Feb
27, 2014
COMMIT to High Quality Interaction by Vivek Ahuja
A few months ago, a college classmate of mine shared a link with me on LinkedIn. Little did I know that link ultimately led to what has easily been the most powerful professional experience I’ve had since leaving the U. S. Navy’s submarine force in July of this year. That’s saying a lot when you consider that I am a full-time MBA student at a respected business school, where I am surrounded with some very successful and well-connected teammates, professors, and leaders.
The professional experience that I’m alluding to was a workshop hosted by The COMMIT Foundation, a non-profit organization committed to “Small Touch and High Impact” events that assist military veterans in transitioning to the civilian world. How do they do it? By facilitating small workshops where military vets are paired up with proven business leaders. And why is this so powerful? Because these workshops are the polar opposite of most of the useless crap the D.O.D. forced me to sit (or sleep) through in TAP (Transition Assistance Program). The format of COMMIT workshops includes a personally assigned mentor for each participant, small group breakout sessions and panels, and a bit of actual preparation and career focus required on the part of each participant (my workshop was called “Veterans in the Valley”, designed for Vets interested in transitioning to the world of technology). Most of all, everyone at this workshop was excited, eager to learn, and had demonstrated their enthusiasm via the application process. The mix of the 12 transitioning veterans included some senior military officers (including a Coast Guard Captain, a SEAL Commander, and a handful of fighter pilots), a few Junior Officers (including a few that had spent time working with three letter government agencies), and a few with enlisted experience. I learned as much from that group of 12 as I did from the 12 mentors, which included partners from Andreessen Horowitz (who physically hosted the workshop with COMMIT), established leaders from some of Silicon Valley’s best large tech companies (Google, Yahoo, eBay), and leaders from some great startups.
I could probably write a short book about everything I learned in the workshop, but I’ll try to distill it down to my biggest insights when I look back at the weekend.
As a military veteran, you will have some sort of confidence gap in believing that your skills will transition well to the civilian world, and a lack of a “networking” culture makes this problem worse. This confidence gap is hard to overcome for most veterans, because it’s just not in our DNA to deliberately seek professional mentors. If you want to go work in tech (or finance, or retail, or whatever), the best way to learn about the industry is by actually speaking with people with expertise in that field. As a submarine officer, I did this all the time within my own unit, so it’s not a completely foreign concept. Unfortunately in the military, it’s pretty rare (and sometimes frowned upon) to actually “network” for jobs, so it’s not a skill that veterans as a whole are very good at. Not once during my time as a junior officer did I actively seek to have coffee or lunch with a more senior officer outside of my own unit, and I can’t say that I know many other junior officers that did, either.The workshop was incredible in that I felt plugged into the Silicon Valley ecosystem in such a short amount of time. Yes, I am still doing the typical business school type of networking: attend events and information sessions, send e-mails, cold call people, set up lunches and coffees, etc. But speaking, eating, and just being part of the COMMIT workshop facilitated HIGH QUALITY interaction with the other veterans and mentors. Since the workshop, I have sought advice and met with several of the mentors, and I would feel comfortable reaching out to any of the other mentors or veterans. This human connection is in itself, priceless.In my opinion, the reason that military veterans are having trouble getting employment in the civilian world can be distilled to one sentence: They do not get the opportunity to have high quality professional interactions with professionals outside the military until it is too late. When you leave the military, there are a few typical options. Going back to school is a great way to bridge that gap and build relevant skills, but can also be very expensive and does not make sense for everyone. Placement Agencies (Lucas Group, Bradley Morris) will help you get a job via a hiring conference, but they are in the business of job placement, not career development. Going to a veterans hiring conference is going to result in you dropping off a bunch of resumes, waiting in lines to talk to people, and will not facilitate high quality interactions unless you aggressively seek them out (which again, can be awkward for a military veteran, because it’s just not a natural part of our professional repertoire just yet). The Department of Defense’s TAP is literally a caricature of what happens when a government agency is given a bunch of money to spend without any idea of how to spent it efficiently— most of the sailors in my TAP workshop (myself included) literally just sat there and read magazines/newspapers/smartphones instead of listening to the actual presentations. There’s no such thing as an “infrastructure” for transitioning military veterans, despite any attempts to create one. It’s comforting for veterans to think that some sort of “system” is going to help them when they leave the service, but such a thing absolutely does not exist. However, there are some really great people willing to help veterans out in that scary civilian world. Part of the journey to success includes seeking those real human interactions.I have sought other veterans for advice or mentorship, and not all of them have been willing to help me out. I’m not going to fall in that category. If a veteran calls or e-mails me seeking professional assistance or advice, I can say with certainty that I am going to help him or her in some way, shape, or fashion (or link them up with somebody that can). I want to be able to say that for my entire professional career. A lot of people have causes/non-profits that they are passionate about. I’ve always been pretty agnostic when it comes to that kind of stuff. But I guess I’m not agnostic about it anymore! Helping veterans transition is a cause I am willing to support with my physical, emotional, and financial capital.A large percentage of the American population does not have the opportunity to work with or see veterans, so there’s a knowledge gap on the challenges that exist for our veterans to help them transition out of the military. There are a lot of people that are appalled at veteran unemployment rates and are willing to help, but sharing a story on your social media platform of choice seems a bit passive. Writing a congressman about how bad TAP is, or making yourself available via a mentoring organization is better.
If you are a military veteran or looking to leave the military soon, you should seek and apply for a COMMIT workshop or seek some other forum for you to have high quality interactions with professionals in the field you’re interested in. You owe it to yourself to do more than attend TAP and a bunch of hiring conferences. I don’t care if you want to go work in Silicon Valley, weld in a shipyard, be a Wall Street Banker, sell real estate, or go get an MBA. You’re looking at a low probability of success if you aren’t trying to meet or talk to people well in advance of your transition.
If you’re interested in supporting a well-managed and well-connected organization that fundamentally cares about veteran transitions and won’t waste your money, you should Google “COMMIT foundation” to learn more, share this link with veterans that you know, and check out COMMIT on Fundly.
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