhaul business processes, but it has been rewarding and enjoyable.

The impetus for writing this email is that I was approached two weeks ago by a senior director who was curious if I had interest in applying for a Manager role on her team.  I read the job description for the first time just days before my four successive interviews that spanned over 3.5 hours.  In my few preceding hours of available time outside of work, I marked up the job description, dug back into my old notes (particularly TAB 5.5), drafted out my questions, and prepared my closing statements.  The methodology snapped back in place just like a battle drill, I nailed the interviews (still fitting in the same suit I wore back at the conference), and today I accepted the promotion.

Thank you for the expert guidance, solid framework, and time investment that you and the Cameron Brooks Team provided back in late 2018.  I am confident that my success is heavily rooted in my command of the skills and techniques that I developed as a candidate.  I look forward to taking on the challenges of this new position and appreciate your role in setting conditions to allow for the opportunity.

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It’s an honor to witness our alumni move up in the business world and become a “business leader in the industry”. If you want to learn more about how we help officers reach their goals and dreams, please contact me at (210) 874-1519 or pete@cameron-brooks.com. You can also follow us on Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn.

Best,
Pete