Some civilian job offers give veterans and military spouses the creeps. You get strange offers for a job you are not at all qualified to do for a high salary -- and you don’t even have to interview. You get a message that if you pay an initial equipment fee, the job is yours.
These jobs sound so wrong because they are so wrong. Trust your gut.
But some civilian job offers sound wrong to veterans, because we are unfamiliar with the way the world does business. As the transition master coach for Military.com’s Veteran Employment Project, I can tell you that some odd-sounding civilian opportunities may be the perfect entry into a great company.
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I can’t judge every single opportunity without knowing the details, but I thought you job seekers might like to hear about a few of the unfamiliar sounding opportunities companies may use to bring in a new veteran or military spouse employee.
The IC (Independent Contractor)
This is the most common wrong-sounding opportunity I hear from veterans, especially when it comes to the talent hire. As a new veteran, you have a ton of enviable skills, including deep leadership experience. This is why the employer wants to hire you. However, you understandably don’t know anything about profit and loss. You don’t know anything about their particular products, so they don’t see you as ready to manage a team -- yet.
That is why they may make you an offer to come aboard as an IC (independent contractor). It may sound like you will be in a little box working all alone, but that is usually not what happens. In defense and the technology world, the IC is a normal position where you would be assigned to a team. It can be a temporary assignment, or it can last for years. It mostly means you aren’t managing anyone else.
Expect that this offer will sound really vague. They may not have worked out who you will be reporting to or exactly what you will be doing. Reach out to another veteran who works at the company and ask a few questions before you take the leap.
The 6-Month Gig
I got a message from a veteran asking about an offer he had from a defense contractor he admired. The offer was located in the part of Florida where he wanted to live. The only problem was that the job was a six-month gig. There was a vague assurance that they would find something else for him to do when the contract was up, but there were no promises.
No promises. That sounded risky to this job seeker. As a rule, military members in transition long for safety, security and the opportunity to shine in their first civilian job, but there is risk. The vast majority of the time, recruiters and hiring managers will tell you what they know, yet there is sometimes a bad actor at play in the recruiter’s office.
Even if everyone means well, people who get hired for full-time, the-rest-of-your-life employment sometimes experience sudden unwarranted job loss. Think of all those federal workers who just lost their super-secure jobs and all those civilians who lost their jobs recently due to corporate cost-cutting measures. Painful.
Given reality, I would judge this kind of offer based on how much I wanted to work for that company. These temporary gigs often are a tryout where you can prove that you are a good fit. A time-limited job may be a good way to get into a place, especially if you already live there or that is the place you want to end up.
An Invitation to Shadow
Among senior officers in transition, I have heard of offers for the job seeker to come in and “shadow” in different areas of the company.
“That sounds weird to me,” one O-6 told me when he was going through transition. “Like they want me to look around the organization and, what? Pick my own boss?”
Essentially, yes. This is what sometimes happens with a Defense Department SkillBridge internship, especially in a midsize company. The invitation to shadow means the company sees your potential but is not sure where you fit into their organization.
By offering you an invitation to shadow, both parties get to see what people are like day to day. It gives everyone so much more opportunity than a 20-minute interview. This particular O-6 ended up getting really intrigued by a product the company was working on. When the team leader turned out to be an inspiring fellow veteran, he picked that team and never looked back.
The Consulting Opportunity
Certain people in the military -- officer and enlisted -- have specialized skills and experience that are of value to the outside world. After their active-duty service has ended, these people have an opportunity to do some consulting. How do you know you are in this special group? You will start hearing the magic words: Do you have your LLC set up?
Sometimes this consulting offer is just that -- a one-time consulting gig. Other times, it is again a chance for a company to work with you closely without them making a risky investment too soon. It is also an opportunity for you to look around deeply instead of settling on a company too soon.
A consulting offer can also indicate that there is not currently a job for you with that company, but they like you and see your potential. It can mean a certain executive is planning to retire in the near future, but they do not have a date set. Flexibility and exposure are key benefits here.
Even though military job seekers long for security, staying loose at the first set of offers can allow you more time to learn about the company, the work and what you truly want.
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