How do you deal with corporate recruiters who have limited knowledge of the military?

Sir, I've been retired for 10 yrs now (22 yrs of active duty service), most of it as a defense contractor. When you're discussing issues with vets and retirees, you'll be able to converse with no loss of translation, however, my experience with folks outside of DOD is that you'll have to speak in a totally "cloroxed" language you haven't used in well over 20 yrs. Initially, all the acronym soup we've cultivated will intrigue them, but they quickly tire of it, especially senior leadership that is easily frustrated and already suspect of a disciplined, motivated, and high-performing, established professional. To answer you question directly, I've had to transpose a significant amount of my experiences and qualifications into civilian equivalent examples so those filtering screeners can compare apples-to-apples. I'd also suggest to be prepared to defend dollar amounts of Hand Receipt equipment you've been responsible for, number of direct reports and total soldiers you led. It absolutely stuns and amazes most civilian employers and screeners that a young PFC or Senior Airman is responsible for readiness and availability of a million dollar MRAP or $30M AH-64D Longbow helicopter, and more. Brigade and Wing level Senior Noncomm's and senior Field Grade guys really get strange looks and questions. My best advice, sir, is to do your best to unwrap all the acronyms off of stuff and qualify / quantify your experiences with dollar amounts, number of folks supervised or totally responsible for in your organization. Be prepared to get pretty granular with claims of exceeding Operational Readiness rates and what measures you employed to achieve those rates, improving the efficiencies of "things" and what measures you took to do that, developing plans that streamlined operational / production output, etc. They may not directly address ISO, or Six Sigma, or Lean or Kaizen type elements, but they'll want to know details how you made "it" better. Remember, the "gatekeeper" filter lady was, most likely, tasked by a senior executive, and that executive's day is almost always made easier by the many items the gatekeeper filter lady juggles to make the exec's life easier...and ensuring she has job security. I'd be as thorough as possible answering the irritating questions and I'd wrap some Ph.D. level diplomacy around most of it. My last company, an aerospace company, manufacturing MALE UAS systems and high-end EO/IR sensors, had a retired 4-star CEO and myself that were retired military....out of 120 employees! There were a handful of vets with DD 214s. Every last dollar of contracted work we had was DOD or FMS/FMF work, but almost nobody in our organization understood a single element of the Acquisition Lifecycle Management Process. It made being a proactive Program Manager of two Program of Record solutions very difficult. Enjoy your retirement and these next chapters!

This definitely sound like a gatekeeper person with little to no experience. If they called you then you have the minimum qualifications or they saw something on the resume that piqued there interest. Remember the goal of the interview process is to get to the offer stage. Companies use the telephone screen to narrow down the short list. Your ultimate goal is to keep selling for the face-to-face interview that is where you are going to get your best opportunity for the offer.

A couple of things be prepared to answer the salary question because it will come up. When I am asked salary I would respond with what do you have budgeted for the position. You have to know what your range is and be willing to walk away from the table if you feel you are being insulted with a low offer. Don't be desperate be confident and sell your skills.

Lastly do not focus on what you lack industry wise and focus on your strengths and hard transferrable skills. For example a mechanic is a mechanic is a mechanic no matter what industry you are going in so talk about the strengths of being a mechanic. Also do not start negotiating salary until an offer is extended I see too many feel lose leverage early on in the process.

Hope this helps a bit

Dylan

COL Jonas Vogelhut - Was this an initial phone screen or formal phone interview #1? It seems really strange for that salary question to come up so soon. Looks like you handled it very well though. I've had experiences like this. Recruiters without a military familiarization typically like our work ethic, motivation, and leadership, but don't understand much of our technical or operational experience. This requires a significant amount of translation before the call to prep your answers in a way they can grasp. Acronyms are out the door for these calls and you will need to really lay out your work as if you are talking to a close civilian friend or family member that's interested in your job. You know he/she can't fully grasp all of it, but give it your best shot and ask if what you said makes sense or if you need to clarify a statement regarding your past jobs. Remain positive and honest no matter what (like you have) and know your audience as much as you can before the call. LinkedIn is a great tool for gathering intel on a recruiter before hand so you can better relate experiences. Hope this helps!