Everyone wants to find the perfect job; high school graduates, college graduates, MBAs, and especially veterans leaving active duty. So why do so many of us search, agonize, and pray for years for the perfect “post-military” job at the right company and then, like that, we are off to the next opportunity in a time period measured in months?

As a veteran who served for a decade and a half, I have observed hundreds of transitioning veterans whom all seem to experience a similar pain; a stark dichotomy between how eager they are for stability and how rarely they find it. Recent U.S. Chamber of Commerce data shows that veterans leaving active duty will change employers twice in the first three years out of uniform. Personally, having moved ten times in fifteen years for the Navy, the last thing I want to do is move two more times in less than a full “tour of duty.” So what’s the disconnect? With all the military headhunters, military job fairs, and military hiring initiatives, one could presume that veterans have more than enough resources and options from which to find the “perfect job.” And after that research, preparation and third party assistance, shouldn’t they be less likely to change so soon? Of those surveyed by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the underlying causes are always tied to compensation levels first with location preference a distant second.

Regarding the disharmony between veterans’ expectations on compensation and the reality of what is offered them, I offer this: I had a rude awakening when I realized that we just don’t pay as much in taxes while on active duty as our friends in the “real world.” Between BAH, BAS, and all the tax-free checks accumulated from 10 years of Middle Eastern conflict, military members “net” much more on average than our civilian counterparts “grossing” the same amount. When you combine this not so subtle line item with a move from Ft. Campbell, Kentucky to your “dream job” in Palo Alto, Austin, or Northern Virginia/DC, all of a sudden that salary doesn’t take you nearly as far. It’s not rocket science, but it still strikes so many of us square in the face, and frankly, it’s hard to swallow.

Nestled neatly under the same talking point, veterans need to realize that we were compensated for our unique skills (pilot, tank mechanic, ship driver, information warfare expert, special operator, et. al.), but when we go to work for Apple, Citibank, or Exxon, we don’t bring the same out-of-the-gate value in $$$ to those organizations, so we shouldn’t expect to see the same paychecks.

This isn’t fun to talk about, but doing so returns us to the issue we started with: veteran attrition. All veterans leave at some point, and we all need to think about these things. Therefore, my challenge is universal to officers and enlisted, retirees and those separating: don’t just look at the shiny numbers companies flash in front of you, but get a mentor, preferably in the general vicinity of where you want to end up, and ask them the hard salary questions. Use their network to create your own and then you can validate job offers that are based on bonus, commission or both. It’s a brave new world out there, and we have to be clear-eyed about how our experiences serving our country translate to the civilian world.  Having a mentor will provide a trustworthy foundation for when you finally make the leap!

Mentoring Resources:

American Corporate Partners Mentor Program http://acp-usa.org/Mentoring_Program

LinkedIn Veteran Mentor Group https://www.linkedin.com/groups/Veteran-Mentor-Network-4466143/about

US Chamber of Commerce eMentor Program https://ementorprogram.org/p/veteran/about

Warrior-Scholar Project http://warrior-scholar.org

Nick Breedlove is the co-founder of Tech Qualled: a boutique training and placement company dedicated to enabling transitioning veterans for success in tech sales. He has been a Naval Aviator for over fourteen years and is a graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy and Harvard University. For more on Tech Qualled, visit www.staging.techqualled.flywheelsites.com.

My military-to-civilian transition story was unlike any other. Okay, it was probably pretty run of the mill, all things considered. I had a college degree; I performed very well in all of my leadership roles; I even got some marketing/sales experience in my last military billet working as a recruiter. And yet, I struggled to find a path that fit with what I had in mind.

Military transitions are tough. Throughout the process, you cling to what is comfortable and you end up reaching out to others that are also “figuring it out”. You do the best you can. Running a veteran transition firm that focuses on training and education, I’m in constant contact with active duty veterans that are in exploration mode and going through a very similar set of motions. Since we focus on the tech sales space, we do not see many female veterans. I apologize upfront if that sounded blunt. The resounding thud of this statistic smacking us in the face every week forced us to start having internal, and then eventually external, conversations about this phenomenon.

Now this may vary from community to community within the military, but some of the best junior officers on my ship were women. Smart, charismatic, confident and not afraid of anyone or anything could all be used to describe them. They stood right next to me and took the same oath I did. So where were they now? And what was it about working in the fastest growing, most lucrative industry in the history of the world that was so repulsive to them?

Donning my market research hat, I decided to hold an ad hoc focus group at a local (Washington D.C.) women’s alumni event to find out what was going on. Here were the top 4 reasons why female veterans MAY not be thrilled to jump into the technology space:

#1   I’m under qualified.

Rebuttal: I get it. Sorting through all of the requirements listed under the “desired skills and experience” tab of a job description can be intimidating. But if there is one thing I’ve learned, it’s that everything is negotiable. Work experience can sometimes be negated with a master’s degree from a strong university. Low grades in college can be overcome with an unforgettably impressive interview. And so forth. But after speaking with this group of Harvard-educated young women, I found that not having the right “quals” almost always results in immediately moving on to the next opportunity.

This surprised me. So I asked my wife, who sheepishly admitted that she had similar tendencies. Shocked. Here is a breakdown of the requirements of my first job out of the Navy (which coincidentally was in tech sales):

• Two or more years of professional experience in an Accounting, Procurement, Supply Chain or Business Technology function – NOPE

• Previous experience with Cloud applications – NOPE

• Four-year bachelor’s degree with a concentration in Accounting, Business Management or Computer Science – SORT OF, ECONOMICS

• Previous work experience or internship in a sales, pre-sales or product management – NOPE

• Experience demonstrating ERP software (Oracle, SAP, Microsoft, NetSuite or Workday) – NOPE (NOT EVEN CLOSE)

So don’t shy away from jobs that are seemingly impossible, and don’t place too much emphasis on not having the right certifications. With a negative unemployment rate in the high tech industry, more and more technology executives are looking to veterans who offer durable skills and may be willing to overlook your lack of corporate professional experience for some kick-butt leadership experience. Go forth and do great things. Here are some of the other sentiments I gleaned from the focus group:

#2   I want to start a family.

#3   I just left a male-dominated industry (military), and I don’t want to jump right back into another one (high tech).

#4   Lack of S.T.E.M. training in school.

Our mission at Tech Qualled is to help veterans (both male and female) land rewarding roles in high tech, so please chime in on this matter if you have an opinion, an experience or any relevant data. The insight process never ends.

Chances are that if you’re reading this then you are somewhere between mildly and wildly interested in transitioning into a career in technology sales. For me, it was the combination of magic and money that attracted me to high tech sales. Allow me to clarify. I wanted to be on the cutting edge of technology and work somewhere cool and young. And I also wanted to make decent money; and by decent, I mean a lot.

If you aren’t convinced, here’s a quick story that may help you see it differently. You may have heard of The Internet of Things (IoT); a buzzword that simply describes a recent trend of connecting everyday objects to the Web such as watches, thermostats and even eye wear (see Google Glass). General Electric recently opened a new software division to get ahead of this digital and information renaissance and to centralize the technical programs for all 126 of its products, such as wind turbines. GE calls it the Industrial Internet; Cisco calls it the Internet of Everything; while other stalwarts simply refer to it as digital transformation. Regardless, more and more companies have begun to shift away from upselling more wind turbines and toward upselling web enabled sensors and data-driven cost savings. GE retrained its entire sales force to focus on long-term contracts and pay-for-performance based on IoT technology. And it feels like this is just the beginning.

But many veterans with exemplary service records and loads of leadership experience get turned away for lack of experience – despite having the total respect and empathy of the very hiring managers turning them away. They say, “we just can’t take a risk on someone who hasn’t carried a quota before,” or “we would have to train her and that takes too much time and money.” All totally legit excuses.

So what do you do if you are a transitioning veteran trying to break into tech sales? Here are a few tips from my personal experience:

Go Big

Sometimes being a little fish in a big pond is the best way to acquire the skills you’ll need in sales. Industry leaders have the infrastructure and resources to put all of their new hires through world-class sales training. Well, some programs are better than others, but the one I went through was amazing. We went through an intense 12-week training curriculum that covered white boarding techniques, software demonstrations and objection handling. We even had some fun with an improv troupe to teach us how to think on our feet. It certainly helped me become a better sales professional, but it cost my company a lot of money. This is a cost that most start-ups and smaller companies cannot afford. So you may find that going to one of the big dogs is your best (and only) option.

Get Smart

Training can sometimes mitigate that gaping lack of experience on your resume. If you aren’t comfortable preaching the value of automation management or fog computing (that’s right, I said fog, not cloud), don’t be alarmed. There are plenty of resources out there to get some basic training – for free. The online learning platform, edX, allows any student anywhere to take online courses from 74 of the best colleges in the world.

For example, Professor Phil Laplante from Penn State University teaches Introduction to Cloud Computing that covers the basic concepts of one of the hottest and rapidly growing technologies. This would be the first class I’d take if I had to do it all over again. For more information on this edX course, visit http://bit.ly/1CxVVtD.

Network

Networking is a big part of breaking into a new role or industry. Here are a few resources for meeting like-minded professionals:

1. Cisco Networking Academy (http://bit.ly/1ShjAzW)
2. Google Veteran Resources (http://bit.ly/1TutBwn)
3. Technology Sales Professionals LinkedIn Group: (http://linkd.in/1HoUkoK)

If you are a veteran who has overcome the stigma that a career in sales is cheap, dirty and beneath you, then please skip to the next paragraph. If you still have doubts, listen up. Your life probably looks a lot different than it did when you raised your right hand many years ago. The world looks different, too, thanks to you and others like you. But now you are looking for a change. Maybe you’ve decided that you want greater schedule control or a role that puts you in daily contact with business and government leaders that are transforming the world. Maybe it’s salary related, or maybe you just want a new challenge. Your reasons are your own. Working in fast growing industries, such as cloud technology or biotech, can be exciting and taking a role in sales gives you a platform to deliver real solutions and help companies grow. Certain industries continue to be white hot and offer highly lucrative and merit-based compensation to successful sales people (just a fancy way of saying you can make a lot of dough if you’re good). Furthermore, as a sales leader you are the quarterback. You coordinate multimillion dollar deals, lead strategy sessions with executives and have a seat at the table where decisions are made. For those that seek a challenge, read on.

If you are interested in entering the field of B2B sales or are looking to improve your skills, this article outlines some key insights from the Challenger Selling Model and how a new era of sales strategy may be on the horizon. Moreover, you can be confident that your time in the military has been a perfect primer to acquire key skills and experiences to complement the Challenger Selling Model.

Perhaps you’ve heard the phrase, “It’s all about how you sell, not what you sell.” The Challenger Selling Model parallels a trend that sees sales reps moving away from selling products and toward selling solutions. Rather than reacting to purchase orders, they take up positions as trusted advisers. Rather than having strong product knowledge, they work hard to assert themselves as high-level strategic visionaries. The best sales reps are the ones that will not rest until the customer is satisfied – until they have it all.

“You don’t want most of it, you want all of it. And I won’t stop until you get all of it”.

-Don Draper on Business

But what makes them the best? Traditionally, self-selected sales professionals have above average interpersonal skills and are efficient at building relationships with clients. They have a strong work ethic and are reactive to the needs and problems of their customers. But what separates top performers from the average performers? The research upon which the Challenger Selling Model (from the Corporate Executive Board) is founded finds that a very specific bundle of traits are responsible for a massive performance gap in sales organizations. This grouping of traits is dominant in the star performers called Challengers.

A Challenger can very simply be defined as a sales leader that can teach, tailor and take control while maintaining a healthy level of constructive tension. Surprised? So were top sales executives when they analyzed the research. This radical departure from how sales executives have traditionally approached driving sales is creating a disruptive innovation, and an opportunity for transitioning veterans, in the field of sales. I’ll spend the remainder of the article diving deeper into a few of these traits and how military veterans fall naturally into them.

Teach

Challengers bring with them unique perspectives on a customer’s business. They have the confidence and forehandedness to engage customers in pursuit of the best way forward. They serve as advisers and have the ability to teach for differentiation throughout the sales process. Often, the greatest problem a customer has is not knowing what their problem is, which is why so much time is spent doing discovery work. Challengers acknowledge this and take a different approach by teaching customers what they are doing wrong and how they can fix it. Conversely, military veterans, enlisted and officers alike, are great team players who thrive (and survive) based on their ability to communicate quickly and efficiently. Constant debriefing and prebriefing sessions give veterans valuable collaboration and communication skills that translate to Corporate America well. Every servicemember is taught to be both a teacher and a student. Additionally, many veterans come off of active duty with experience leading students or recruits as instructors.

Take Control

Challengers are superior at beating a winning battle rhythm into sales cycles by focusing on what’s ahead. They are confident in the value they are delivering and are not afraid to talk openly about pricing. Challengers are also experts at creating momentum and avoiding the dreaded “no-decision”. You may be surprised to hear that many customers simply don’t know how to buy and what they really need is some good old-fashioned leadership. This is where veterans can really shine. They have led and been led under circumstances the average non-veteran cannot imagine. They’ve experienced good and bad leaders and took mental notes of what was effective and what wasn’t. In the process, they’ve developed a leadership profile. All veterans bring some level of tried-and-true leadership to the table. Furthermore, transitioning veterans know that this will be their primary strength and will therefore be more likely to flex it.

For sales organizations, if you aren’t hiring Challenger reps, chances are you will be scratching your head over why you keep coming up short as the complexity of your deals increases. Moreover, if you have found that Challengers fit nicely into your organization, you may want to look to the veteran community for your next star sales performer.

More information on the Challenger Sales Model can be found by visiting www.executiveboard.com.

Looking for meaningful jobs? I decided to write this article to illuminate some alarming employment trends among transitioning veterans:  while an incredible amount of resources are dedicated to helping veterans transition to Corporate America after they serve, most of it is wasted on inefficient and misguided activities.

Much of the gloomy commentary regarding the status of veterans is inaccurate. Veterans boast lower poverty and suicide rates, higher on average earning potential and better overall physical health than their non-veteran counterparts. In short, they are well positioned to succeed. And then there are those who suffer permanent wounds of war, both visible and invisible, that are certainly deserving of help. But for those veterans who are able and ready for the next chapter, taking is not in their DNA. They need to contribute; to use their hands and minds; to have purpose.

But what is the best way of doing this? How do we help veterans make the switch? Thomas Meyer, a leader at the Philanthropy Roundtable, describes how some organizations are providing overly generous and misguided support which is resulting in further disabling of veterans; a distinction he calls deconstructive versus constructive aid. Rather, enabling veterans to pursue rewarding and enriching careers mimics the adage “to teach a man to fish.” This is a step toward self-sufficiency, and this is where we must focus.

Leaving the military can leave a massive void in the life of a veteran; no more advancement tests, career pipelines or community managers telling you what to do and where to go. You have skills (more than you think) but don’t know how they translate. And with no limitations, decision paralysis sets in with what to do with your life.

Successful veteran placement organizations are focused on supporting veterans in the following core areas:

Training Veterans

For many veterans, the time and money to complete required training can often slow the transition process. Again, we all know that veterans leave the military with great experience but are not confident in how it translates. Taking a certification course or going back to college can often mitigate the lack of civilian experience. Cisco’s IT Training and Certification Program has helped nearly 400 veterans match their military experience and intended civilian function with a legitimate certification such as the Certified Network Associate (CNA) and Project Management Professional (PMP). Nearly 60% stated that their new certification status helped them land their first job out of the military.

Source: www.csr.cisco.com

Job Placement

A number of placement firms and organizations are leading incredible efforts to get veterans in front of and hired by employers. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s Hiring Our Heroes initiative is responsible for more than 27,000 jobs obtained by veterans and their spouses at their career fairs around the country. Additionally, their commitment to promoting and securing corporate partnerships has resulted in 707,000 committed jobs by over 2,000 employers. Of those, 500,000 have been filled to date. It is hard to argue against their strategic vision of grassroots engagement and public-private partnerships.

Source:

Mentoring for Success

Organizations such as American Corporate Partners are leading the charge to provide innovative mentoring methods to help veterans successfully transition. They focus on long-term professional development through one-on-one mentoring, career counseling and networking. They have even gone as far as to build out a professional networking tool called ACP AdvisorNet (think LinkedIn for veterans) that connects recently transitioned veterans with established professionals that want to give back.

Source: www.acp-usa.org