I remember the first trip I made to the grocery store after I came back from Afghanistan.
I hadn’t made a list of things that I wanted and when I got to the cereal aisle I froze.
I was completely overwhelmed.
It seems like an easy decision, to choose a box of cereal. But not only could I not make up my mind, I couldn’t even process what I was looking at.
There were simply too many options.
Unfortunately, this is often how veterans feel when they approach their post-military job search.
There are simply too many options for them to consider and they quickly get what fighter pilots call “helmet fire”—the complete inability to process the number and variety of inputs coming at them.
In pilots, this can sometimes result in crashes or near crashes.
In military veterans about to transition, it often results in adopting a carpet-bombing approach to their post-military job search.
What is Carpet Bombing?
In World War II, carpet bombing, sometimes referred to as saturation bombing, was the process of dropping massive amounts of ammunition over a large area at once.
While it wasn’t intended to be indiscriminate, the bombs simply weren’t sophisticated enough to guarantee they would land on target.
The end result of this approach was a lot of wasted effort, high costs, and significant amounts of collateral damage.
Since WWII, the military has gotten smart (or, at least, smarter) about their weaponry.
During the Gulf War, defense leadership regularly bragged about “smart bombs.”
By the time I was in Saudi Arabia for the start of Operation IRAQI FREEDOM, we’d moved on to precision-guided munitions or PGMs.
The ultimate objective: get more bombs on their intended targets and minimize collateral damage.
Now, you might be thinking, that’s nice, but what does that have to do with finding a job when I leave the military?
What Does It Mean to Carpet Bomb Your Post-Military Job Search?
When service members approach their military-to-civilian transition, they often automatically resort to a carpet-bombing approach.
This can look like:
– Blasting out resumes to every company or job you can find that you “could” do
– Attempting to stack your resume with every certification you can find
– Only looking at the opportunities someone else places directly in front of you
– Walking around saying you just want to “help” people or that you’ll take “whatever” as long as it comes with a paycheck
– Complete paralysis
But taking this kind of approach to your post-military job search is equally as costly as the original carpet-bombing approach was in WWII.
Here are just a few things carpet bombing your post-military job search can cost you:
– Time you could be spending researching your ideal company
– Energy you waste on resources you don’t actually need
– The opportunity to make a good first impression
– And, often, the money you lose out on when you finally take whatever job is available just so you have a paycheck
Veterans could save themselves a lot of time and energy if they would take a page out of the military playbook and get precise about their job search strategy.
How Do I Apply Precision to My Job Search?
In order to introduce precision to your post-military job search, you have to do what so many veterans are reluctant to do: you have to limit your options.
You can’t be precise if you don’t have some guardrails in place to help narrow your focus and direct your energy.
When I coach veterans, I refer to this as building your Go/No Go list.
This process helps identify what you really want by eliminating some of the things you don’t.
Many transitioning veterans initially find this process a little scary.
They are reluctant to rule anything out due to fear that they are going to miss out on an opportunity.
But, the truth is, just like using precision-guided munitions increases the chances that the military is going to actually hit its intended target, limiting your options actually improves your chances of hitting your ideal target as well.
Here are a few advantages of applying precision to your post-military job search:
– You have more time to research specific industries, companies, or jobs and figure out the best way to land the job you actually want
– It makes it easier to identify where the gaps are in your resume and gives you time to fill them
– It makes it less likely you’re going to be one of the 44% of veterans who leave their first post-military job within 12 months
Fewer Options Really Is Better
Although it seems counterintuitive, reducing your options really can lead to better job search results.
Just like coming into that store after my deployment to Afghanistan with an ideal cereal in mind would have kept me from staring dumbly at the endless row of boxes.
Just like using precision-guided munitions helps the military improve the number of bombs that land on their intended target.
Adopting a more precise approach to your post-military job hunt can help you move past the overwhelm and begin narrowing down on your ideal target.
And, once you have that ideal target identified, you can begin developing a strategy to bring all your considerable resources to bear on hitting what you’re aiming at.
© 2020, Sarah Maples LLC. All rights reserved.
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