Feb 26, 2014

Making the Transition by Jeff Gilmore

Making the transition from active duty to the civilian world is a challenging task for many veterans. Active duty milita...

Making the transition from active duty to the civilian world is a challenging task for many veterans. Active duty military members have invested their livelihood in service to our nation. They spend years honing specialized skills that directly contribute to our nation’s defense. When the time comes to transition to civilian life, the road ahead can seem very challenging and foreign. Skillsets mastered while serving can sometimes seem difficult to translate to a civilian career. Federal legislation has led to mandatory programs like the Transition Assistance Program (TAP) that has helped to ease troops’ transition back into civilian life. But as with any large program, TAP aims to be the most efficient at helping the largest amount of people at one time. On paper, the TAP program looks great with amazing statistics but doesn’t always have the best resources to help certain veterans who have an interest in specialized fields like entrepreneurship or technology. The COMMIT Foundation, a relatively new non-profit upstart, is specifically focused on providing individualized assistance to highly motivated veterans so that they can realize their full potential in a second career in fields like technology, non-profits and entrepreneurship. I first learned about the COMMIT Foundation in a late night e-mail forwarded by a friend last July. The e-mail seemed promising and timely as I had just learned a few weeks earlier that my transition from the active duty Air Force to the reserves was approved. For years, I had dreamed of transitioning to Silicon Valley and using my skills and creativity to become part of a game changing company. The e-mail stated that the COMMIT Foundation was hosting a weekend event for 12 veterans who were interested in transitioning to a career in technology. They would pair 12 selected veterans with 12 industry professionals for a weekend to “set career goals and plan for a successful transition.” Having never heard of the COMMIT Foundation before, I’ll admit that I was a little skeptical of the value of the program as I filled out their extensive application. Nonetheless, I completed the required essays and hoped for the best. A few weeks later, I received the good news that I was selected for the mentorship weekend. My initial skepticism melted away as soon as I realized that I was about to embark on a program that would exceed even my most hopeful expectations. In one of the initial pre-consultations with Anne Meree, COMMIT’s Executive Director, she mentioned that this program was not just another transition assistance program on steroids. She couldn’t have been more correct. The entire event was first class. The treatment by the organization was amazing. I was greeted at the San Francisco airport and taken to a hotel in the heart of Silicon Valley. It was the same hotel where many senior tech executives commonly met for dinner and drink to informally seal business deals in its bar and restaurant. As amazing as the arrival was, I was most impressed by the events and the people who were participating. Our mentorship team consisted of industry executives from a variety of companies—industry juggernauts who were CEOs, vice presidents, partners at large venture capitol firms and even the former president of Microsoft’s Windows division. The participating veterans were also accomplished military members--both enlisted and officers. The roster included a Navy SEAL, a nuclear submariner, pilots, intelligence officers and even a recently retired Coast Guard officer who served as Chief of Operations for the entire Pacific Ocean! I was humbled to be in the presence of such accomplished veterans and executives. During the weekend, we participated in panel discussions that covered a variety of topics. We discussed the current state of the tech industry in great detail. We interacted with other military veterans who had previously been in our shoes. They shared their stories of how they successfully transitioned into successful careers by using many of the leadership skills that they had honed while on active duty. We also examined the common fears and confidence gap that almost every transitioning veteran faces when trying to break into a new industry. The veterans who had already successfully transitioned discussed strategies to overcome the gaps in information, confidence and even one’s imagination in dreaming of the possibilities. By far, the best part though was interacting with the mentors, both in small groups and then as a 1 on 1 mentorship session with a mentor that best matched our career ambitions. My mentor was a former Marine F-18 pilot who successfully transitioned to a second career in Silicon Valley. Her experience has spanned the spectrum from larger companies to successful startups and now as a senior manager at Google. Based on her tremendous insight, we plotted my specific transition strategy goals for both the next 6 months and beyond. We also examined ways to explain my accomplishments on transformative technical projects within the military to a civilian audience that might not initially understand the significance of them. As amazing as the mentorship weekend was, I was most impressed by the personal attention and commitment that the COMMIT Foundation continues to provide after the event. In the eyes of the foundation, I am not just a number that has completed the program. They aren’t interested in padding their statistics to ‘prove’ that they help more veterans than other veterans assistance organizations. Their philosophy of ‘quality over quantity’ was evident in the personal attention they gave each one of the veterans. Even after the conference, they have continued to provide networking opportunities and remain committed to my personal transition into the tech world. Through this conference I have been exposed to an entire network of tech industry professionals who continue to provide mentorship and guidance through my transition process. While I have always had a passion for technology and project management, I wasn’t exactly sure how I would be able to get that first ‘break’ to prove myself as an asset to a company before this conference. I am now confident that the connections and mentorship given by the COMMIT Foundation will help me to achieve my dream as a professional in the tech industry.