Career Transition Tips # 2- Start Early
We
understood the importance of accepting the change from military to corporate in
our previous article( click here). In this
second article of this five series articles, we will understand the importance
of starting early and what role it plays in the seamless transition to civil
world. But before that, An exercise we all must do is to find out the right
time to hang your boots. This will not only bring clarity to your thought
process and allow you to prepare better for your second career but it will also
prevent you from taking knee-jerk decisions during transition. We have
adequately discussed the ways to find the right time to hang your boots. (
click here and here ).
In military whenever we’re
assigned with a mission or task, we generally execute the task in a meticulous
and organized manner, applying time,
effort and skills in ensuring the success of it. However, we don’t apply the
same process when it comes to planning our career post retirement from military;
rather planning for career transition is given the least priority in our
scheme of things. Why do you have to wait till the last day to see a career
possibility outside. Why don’t you start preparing your career transition
diligently when you have about two plus years to retire. Although it looks like a very general point, however, if executed properly, it will pay you rich dividends in terms
of progressive career and high salaried job opportunities. Starting early will place
you in an unimaginable comfort zone much ahead of your counterparts who started
late. One analogy that has been most commonly
heard across the board in military is that there is a lot of time in the
transition and one must live in the present. This wrong analogy is the reason
why many of us don’t get successful at the first hand in the corporate world
and it increases the difficulties of the challenges faced by military leaders
during career transition( click here) . Why we didn't apply the same analogy
while preparing for staff college or some similar exams for which we start preparing a year plus in advance. Preparing for career
transition is no different than preparing for staff college exams. Let’s see
the disadvantages of not planning your
career early:-
- Unaware about the most suitable career at the time of transition, high probability of choosing the wrong career path.
- Lack of knowledge about the industry and the current practices in corporate.
- Lack of corporate munitions such as professional certifications/GMAT score.
- Poor networking in corporate.
- Unaware of the right practices for job search.
- Difficulty in transformation from military to corporate and problems in translating skills
- Extremely stressful career transition.
Having realized that starting late
is an extremely wrong decision and having found out the right time to hang your
boots, The question arises in our mind is what is the right time to start your
preparation. The ideal time to start with
serious preparation for your second career will vary from individual to
individual as those who have been well connected with the corporate world, into
reading about the industry practices, and networking with the right connections
in corporate will probably require less time than those who have restricted
their vision to four walls of military compartment. Ideally one must retouch
with the lost civilian connections
irrespective of the years left in transition. Networking is the most important
tool now a days for finding the right job and therefore it pays to network with
the right set of people. As a broad
guideline, starting two years before your retirement will provide you the right
start for your second career. Again, It
is important that we keep our-self abreast
with the issues of career switch, know the latest trends in market, and gain
knowledge pertaining to your selected domain as much as possible and not wait
for last two years.
Starting early has overwhelming benefits and it gives adequate time to
you to choose the right career path, gain knowledge and certifications about
that career, prepare and give GMAT for MBA, network with the right people, and exercise
the right job hunting practices. If you have time for your career transition, a
career counseling can help you in finding the right career and how to employ
your efforts in the right direction, resulting in a successful career
transition( click here). To read the second article of this five article series, click here
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