Turning Your Hobbies Into A Career
A new week to accomplish a big task!
A quick request from me. We are closing in on two months of the podcast being live which is a critical window for hosts like Apple Podcasts and Spotify when it comes to discoverability. It would help out a ton if you’d leave us a rating on whatever app you listen to us on. If you feel inclined to rate on both well then tell me you did and let me buy you lunch.
IT DOESN’T EVEN HAVE TO BE A GOOD RATING, JUST A RATING IS FANTASTIC. This will help make sure we get our message out to more people.
For our non tech inclined readers (I’m one of those, it took me like 5 minutes to find these), here are some screenshots of where the ratings on Apple and Spotify are located.
Apple, from the main podcast page, scroll all the way down and you’ll find this.
Spotify just introduced ratings for podcasts. Can be found on the home page just under the follow button (which you should have already hit).
Podcast Episode 3 - Austin Lieberman
High Impact Segment 47:20 - 55:20
Austin dropped some of the most practical transition advice we’ve heard in any of our episodes so far.
One of the hardest part about transitioning out of the military is the whole thing where you have to work (crazy right?). While you’re in, you’re always told how marketable you will be when you get out because of your experience. That’s not always the case.
“You’ve got to make your job in the military fit what you want to do in the civilian world.”
There are so many transition services that help you write a resume when you’re getting out. They’re all garbage. They do a great job of making your resume look presentable by putting it in the proper format, but they all still list your military job title.
Aviation Electronics Technician, my job title in the Navy, means nothing to anyone who hasn’t worked in that field. Saying I troubleshot and repaired Electro Optical Sensor Units (an actual thing) on CASS and with oscilloscopes and multimeters also doesn’t mean jack.
Austin talked about how he was a liaison between the Air Force and different entities in the Middle East. His job was to ensure we integrated our systems into what they were using. Okay what’s a job title that does that? Consultants. You have to find civilian job titles for high level description of what you did.
General corporate entities have a structure that follows something similar to this:
Employee/Entry Level > Supervisor > Manager > Director > Exec or VP
This can vary and some industries have more specific terms within each, but the goal is to place yourself on that spectrum based on past duties.
https://www.ongig.com/job-titles#/ is a great resource to break down different job titles by industry.
“Yeah what’s written on your resume matters, but what mattered just as much or more was my ability to reach out to people and network or somebody helping me out that was a veteran that was in one of these places and got me an interview”.
You’ve heard the phrase, “it’s not what you know, it’s who you know”. Couldn’t be more true. Network isn’t a substitute for working hard, not by any means. The important element is that the network provides a further starting place from which to work hard.
The cool thing about having the military on your resume is it’s an instant conversation opener with anyone. Once you’ve identified the industry or place you’d like to work, go to a networking site like LinkedIn or Twitter and just search veteran. Veterans are typically very proud of their service and this is almost always included in people’s bios.
“Hey there, my name is Brock, a fellow Navy veteran same as yourself. I just got out of the service (insert whatever line here) and I’m looking to get a job at this company (job in this industry, etc). I’ve got my resume ready, would you mind spending 15 minutes on a call telling me what you do so I can tailor my resume for the position?”
Literally foolproof. You’re playing off of a few key points.
Identify your common ground right off the bat - build trust
Explain where you’re at - context/situation
Explain what you want and how they can help you - intent
People love talking about themselves and this kind of pitch is effective because it’s not asking for a hookup. You’re asking to learn and it shows your willingness to work. Worst case scenario, they say no - who cares. Best case they do hook you up and get you a referral.
The veteran community that you’re a part of is a preexisting resource waiting to be used. Take advantage of it.
A Few Free Resources
Austin mentioned and a couple others where training is offered specifically for veterans.
Syracuse University - ton of trainings and certs
Cybersecurity Palo Alto Networks
There’s obviously a million more of these. If you have one that comes to mind, send it to me and maybe I’ll compile a running resource list like this!
This Week on the Podcast
This Wednesday, 1.19, we’ll be dropping an episode with Nate Lenahan. Tim and I spoke with Nate about how he’s developed a transparency focused leadership style and the process of buying and selling existing small and medium sized businesses. Nate recently purchased a company in the HVAC space and he walks us through that process and how he plans to scale it and enter new verticals with some exciting technology.
Nate also recounts the story of how he lost his life savings and went 150k in debt buying a small business that didn’t work out as planned.
Food For Thought
I was fortunate this last weekend to attend a class entitled ‘Intro to Memoir’ put on by Dead Reckoning Collective or DRC. My interest in writing and putting my story down on paper led me to take the class to learn some of the technicals of how to get started in memoir.
What makes memoir unique from say an autobiography is that memoir is about a specific personal experience or experiences rather than a lifetime of events. These experiences are shaped and framed with a redeeming lesson or theme.
After completing a somber writing exercise, I shared with the class that the more I wrote, the less things seem to make sense and perhaps I’m not at a point in my life to see the redeeming lesson yet. I’ve been thinking about what was said to me since Saturday.
Tyler Carroll, the cofounder of DRC, said:
“You don’t have the answer until you start looking for it.”
DRC is a publishing company that publishes veteran works exclusively. Tim and I had the chance to interview Keith and Tyler, founders, and they’ll be featured on an upcoming episode. Can check out what they’re doing at https://deadreckoningco.com/.
Don’t take no for an answer.
-SC