The Uncommon Qualities of Military Members

MAJ George Hamilton — Fri, 21 Nov 2014 13:29:26 -0500

In the midst of all the noise that tells Veterans that they have to translate their military occupation into civilian speak, how they must learn to dress, and how they must relearn how to communicate in a professional environment, there is one thing that does not get enough attention: The innate ability of most Veterans to adapt to almost any situation that they find themselves in, known by the buzz words “soft skills”.

As I left the service, most of my days were filled with the fear of feeling lost, not knowing how to navigate the day-to-day challenges of a corporate job, and being unable to keep up with the steep learning curve associated with my work. While all of those were legitimate fears, and ones that I had to tackle head on to keep ahead of, it took me a while to understand that in some areas, I had the advantage.

Soft skills are generally defined as “personal attributes that enable someone to interact effectively and harmoniously with other people.” Given that the general narrative is that Veterans have trouble fitting in, this would seem to be the antithesis of what we are good at. I would argue that the narrative around this is generally wrong. Almost all of the Veterans that I have interacted with outside of the service have been very adept at interacting with people of all backgrounds and persuasions – and this would make sense. The military is one of the most diverse and inclusive workplaces in the world, presenting the need for service members to learn how to get along with men and women of all walks of life in a myriad of unique and stressful situations.

The reason I am driving at this particular skill set is because it is not nearly as common as you would think outside of the service. The ability to walk onto a project or team with patience, humility, and the ability to see the strengths and weaknesses in the team around you is actually quite rare, but a personality trait that the military hones in us because of its absolute necessity in most operations.

So how does this give Veterans an advantage in looking for work?

If you put those skills to work in researching the company that you want to work for, it will help you identify the kind of person that works within that organization. This will then help you assess expectations, and become more accessible in the interview process. People generally hire people that they like when all other things are equal – using your soft skills that the service cultivated in you will certainly help you be more genuine, easy to relate to, likable, adaptable, and in the end – hire-able.

Highlight these qualities in the interview process, and give quantifiable examples of where you’ve used them and how they were of benefit to the team you were a part of. As much as an employer wants to hear about your qualifications for the position, they are also going to be very interested in how you may fit on their team, and that has nothing to do with where you got your degree, or what you did for a living for the last five years.

Having been on a faster developmental timeline in this department doesn’t make you better than your civilian counterpart. It just means that skills that take a long time to develop in civilian society were cultivated in you at a much faster pace (out of necessity), and you know how to utilize them better than your peer group in many cases. Maturity, patience, logical thinking, and the ability to see things from others’ points of view are all part of this skill set; put it to work for you, and don’t discount its value in your post-military professional journey.

Response by PO3 Heather Brown made Nov 21 at 2014 2:03 PM

PO3 Heather Brown — Fri, 21 Nov 2014 14:03:19 -0500

I agree with what this is saying, however, there are curtain situations that arise to make things more difficult. As for me, I was a Hospital Corpsman for 10 years. I chose to be a mother to my children for 4 years after I was out. After my marriage fell apart, I chose to continue my medical career as a LPN. I went to school was one of, if not the first in two classes, to get my license. I still was unable to get a job in the field that I love. I have been told over and over again that the other applicants have more experience.

To be totally honest I am straight up pissed off at this. I did the same job as a Corpsman for ten years in many different capacities.

As I have said before, I do not think anyone owes me for my choice to serve, but I do not think it should be held against me either. Also I feel like I am being penalized for being a stay home mother. All I wanted was to give my children something I was not able to get as a child.

I do understand that I could have done so many things differently, but the bottom line is that I do not feel that I am able to use any of the skills that I trained and practiced long and hard to learn.

Response by Lt Col Private RallyPoint Member made Nov 25 at 2014 9:58 PM

Lt Col Private RallyPoint Member — Tue, 25 Nov 2014 21:58:00 -0500

You would be amazed at how few people in the civilian world have any kind of commitment to punctuality or strong work ethic. Things that military veterans take for granted are few and far between in the civilian world.

Response by SPC(P) Jay Heenan made Nov 25 at 2014 10:35 PM

SPC(P) Jay Heenan — Tue, 25 Nov 2014 22:35:58 -0500

I agree, I sometimes think we sell ourselves short when we talk about preparing for civilian life. I would argue that we have just as much 'plus side' as our civilian counterparts. It is our job to show how we can add value to companies who might not understand military life. Personally, if you run with the, 'don't sell yourself short'. Remember, companies are looking for people who can add value to the organization...kind of like the military!

Response by Capt Brandon Charters made Dec 8 at 2014 5:08 PM

Capt Brandon Charters — Mon, 08 Dec 2014 17:08:05 -0500

Wanted to take a minute on this great command post to recognize a big promotion made this weekend. Allow me to introduce newly pinned MAJ George Hamilton! George - We appreciate your continued dedication to the US Army and all the support and mentorship you lend our RP community. MAJ Laurie H. Elizabeth Malkin LTC Yinon Weiss CPT Aaron Kletzing SFC Mark Merino MAJ Robert (Bob) Petrarca Ariel Garneau Kanika Misra CPT Kit Lancaster.

Response by MAJ Robert (Bob) Petrarca made Dec 8 at 2014 6:54 PM

MAJ Robert (Bob) Petrarca — Mon, 08 Dec 2014 18:54:35 -0500

I fully agree! I've had the experience though of it having a negative impact on my civilian life. I have to force myself to take a back seat to many things and watch people fail because they don't want to recognize military soft skills as equal to civilian skills. We are trained to make corrections and fix the broken. I've learned over the years to be more tactful in how I approach these situations, to "lead from the rear" if you will. But civilian management is more about cutthroat and less about teamwork. A person I work with had an issue with the fact that we went back and forth 3 times on an email to clarify a problem. Instead of saying, "hey lets meet and make sure we understand each other" - I was completely unaware of any issue and to this day don't even know what set of emails was being referenced - the individual went to my supervisor and 1 level up to complain that I was difficult to communicate with - like HUH??? My boss calls me in and won't give me any info except the criticism. I ask well how can I correct the issue if I have no reference of what to correct? all I get is well that's what I was told so go fix the issue. After a few back and forths and still no further details, this was bumped up yet another level. I just lost my job over something that I still don't know what I did - WTF???

Response by SSG(P) Private RallyPoint Member made Dec 8 at 2014 7:49 PM

SSG(P) Private RallyPoint Member — Mon, 08 Dec 2014 19:49:55 -0500

What a great write-up and well summarized. This topic could be a (novel) blue print for all transitioning to the civilian sector. I excelled at all of my civilian posts...so much so I think about them from a military stand-point.

Response by SFC Mark Merino made Dec 8 at 2014 8:24 PM

SFC Mark Merino — Mon, 08 Dec 2014 20:24:03 -0500

Capt Brandon Charters endorsement said it best: "George has been one our earliest partners in the veteran hiring world. His understanding and appreciation of service member backgrounds is a huge strength in his recruiting role at Sears Holdings". For your tireless efforts serving the RallyPoint community and veterans across the United States, it gives us great pleasure to award MAJ George Hamilton the coveted RallyPoint Commendation Medal.

Response by SFC Peter Cyprian made Dec 9 at 2014 12:00 AM

SFC Peter Cyprian — Tue, 09 Dec 2014 00:00:14 -0500

Civilians, especially corporate types, are not equipped to deal with us fresh out of the service. We call it like we see it and don't waste the time and energy looking for someone to point the finger at when something is screwed up- we just fix it! I still remember the first project that I worked on for developing a new piece of equipment. I sat in the meeting listening to software engineers complain about this and that, while the hardware engineers complained items in their arena- all these "great minds" in one room but nobody talking with each other....until the group leader got to me. I played "go between" for the software guys and the hardware guys for about 5 minutes before I got fed up with their inability to talk across the table, which is what I made them do. In 10 minutes we had about 12 items knocked out on a punchlist that had been untouched for 2 months. They lack basic leadership skills IMO.

Response by MSgt John McDowell made Jan 16 at 2015 11:02 AM

MSgt John McDowell — Fri, 16 Jan 2015 11:02:26 -0500

I have spent the last 14 years in the civilian job sector, some professional and some in the service industry. The biggest problem I run into is a retired NCO is whenever I'm in a situation where there seems to be a vacuum of leadership or teamwork, I naturally assume that role and provide guidance, which isn't always appreciated, because many people feel threatened and will complain. They confuse a confident personality with that of a rude person. In many job situations doing more than what is expected or asked for is often frowned upon and can often get you in trouble. Veterans must learn that the civilian job sector is much more feelings based on vast perceptions of others. When veterans see poor performance traits or wasteful practices and those who display a lack of integrity it can be nearly impossible to keep quiet about it. As a Store Manager at a Home Depot I leaned toward verbal coaching of employees to inspire change in behavior to prevent punitive paperwork in their personnel file. I soon learned that the prefered method of coaching is on paper with the HRM. Counseling civilian subordinates should always be done this way because they are often afraid their job is on line, so they easily feel threatened and are likely to say just about anything to get out of trouble. That is probably the biggest area of soft skills I had to learn and after 14 years in the private sector, I'm still learning.

Response by Cpl Patrik Bernard made Jan 17 at 2015 7:35 PM

Cpl Patrik Bernard — Sat, 17 Jan 2015 19:35:46 -0500

I especially liked this observation

"The reason I am driving at this particular skill set is because it is not nearly as common as you would think outside of the service. The ability to walk onto a project or team with patience, humility, and the ability to see the strengths and weaknesses in the team around you is actually quite rare, but a personality trait that the military hones in us because of its absolute necessity in most operations".

Response by CPT Craig Church, ASLA, LEED GA made Jan 18 at 2015 7:17 PM

CPT Craig Church, ASLA, LEED GA — Sun, 18 Jan 2015 19:17:38 -0500

Very well put, excellent, thanks

Response by PO1 Chad Alcock made Feb 2 at 2015 1:40 PM

PO1 Chad Alcock — Mon, 02 Feb 2015 13:40:47 -0500

I agree completely with MAJ Hamilton in what most veterans have to offer. In working with veterans, some just leaving service, I see that most of them don't understand what soft skills the have to offer. The skills that George listed are things we take for granted in the military. To many time I have had an infantry soldier come out and say they want to be a "cop" because the skills that pertain to that occupation are the only ones that the SM recognizes. When I speak with them I try to get them to recognize the "Soft Skills" that are ingrained. I felt much the same way when I left the Navy; lost, scared, depressed, confused, etc. Much of it was from lack of knowledge. I try to assuage this in the fresh from the military when I can. I will be using your article (if that's ok) to help them understand what they have to offer and the importance of those skills. Thanks for putting the value of veterans in such an understandable article.