I read somewhere that if you apply for a job that you know you would be great at, you are not pushing yourself hard enough. Most, if not all, veterans have an intrinsic desire to drive themselves to their limit. Whether or not you went to a service academy, commissioned through an ROTC program or enlisted to serve your country, you have demonstrated that you can go above and beyond the call of duty. However, when we make the choice to leave the service, there are limited veteran recruiting options for potential career paths that will satisfy this internal desire to push boundaries.

Making the decision to leave the service is not an easy one, but once your mind is made up, you have to figure out what you want to do. Do you want to go to graduate school? Do you want to work with a recruiting firm and most likely become a project manager? Do you want to continue in the field in which you worked in the military? I thought about all of these options, spoke with recruiters for various programs, and was constantly reassured that as long as I was super flexible about location and willing to take a pay cut, that I would most certainly get a job. But is that what I really wanted? Wake up, go to work, pay bills, come home, wash, rinse, and repeat? No!

I wanted a high-powered career, where I was challenged every day. As a female Army officer, I spent a lot of time being the only female leader, the only female in a course and even the only woman in the room. But I, along with many of my female counterparts, enjoy challenging the status quo. So why not continue to do so? Despite the technology industry being a male-dominated space, women, especially Army-strong women, have proven time and again that they can excel in tech. Also more than anything, I wanted a true meritocracy. These two desires are what led me to pursue a career in high-tech sales.

While most veterans have the skills necessary to be successful in sales, we lack the technical knowledge to hold our own in the tech world. And until recently there was no way to directly bridge that gap. Thankfully, the founders of Tech Qualled reached out to me and shared their vision of training and placing veterans into rewarding careers in high tech. After my first phone call with co-founder Justin Ossola, I never looked back! I recently completed the Launchpad Academy, have had several rounds of interviews with amazing companies, and can’t wait to get started in my new career.

So if any of this resonates with you, I challenge you to not drop your rucksack just yet. There are still exciting challenges to take on and walls to tear down. For more information on the Tech Qualled program, visit www.staging.techqualled.flywheelsites.com. Are you ready to take the next step towards a rewarding career? Apply to the program here.