LTC David Stender 652496 <div class="images-v2-count-0"></div>Okay, so lets talk about planning and timing. If you know that you are going to retire, I recommend you do the TAP(ACAP) program 2 years out. I did not do this, I did this 5 months out. My circumstances were of my own choosing in order to be eligible for a specific opening, but is not without risk. Another program I recently attended was Afterburner, sponsored by USAA. This is a great program to take for better defining your goals and putting a plan in place. I'm almost done reading Down Range by James D. Murphy and William M. Duke. The book is a good read and will put you in the right mind set to get going with your plan. It comes free with the USAA sponsored program but it is not very much on Amazon if you don't want to wait.<br /><br />Now your thinking that 2 years out is unrealistic and also has risks associated with telling someone you are planning to retire. Once that cat is out of the bag, you know you will be in another category. So let's compromise and say 9 months out. There are a lot of VA processes and out-processing that you do not want to interfere with preparing for your transition plan. I have redone my resume completely 4 times since December. Every course you attend will assist in fine tuning what you need. I'm not going to lie, it is frustrating. Early on, I read a comment that said it is not about what you like it is about what is needed by the job posting. So, I recently learned the lines I used to separate my topic areas may have caused my resume to be completely kicked back by the applicant Tracking System, not good. I now have a simple format that gets all the required items in 2 pages. I started with 5 pages in November that I thought were all crucial; they were not. <br /><br />Not much else for an end of the week posting. In summary, educate yourself in the planning process, to include resumes, so you can start to backward plan for you timeline. It is the old adage, preparing to plan. In the Army speak, that would be gather your tools/resources. 2015-05-08T11:33:23-04:00 LTC David Stender 652496

<div class="images-v2-count-0"></div>Okay, so lets talk about planning and timing. If you know that you are going to retire, I recommend you do the TAP(ACAP) program 2 years out. I did not do this, I did this 5 months out. My circumstances were of my own choosing in order to be eligible for a specific opening, but is not without risk. Another program I recently attended was Afterburner, sponsored by USAA. This is a great program to take for better defining your goals and putting a plan in place. I'm almost done reading Down Range by James D. Murphy and William M. Duke. The book is a good read and will put you in the right mind set to get going with your plan. It comes free with the USAA sponsored program but it is not very much on Amazon if you don't want to wait.<br /><br />Now your thinking that 2 years out is unrealistic and also has risks associated with telling someone you are planning to retire. Once that cat is out of the bag, you know you will be in another category. So let's compromise and say 9 months out. There are a lot of VA processes and out-processing that you do not want to interfere with preparing for your transition plan. I have redone my resume completely 4 times since December. Every course you attend will assist in fine tuning what you need. I'm not going to lie, it is frustrating. Early on, I read a comment that said it is not about what you like it is about what is needed by the job posting. So, I recently learned the lines I used to separate my topic areas may have caused my resume to be completely kicked back by the applicant Tracking System, not good. I now have a simple format that gets all the required items in 2 pages. I started with 5 pages in November that I thought were all crucial; they were not. <br /><br />Not much else for an end of the week posting. In summary, educate yourself in the planning process, to include resumes, so you can start to backward plan for you timeline. It is the old adage, preparing to plan. In the Army speak, that would be gather your tools/resources.

2015-05-08T11:33:23-04:00 2015-05-08T11:33:23-04:00 2015-05-08T11:33:23-04:00