That’s because his statement “The willingness with which our young people are likely to serve in any war, no matter how justified, shall be directly proportional to how they perceive veterans of earlier wars were treated and appreciated by our nation”, and we see a decline in the already small numbers of US citizens that serve in its all-volunteer military force.
Many factors contribute, but polarization of citizen demographics, repeated and at this point sustained public failures in senior leadership, accountability consistently ignored, restructuring and reduction in force and post-force benefits, and the health and readiness of the citizenry to qualify to serve all contribute.
But more to the President’s point, I think public perception is a huge contributing factor as well. According to one article, our US public views “cook, mail carrier, corrections officer, taxi driver, and any enlisted military occupation…among the worst jobs in America” [1].
Our movement at Vets2PM is changing that narrative though.
We are showing our brave men and women in military uniform that their military service can not only count, but serve as a springboard into meaningful, lucrative post-military service careers, regardless of the duration of their tenure, branch, occupation, or rank. In fact, we’ve done it with over twelve thousand of them to date, in careers making a starting average salary of $85K each, in over eleven hundred companies all across the US economy.
In my Amazon #1 Best-seller I call the concept “provable fluency”. And it’s the Cracker Jack decoder ring that makes the magic happen! Today’s military veteran can (1) enter their military branch and occupation they test into or qualify for, (2) accrue lots of experience managing things like inventories, vehicle fleets, supply chains, dining facilities, gauge calibration shops, and armories, and leading teams successfully through tough temporary times with limited resources, limited information, tight deadlines, and lofty expectations, and (3) then certify all of that experience applicable to any civilian organization with professional credentials today’s hiring managers recognize! BOOM! Provable fluency! And meaningful, lucrative career on the backside of their military service!
For example, let’s say an enlisted member rank 1 joins the Army today. Until they make rank “E-5” or so, for enlisted rank 5, they perform the work necessary to deliver unique results from temporary endeavors, and that’s the very definition of a project; an endeavor undertaken to produce unique goods, services, or results, to which I’d add to solve a business problem. They can certify this project experience with a globally recognized Certified Associate in Project Management (“CAPM”) certification from the Project Management Institute, or “PMI”. It takes about 4–8 years to accrue this experience to rank up. Then, from about 8-15’ish years, they rank up to E-6 through 8, then E-9 about 15+ years. In general, and on average. They can then certify all of their E-6 through 8 experience with PMI’s globally recognized Project Management Professional (“PMP”) certification. Finally, at E-9, when running multiple like projects and programs, they can earn PMI’s PgMP, for “Program Management Professional”.
When they do so, their experience managing projects and leading project teams is certified with credentials recognized by hiring managers. They interview strong, and place into meaningful, lucrative careers. This potential to leverage hard-earned, vital military experience into amazing salaries doing impactful work after service can thus serve as a recruiting, readiness, and retention tool for the military service branches, and as a career compass showing we care about them and their families post-service. They’ll be set up to take care of themselves.
Check out www.vets2pm.com today to join the movement answering President Washington’s call, military members and veterans can get internships and placement services, for free, and companies can hire talented, experienced, and certified veterans from our deep bench of talent. We’re standing at the ready to assist. As always. We only took our military uniforms off, not our oath to care for our Nation, and our brothers and sisters in arms.
[1] https://pva.org/blog/veteran-treatment-matters/
Well, more like Peter Parker. He was bit by a radioactive spider and it changed his DNA. He now shoots webs, swings on said webs, fights wrong-doing and the bad actors doing it, defends the weak, has super-human strength, agility, and Spidey Sense, and sticks to walls. He looks like
That’s the phrase that I close with in my email signature block and that I autograph books with at book signings. It encapsulates everything I do as a professional; help military veterans achieve meaningful, lucrative post-military service careers. And although, as a military veteran, I primarily speak to
Doug, a tug, and its crew and cargo sailed past the Fish Lips restaurant in Cape Canaveral, Florida yesterday, right before I went on stage to present the Florida Association of Veteran-Owned Businesses, Inc. (FAVOB)’s State of the Mission Keynote about how local Florida businesses can Use First Principles Thinking
