Tag Archives: Veteran

Innovation in education for veterans: USC’s MBV program

Posted by Mike Grice on

As the war in Afghanistan comes to a close it signals the end to one of the longest periods of protracted warfare in American history.  For well over a decade our nation’s young men and women volunteered to serve in time of war, and over two million of them have seen firsthand the face of conflict.

They have learned things that are not taught in any school and gained experiences that could not be garnered in a lifetime spent following a different path.  These veterans, some still in uniform and many more who have already left the service, have tremendous yet unrealized value for the corporate sector.  They are leaders who have matured in austere and often dangerous circumstances as well as being highly trained in their martial specialties.

Despite their experience, veterans have difficulty transitioning from the military to the corporate sector.  Many are daunted because they feel that they must start all over again.  There are many opportunities for them to go back to school, but it can be frustrating for vets because they feel that their experiences are not valued and the time that they spent serving our country was wasted.

But things are changing.

Leading the charge is the University of Southern California’s Marshall School of Business.  The school recognizes that military professionals have learned so much in their service that it makes sense to not just value such lessons but to also leverage them in an educational context.  In concert with the California Department of Veterans Affairs, alumni, and veterans, USC has developed the Master of Business for Veterans (MBV) degree program.

The MBV is specifically designed to build upon the experience that veterans have gained in their military careers by adding coursework in areas such as finance, accounting, statistics, strategy, marketing, entrepreneurship, business leadership and communication and others that are consistent with traditional MBA programs.    Class sessions meet Fridays and Saturdays over two semesters with minimal interruption to the careers of working professionals. The MBV degree program is constructed of lectures, projects and course work that are delivered via distant learning, with significant projects and course work being primarily completed during the 16 residential sessions.

It is a graduate level program, and as with all programs at that level there are prerequisites for enrollment.  In a nutshell, they are a minimum 3 – 5 years of active and honorable service in the military, a bachelor’s or equivalent degree, two letters of recommendation, and they must complete and submit two essays for the review of the matriculation panel.  Standardized test scores such as the GMAT or GRE are not required, but a good set of scores would certainly help.

The program is an innovative response to the growth in active duty military and veteran communities.  Not simply a mashup of the traditional MBA curriculum, the program is an integrated educational experience that focuses tightly in leveraging the skills of military people to ensure its success.  Class cohorts are small, in the 20 – 40 student range, and the entire class will consist of those who meet the military service requirements.  Like the military, it is both demanding and fast paced.  The course is completed in half the time of a normal resident MBA program, with classes starting in the fall of the academic year and graduation coming the following summer.

Active duty and veterans can take advantage of the Post 9/11 GI Bill to help defray the cost.  Students will learn from world class professors in a world class educational environment, and in the end both the veterans and the corporate sector will benefit from USC’s leadership in educational innovation.

James Ellis, the dean of the USC Marshall School of Business, says it best,   “This is an important program for Marshall, serving a population that has provided outstanding service to our country while creating valuable leaders and managers for the corporate community.”  My hope is that Dean Ellis’s vision spurs other top-notch schools to create programs like the MBV for graduate, undergraduate, and continuing education.

For more information about the program and the admissions process, please go http://www.marshall.usc.edu/mbv or contact the program office at mbv@marshall.usc.edu or 213.740.8990.

Jennifer’s VA story

Posted by Mike Grice on

As you are aware from previous posts, I recently received my initial disability claims information from the VA.  I am still trying to figure it all out.  I am not alone, as I have learned.  Several people have posted comments about their experiences, and I am reposting their comments here because they are very illuminating!

Here are a couple of comments from Jennifer.  She presents a case study in frustration:

Thank you for posting your experience with the VA Claims process. I am currently receiving VA disability at 10% (migraines), but am rated at 0% for both of my shoulders and back (which is simply VA’s acknowledgement that I suffered injuries in these areas while on active duty). Over the past 10 years (ETS 2002), all of the areas in which I was rated have progressively gotten worse. On 2/11/ 2011, I filed a claim with the VA for a disability rating increase. My claim included a request for increase for migraines, both shoulders, and my back. My case for increase is well documented by my family practice doctor and two different neurologists (ten years of documentation indicating my symptoms have gotten progressively worse). My claim went from the gathering evidence phase to the review of evidence phase in July, 2011; however, it only stayed in this phase for about a week before my file was sent back to the gathering evidence phase. During the VSO’s review, they identified several (8) secondary conditions to my existing claim based on the review of my file. When I noticed my status had changed (negatively), I contacted the VA 1-800-# and was told I needed to provide evidence on the secondary conditions the VA had identified. I thought this request was ridiculous, since the VSO had already identified these conditions based on medical evidence I had already submitted; however, I complied with their request and resent in my medical evidence, along with my service records, and made the case to tie the secondary conditions to the service connected disabilities. In August of 2011, the medical records in my c-file were mysteriously misplaced, and I was asked to resubmit my medical records once again. Again, I complied with the VA’s request and immediately faxed the documentation to the Roanoke Regional Office where my claim resided. I waited several months, periodically checking the status of my claim on the e-benefits web site; however, there was no change in my claim’s status. There was an estimated completion date listed on the top of my claim (12/13/ 2011). This date came with no progress or change in my status; therefore, I contacted the VA 1-800-# again requesting a status of my claim. The VA representative sounded very irritated I had called, and gave me a scripted response- something to the tune of: the length of time it takes to process your claim depends of the complexity of your claim and the number of disabilities needing review- I asked them if they needed anything additional from me, and was told no. Once again, I waited patiently for my status to change- no luck! I contacted the VA in March of 2012 and was informed I needed to send in additional documentation stating I had no other medical evidence or supporting documentation to submit. As instructed, I faxed in the document. My claim skipped the reviewing evidence phase in e-benefits and is now in the preparation for decision phase(as of 9/24/2012- 19 months after the initial submission of my claim). Today is 9/26/2012, and I am still waiting for a decision from the VA. I wanted to do cartwheels when I saw my claim move into the preparation for a decision phase (however, my shoulders and back disabled my excitement (grins)).

I am posting my experience because wanted to share my story and let my fellow veterans know just how slow the process really is. I did have an interesting conversation with one of the 1-800-# representatives that I find worthy of repeating:

He told me he was a disabled veteran as well, and said his own experience with the VA claims process was exhausting (no one gets special treatment- not even the veterans who work for VA). He then gave me advice that I wish I had been given at the onset of my claim. He told me that every time I send in a document, my file is sent back to the gathering evidence phase. When I was sending in my medical documentation, I faxed the documentation in as I received it. Hence,VA’s rationale for my claim staying in the gathering evidence phase for so long. He advised me to submit all of my documentation at one-time, if possible, and to be sure my clam was well documented. He said this is important to ensure the VSO did not have to kick the claim back for questions or additional documentation. I then asked the VA representative another question in which I thought would help my claim. Over the course of the year, I had been to the doctor for my disabilities, and had accumulated much more medical documentation; therefore, I asked him for his opinion- Should I submit the additional documentation to ensure my c-file was up-to-date? He told me, in his opinion, NO, I should not submit the additional evidence, especially if my file already provided adequate evidence of my claim. He told me if I did submit the evidence, my claim packet would be pulled so that the additional evidence could be added to my file, then sent to the bottom of the stack for review. I did not realize that every time a document is submitted, your packet is pulled and sent to the bottom of a “pile”. He told me to hold on to the documentation and wait for a decision from the VA so I would start receiving benefits. He also advised, if I was not happy with the VA’s response to my claim, I should then send in the additional documentation I have accumulated and appeal their decision.

With all of this said, I hope I have shed some light on why the process takes as long as it does. I am just as frustrated as every other veteran submitting claims; therefore, I wanted to share my experience and the advice I was given hoping it will help another veteran with the submission of their disability claim.

That was Jennifer’s first comment.  Here is her second one:

Just as I finish typing my blog to you, I contacted VA to learn my claim has been sent back to the gathering evidence phase. The VA service respresentative could not provide me with a reason why… just the typical blanket statement stating they need additional evidedence. Hence, my claim stayed in the decision phase for two days….ugggg!

Keep plugging away, Jennifer!  Thanks for sharing!

An update in my VA Claims Status

Posted by Mike Grice on

As a reader of this blog you know that I have recently transitioned from Active Duty and am now enjoying life on the civilian side of the fence.  One of the big parts of transition is the eligibility for a disability rating from the Veterans Administration, and recently my status in that regard changed.

Let me back up a bit.  I began my transition well over a year ago (in the summer of 2011), and as I went through the required and optional transition seminars I was educated on the benefits that all honorably discharged veterans are eligible to receive.  As a retiring Marine, I learned that I was eligible for more benefits than those who served one or two enlistments (such as pension and access to VA medical care for myself and an entitlement to TRICARE for my family).  Such benefits are great!  They were earned through over a quarter century of service in uniform and no small amount of time getting shot at in combat zones.

In addition to VA medical care I, and all veterans, are evaluated to determine whether or not we are eligible for a disability rating as a result of the maladies, wear, and tear that we experienced while serving in uniform.  It is perfectly reasonable to be evaluated for any such problems, but unfortunately the time it takes for the claims evaluation process to reach completion is far from speedy.

This month I received a couple of notifications from the VA.  The first was a letter that is identical to the letters that preceded it telling me that my claims process was still under review.  Not surprising, really, because the average time to review and approve a case is well over a year, and mine has only been in the hopper for about ten months now.

When I logged into the VA ebenefits website, however, I saw that there was some progress.  Hooray!  My status had changed from “Preparation for Decision” to “Regulatory or Procedural Review”.  I’m not exactly sure what that means, but I am optimistic that it is an indicator of progress.

I drilled into the website to see what the new status reflected.  Here is what the website said:

Claim Received: 08/17/2012
Claim Type: Regulatory or Procedural Review
Estimated Claim Completion Date: unavailableWe are currently unable to provide you with a projected completion date for this type of claim. Please await further claim status notification for this Regional Office.

Hmmm.  That tells me pretty much nothing at all.  I read on…

Next Steps:

We will review all available evidence and make a decision on your claim upon receipt of all requested information as outlined in the headings, “What Do We Still Need from You?” and “What Have We Done?”. 

Several factors will determine the duration of the “Development” phase, including:

  • type of claim filed
  • number of disabilities you claim
  • complexity of your disability(ies), and
  • availability of evidence needed to decide your claim.

Now that sounds promising!  My case is in the “development” phase!  I still don’t know what that means, but I am hoping it indicates progress.

At any rate, my claim is wending its way through the claims process, and it looks like movement forward is occurring.  I hope that those of you out there in the same boat are receiving similar updates, too.  A word to the wise, however: Don’t wait for the VA to tell you about your updated status via the postal service, because they likely won’t.  My letter from them this month didn’t tell me anything new.  You should be checking the VA website (www.va.gov, specifically the ebenefits tab) frequently to see if your status is moving forward.  Otherwise things may be going on with your claim that you are unaware of.

Just a word to the wise….keep up on your claim!  After all, if you don’t, who will?

Latest column in the North County Times

Posted by Mike Grice on

Ever since hanging up my uniform I have been actively working to help veterans make the transition back to civilian life, and for many vets it is an even more difficult process because they suffer from Post Traumatic Stress.  This column is about a nonprofit organization that is doing tremendous work to help both those still in uniform and those who have left the service overcome the challenges of PTSD.

I have written quite a bit about Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) in previous columns.

For those who have gone to war and fought for their country, it is a fact of life that the battles will stay with them for years to come —- and for many, for the remainder of their days.

It is a testament to both the Department of Defense and the Department of Veterans Affairs that the psychological effects of war have been met head-on in both the serving and veteran communities, but I am not optimistic that the high level of commitment that exists today will survive the austere fiscal reality that faces our government in the future.

That is where the nonprofit community comes into play. There are many organizations out there that are helping veterans both in and out of uniform deal with the trauma that they experienced in war. It is these organizations that I will be writing about in the next few columns.

Not all organizations that claim to help veterans are in it for the right reasons. As I mentioned earlier, the federal government has been providing more resources to veterans’ issues for the current wars than it has in recent memory —- and there are some outfits whose aim is to make money more than to help vets. Those are not the groups I will be writing about.

Those that I will be addressing are the ones that are making a real impact in veterans today or have a plan and the drive to make a significant difference in the lives of those who have served.

The first organization that I would like to introduce you to is the American Combat Veterans of War. ACVOW is a nonprofit group headquartered in Oceanside that aims to help veterans who have survived the physical ordeal of combat cope with the psychological aftermath. They offer a variety of programs to help vets, but one in particular is making a tremendous difference for those who are fortunate to be involved.

The Safe Warrior Outreach Program brings healing to combat veterans who still serve as well as those who have left active duty. This program is particularly important because it brings veterans together in a completely anonymous environment in which they can share their experiences and bond with others who are going through the same turmoil they feel. Rank, position and prejudice are left at the door as warriors join together to share, help and heal as equals.

This is particularly important because many of the participants are still in uniform. The stigma against PTSD is still strong in the military, and the Marine Corps is certainly no exception. Many of the warriors who come to ACVOW do so because of the anonymity that the group provides; without having the assurance of secrecy, many of the attendees would not seek help at all.

ACVOW exists because its president and co-founder, William Rider, knows first-hand what combat veterans from Iraq and Afghanistan are going through. Rider is a combat veteran himself, which in and of itself is not unusual. What is unusual, however, is that Rider experienced some of the most savage combat during the Vietnam War as a member of Charlie Company, 1st Battalion, 9th Marines in a place called Khe Sanh. His battalion had the gruesome honor of suffering the greatest casualty rate in Marine Corps history, and as a result became known as “The Walking Dead.”

Rider received the Purple Heart medal for wounds suffered at the hands of the North Vietnamese, and after the war he recognized that it followed him home. In 2001 he co-founded ACVOW and has dedicated himself to helping combat veterans make it back from the dark side. Thanks to Rider and his dedicated peers, many vets have found the healing, and comradeship, that has made a tremendous difference in their lives.

 

http://www.nctimes.com/news/local/military/columnists/grice/grice-nonprofits-offer-help-to-veterans/article_909288ca-0239-55a7-82f4-93d1875186d1.html

The Military Officer’s Association of America

Posted by Mike Grice on

Here is my latest column in the North County Times:

A Cause Worth Carrying

This past weekend I was honored to be able to break bread with a great group of men and women who asked me to join them for their monthly gathering. All of them had either served in the military’s officer corps or were spouses of those who had.

Present were men like Clint, who fought against Rommel in North Africa, and Pat, who began his naval career preparing to invade Japan and ended it after serving in Vietnam. Others in the room had served in Korea, Vietnam and the Cold War.

In addition to their military service, they all shared a strong desire to help others, and despite the length of time since they had worn a uniform they continued to serve their country by advocating for active duty, veterans and retirees.

They are all members of the Military Officer’s Association of America, or MOAA. Originally called The Retired Officer’s Association or TROA, the organization was formed in 1929 as an advisory board of sorts for the active military, and with the exponential increase in the numbers of servicemen and women in World War II they shifted their focus to ensuring that those who wore the cloth of the nation were not forgotten. Now numbering more than 370,000, MOAA has become one of the most powerful and influential lobbying organizations in Washington.

Some of the services that they provide for all ranks, not just officers, include career transition assistance, benefits counseling, education assistance for children of military families, and engagement with Congress about issues that face active, retired and veterans of the armed forces.

Although you may not know it, MOAA has been actively engaging the government at all levels to ensure that the promises made to servicemen and women are honored.

MOAA fills a gap that cannot be filled by those in uniform. While actively serving, the members of the military must, by tradition and regulation, distance themselves from the political process. They are prohibited from using their status in uniform to influence the electorate or directly lobby governmental decision makers —- but organizations like MOAA have taken on the responsibility to ensure that their voices are heard. With the specter of sequestration and an austere fiscal future ahead for all branches of the government, it is particularly important for the needs of the armed forces to be heard —- and MOAA is front and center with Congress.

Some of the issues that the organization is currently addressing include the effect of new healthcare legislation on Tricare premiums (which would see an annual increase in premiums of 345 percent for many retirees), changes to the retirement system, the effects of military force reductions while the nation is still at war, and myriad other issues that directly impact serving members of the military, veterans, retirees, and their families.

MOAA is doing great work, but they are also facing an existential challenge: Their membership consists largely of older veterans who served 20, 30 or more years ago. As with all representatives of the Greatest Generation, they are literally passing on much faster than they are being replaced by younger veterans.

In the group I lunched with I the youngest attendee was half the age of the oldest veteran in the room. The rest of the group was in their 60, 70 and 80s. All are greatly concerned that the work that they have done and the important work that has yet to be accomplished will disappear if there are not new members of the organization to continue the fight.

They, and thousands like them, have selflessly given their all for their country and their fellow servicemembers. Many of the military and veterans benefits that we enjoy today are a direct result of MOAA’s efforts, so I am sounding the call for those eligible to join up and not let their efforts fade away.

If not MOAA, then find some other organization, such as the Veterans of Foreign Wars or the American Legion. Join, help, and continue to serve. I have.

 

http://www.nctimes.com/news/local/military/columnists/grice/grice-a-cause-worth-carrying/article_8fd78c67-c0a8-5f04-838e-8f67000b713d.html

Back to Resumes

Posted by Mike Grice on

Let’s get back to talking about resumes.  We have covered some of the basics of business correspondence already but now we need to get down to the serious business of crafting your resume.

Before we get started, though, we need to answer the question: What is a resume, anyway?  More important, what is a good resume?

A resume is a document that condenses a person’s skills, education, and experience into a short one or two pages.  The purpose of the resume is to find employment, and in the normal course of jobseeking events it is usually the step that (hopefully!) leads to a job interview.

It is probably the most important single document you will produce in your job search.  Without one potential employers will not even know you exist, and with a great one you will be much more likely to get an interview.  The problem is that there are a lot of really average to poor resumes out there because people don’t follow some of the simple rules that lead to a good resume.

While there is no guarantee that a good resume will result in a job interview and a career in the sweet new career that you want, I can certainly guarantee that a bad resume will keep you out of the building.  So what can you do to get out of the “average” pile?

The first thing you must recognize is that your resume is your first impression with the company where you want a job.  You may have met someone who asked you to send them your resume, but it is very unlikely that they are the actual hiring manager or decision maker who will present you with an offer.  That person will know you only by the document that you send in, so your paper had better be focused, well written, and error free.

Let’s talk the error free bit first.  Remember that this is your first impression, and if it contains grammatical or spelling errors you are telegraphing to your potential employer that you either that you have poor skills with the English language or are too lazy to proofread your resume.  Nobody is going to read your misspellings and think “Oh boy!  I really want to hire someone who can’t spell!!”

A way you make sure your resume is error free is to proof read it yourself and have others proofread it as well.  I recommend that you print out your resume and read it as though you were a teacher grading an exam.  Don’t just read it on the computer screen because you will miss things –  people tend to miss grammar errors that are not identified by their word processing program (like “there” and “their”, for example).  Get out a red pen and critically examine it.  You will be surprised at the errors you find.  Make sure to double check your contact information as well – I accidentally misspelled the city I live in on my early resumes and missed it because it was in the header.  An interviewer caught it and I felt like a complete moron because I had read and reread it a dozen times but skipped the header without thinking about it.

Your resume must be well written.  That is easy to say but very difficult to do, particularly with the requirement to keep it short.  You need to be able to distill your whole professional life, including your schooling, work experience, training, and skills into a few pages.  Much easier said than done!  Mark Twain, the quintessential American 19th century writer, put it best when his publisher sent him a telegram asking to write a couple of pages in a couple of days:

        From the publisher:

NEED 2-PAGE SHORT STORY TWO DAYS.

    Twain replied:

NO CAN DO 2 PAGES TWO DAYS.

CAN DO 30 PAGES 2 DAYS.

NEED 30 DAYS TO DO 2 PAGES.

We will get much more deeply into how to craft a well written resume in future posts as we delve into the different types and methods of writing them.  One thing to keep in mind as well is that your audience, the hiring manager, is a civilian who likely has no knowledge about the military much less whatever your occupational specialty was.  You will need to translate military-speak and jargon into simple English.  Otherwise the reader will be confused and your resume will rocket into the trashcan.  The point is that it is a lot harder than you think to shrink your life down to a few pages and still get the message of why you should be hired across.

Your resume must be focused.  This goes hand in hand with the stricture that it must be well written, but you will find these two concepts at odds as you compile your resume.  You will want to tell the employer why you are the right person and support it with a lot of vignettes and experiences, but you don’t have the space to wax eloquently about how great you were at you whatever you did.  You need to be able to strip it down the the essence of what you are trying to say without all of the fluff –  and you need to be able to do it so that it reads well.

You won’t need 30 days to write your two page resume, though.  It takes time and practice to write a good resume, and how you write depends on the type of document you choose to compile.  There are three basic types of resumes, and each is written differently.  We will dive into each in much greater detail in future posts, but here is a quick rundown of each type:

The most common and easiest to write is the chronological resume.  This is basically a brief history of what you have been doing.  This resume is great for situations where you may not know the specific job you are going after or in cases where you go to a job fair and have the opportunity to hand out a bunch of resumes to corporate recruiters.  It is also the least focused of the types, which can be a problem if companies are looking for specific skills or talents.  It is also not a good resume for someone with little experience such as a newly graduated student who has not yet landed his or her first job.

The second basic type is the functional resume.  The functional resume presents your skills in a sorted fashion that shows what you are good at and what expertise you offer to the company.  This type of resume is useful in areas where specific skill sets or talents are needed for a job.  They are very common in the health care and scientific fields because they articulate your strengths and abilities in specific areas that should target the job you are looking for.

The third and often most useful type is the combination resume.  This incorporates both chronological and the functional components into the resume and provides the company with insight into your experience over time as well as your specific skill sets.  It is the toughest to write, though, for the reason that Mark Twain complained about to his publisher: now you have to essentially bring together two resumes into one and keep it within two pages.

It can be done, though, and in the upcoming string of posts we will go into each resume type in great detail…

__________

Lessons Learned:

1)  Resumes need to be short and to the point.  Two pages is as long as they should be except in very specific circumstances.

2)  The resume is your first impression with the person or people who will make the decision to hire you, so you had better provide your best possible product:  Error free and grammatically correct!

3)  There are three basic types of resumes:  Chronological, Functional, and Combination.  Which one you use depends on the company you are applying to and the job you are seeking.  More on that in future posts.

Business correspondence: Enter the resume

Posted by Mike Grice on

Not long ago we started talking about the importance of making a good impression.  Not just in life, mind you, but in the context of starting a new career.  By now you should have some most excellent business cards that you can hand out while you are networking, but that is only the beginning of the path that leads to a  job.

By now you should have the first tool of networking, your business card, and you need to get ready for when networking pays off.  The next step is when someone asks to see your resume, and if you want to get the job that they are offering your resume had better be pretty tight!

Your resume is the core of your job-seeking business correspondence, and it is your opportunity to sell yourself to a prospective employer.  We’ll talk about cover letters and thank you notes later, but for now let’s get a bit more familiar with how to build a resume.

Getting a job is like going shopping in reverse.  When you go to the grocery store you are selecting the products that you want and need to feed your family.  When you go down the canned foods aisle looking for a can of baked beans, for example, you are presented with a whole lot of choices.  There are brands like Bush’s and Van de Camp’s and Heinz and Hunts and flavors that range from tangy and sweet BBQ to wicket hot Jalapeno.  Lots of choices!  You, as the customer, get to examine the dizzying display of cans and pick the beans you want.

Well, I hate to break it to you, but you are one can of beans out of thousands in the job market.  There are a lot of other cans out there selling themselves to potential customers who will hire them, and in order to break yourself out of the generic bottom shelf and into the highly desirable gourmet section you will need to differentiate yourself from everyone else.  That is where the resume comes in.

Your resume is essentially the professional you in two pages or less.  It is your one shot to sell yourself to a potential employer and get yourself in the door for an interview.  In the current economy there are literally thousands and thousands of other people out looking for work, and they all have been firing off resumes to try to land a job.  The competition is pretty fierce, so you really need to break out of the pack.

So how do you do it?

I’m glad you asked.  Before we get into writing resumes there are a few things you need to do first.  Let’s start with those.

A few posts ago we went through the four-sheet exercise to determine what you really want to do with your life, so now let’s take that a few steps further.  You know what you want to do and where you want to do it, so in order to find a job you will need to do some research to find out what opportunities are out there.

Start with the internet.  After all, you are smart enough to be reading this blog, so I think it is a safe assumption that you can use Google or another search engine to surf around and see what’s out there.  I recommend that you go to Monster.com and punch in what you would like to do and where you would like to do it, and within a nanosecond (and for free!) you will have a list that shows opportunities in your search area.  You can also use a bunch of other sites, such as simplyhired.com or careerbuilder.com as well.  I recommend that you spend an afternoon surfing the web and looking at what is out there –  not because you are necessarily going to apply for any of those jobs persay but in order to get a feel for opportunities.

Look at the lists critically.  What industries are hiring?  Where are they located?  What are the prerequisites?  You can drill down and see what the specific requirements for jobs similar to the ones you would like to find are.  This is important, because the research that you do now will help you build a resume that fits the bill for the job you want and will help you go from the “ignore” pile to the “call for interview” pile at the hiring manager’s desk.

Also play around with the terms that you put into the search engine.  Try different variations on the job title and keywords.  The point is to get a feel of the job market in the area that you are looking to enter.

The other thing you need to do is contact some real live people.  You are leaving the military, which means that you have plenty of compadres who you can tap into.  Although they themselves may not have much to offer in terms of experience in the outside world, they all have families and friends out of uniform.  If you want to go into financial services, who better to reach out to for information than your squadmate’s father who happens to be a banker?  The great thing about networking is that you can get access to people who would not speak to you if you cold called them, but are happy to share a cup of coffee or lunch with a peer of their son, daughter, cousin, or family friend.

Another way to get a feel for the area is to read the local newspaper.  Read it from the front page all the way to the end; that way you will get a sense of what is going on.  Is local unemployment up or down?  Are there any new business or manufacturing plants opening up?  What is the engine that drives the local economy?  What industries are in trouble?  What is crime like?  Where are the nice and not so nice places to live and work?

To get started on actually building your resume you need to some homework, otherwise your efforts will be unfocused, and to the hiring manager, uninteresting.  You need to get smart about the industry, the area, and the company where you want to work in order to create a resume that piques the interest of the Human Resources specialist who reads it.  Surf the net, talk to your friends, and read the paper.  It will greatly help you as you build your resume, which we will start doing in the next string of posts…

Happy Independence Day!

Posted by Mike Grice on

Wow- it is hard to believe that 2012 is half gone, but on the positive side it is almost Independence Day!  Time for fireworks, barbequed steaks/burgers/hotdogs, and of course a beer or two.

As you enjoy the fireworks tomorrow make sure to keep in mind those men and women who are in uniform and away from their loved ones.  As we all celebrate the 236th birthday of the United States it is important not to forget that the freedom that we enjoy is not free.  It is bought and paid for by everyone who wears a uniform and also by their loved ones who are left behind as they serve from one corner of the globe to another.

May each and every one of you have a tremendous and happy July 4th, and we’ll be back to talking about transition by the end of the week!

 

 

VA Exam and Disability Rating

Posted by Mike Grice on

Over the last weekend I had the great fortune to run into a good friend of mine who retired from the Marine Corps after thirty years of active service.

He is a great guy who lived one of the hardest lives you can live in the Marine Corps; he started out as a infantryman and then became a reconnaissance Marine and then a Special Operator (meaning he began his career as a grunt who carried heavy loads long distances and lived in the dirt to a recon guy who carried heavier loads longer distances and lived in the mud).

During his career he did all of the high speed things that are the stuff of recruiting posters.  He jumped out of airplanes –  but not just enough times to earn his wings but hundreds and hundreds of times from helicopters and airplanes both at very low and extremely high altitudes.  He became an expert diver, marksman, and small unit leader.

He helped the Marine Corps blaze the trail into the Special Operations world.  He helped build what is now called MARSOC and was a critical leader in the 1st Marine Special Operations Battalion.  He deployed to Kuwait and Iraq and Afghanistan to fight, and in his career he deployed thirteen times.

All of this came at a tremendous cost, however.  He suffers from a long list of physical ailments that are related to doing all of those incredible things; his ears ring from being around gunfire for years on end, his joints and back are so painful that he sometimes can barely move, and he wrestles with PTSD in the same manner as so many of us who have fought for their country and survived.

At the end of his impressive career he did what all separating servicemen do –  he went through the VA evaluation process.  He ensured that his physical problems were recorded in his medical record and was then examined by a VA physician.

With all of his maladies he was certain that he would be assigned a relatively high disability rating.  After all, many people served for far less time and in far less strenuous and physically demanding environments and had received very high disability ratings.  He wasn’t looking for anything he didn’t earn and deserve, mind you, but was just looking for what was fair.

Recently he received his disability rating announcement in the mail.

10%.

For tinnitus.  Ringing in the ears.

To say he was angry is an epic understatement, and upon taking his case to his state VA representative they agree and are challenging the ruling.

How did he end up with such a low rating when he has so many demonstrable maladies?

He attributes it to his physical evaluation.  The doctor didn’t really examine him, but instead just asked him questions about his conditions.  He did not order tests or even check for himself, but instead had a conversation and wrote down some notes.

The point is that in order to receive the most accurate evaluation it is imperative that you take an active role in your VA physical.  Demand that the doctor examine those things that you know are wrong.  Don’t just let the overworked doctor hurry through your exam.

Otherwise you may likely find yourself under-rated for your service connected disability, and to get it corrected will make an already disturbingly long process even tortuously longer.

So this is a cautionary tale.  You may save yourself a lot of time and inconvenience by taking an active role in your VA evaluation, so I recommend going into the doctor’s office with the intent of having each and every issue examined, addressed, and recorded.

After all, if you don’t do it, who will?

Another column from the North County Times

Posted by Mike Grice on

Here is last Friday’s column from the North County Times:

It has been more than a decade since 9/11, and during that time a lot of soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines have trained, deployed and fought the War on Terror.

They have crossed into the deserts of Iraq and climbed the hills of Afghanistan. They have battled pirates off the coast of Somalia, and have fought against insurgents in the Philippines. The last decade has found young American men and women in combat in places that they may have never even heard about before they donned their uniforms.

They have also done magnificent things outside the combat zones. Sailors and Marines rushed to Indonesia to aid the victims of the disastrous tsunami in 2004. Less than a year later, members of all the armed services were doing the same in Louisiana after the coastline was ravaged by Hurricane Katrina. They have helped recover and rebuild from dozens of other disasters at home and abroad, often while their own homes and loved ones were threatened by the same calamities.

Through it all they forged a real and tangible bond with those with whom they served. They joined a brotherhood that transcends any found in the regular workforce. Like firefighters and the police, they have been in the worst possible situations and bested them by working side by side with people just like them. They have become integral members of a close and closed society that only those who have been a part of truly understand.

The experience of being in the military changes a person. There comes a day, though, when the uniform is worn for the last time. The last decade has made that change as visceral as it was at the end of the First World War and the Second, as well as Korea, Vietnam and the other conflicts that brought young Americans to foreign shores to fight for years on end.

So the day comes when the uniform comes off. It is much more impactful than just changing clothes, however, because with the shedding of the uniform comes the departure from military society. While you may still be close with your military friends, but the relationship changes: You are no longer a part of the same conversations. You are no longer training or deploying or sharing the same burdens, and over time the relationships change as you have less and less in common. Your lives move in different directions.

As a veteran, the sense of loss as you leave the warm embrace of active service can be jarring. After all, they have served, deployed, fought and done the myriad things together for years on end —- and suddenly it just stops. In many ways it is like a divorce, because you can never go back.

As a kid I never really understood what the American Legion or the Veterans of Foreign Wars were all about. I saw them as the old men who marched in parades wearing bits of uniforms from wars long over. I rode my bike past their modest buildings and wondered what went on inside. I accepted them as part of the fabric of our community, but never thought much about them.

Today, though, I understand. Veterans of active service have lived a life unlike any other, and it is often very difficult to relate to those who have not shared the same sacrifices. Veterans love their families and cherish their friends, but there are some conversations that are only for those who have worn the uniform and endured the trials, horrors and joys that come from military service.

That is why the American Legion, the VFW and so many other veterans organizations exist. That is why those old men gather; to be around others like themselves who understand that which to others is incomprehensible.

The difference today is that today not just old men gather in such places. Young men and women have joined the ranks of those who have gone before. Now stories of Iraq and Afghanistan join those of wars past in the tapestry of the veteran community. It is a place that provides a little solace and closure to a big part of veterans’ lives that stays with them no matter how long ago they put away their uniforms.

http://www.nctimes.com/news/local/military/columnists/grice/grice-retiring-is-a-tough-challenge/article_5bdd4651-d64e-5acb-8907-f21cf642fb4a.html