Mission Transition: Leveraging Military Skills in the Civilian Job Market

As a Medical Services Corps Officer, or any Commissioned Officer in the US Army, you are often charged with carrying out sizable logistical challenges with ever-changing personnel conditions. At one point, I served as a Treatment Platoon Leader, in charge of about 35 medical professionals and all of the medical equipment and general supplies necessary to transport, set up, and run a small field hospital. We trained on the sub-tasks such as my medics’ trauma intervention skills as well as on the big task of putting all the sub-tasks together. By standards, we had two hours to set up the major components of the field hospital: the tents, power distribution systems, and three trauma ‘bays’ (which were really just portable hospital beds with a big box full of supplies and equipment next to each bed). We had two more hours to set up our ancillary services: dental, x-ray, and laboratory equipment. We were trained to operate under emergency humanitarian or disaster response conditions. Being the ‘leader’ of these operations required, in the moment, a lot of transactional directives backed by the trust, confidence, and relationships built by spending twelve hours a day together, sun up to sun down (especially in Washington State…). There were also many days of mundane vehicle maintenance, record keeping, etc. These tasks are often performed with resource, personnel, and time constraints. 

In my fellowship with Virginia Mason Franciscan Health , I am working with the Emergency Preparedness Team to introduce the Plain Language Initiative to replace color-coded emergency communications. This opportunity has allowed me to build proficiency in stakeholder engagement and change management, but I have also used the team-building, strong interpersonal skills, and organizational skills I refined while on Active Duty. 

As I finish up my four years of Active Duty Service, I am in the job market. I often apply to program manager or program coordinator roles, usually but not always in the health sector. Many of my peers transitioning into the civilian world are also drawn to these roles because most of us have spent years working in operations and logistics as described above. Veterans tend to be resourceful, able to persevere, and bring a wide array of team-building and management skills. When I see a job description that entails managing personnel or a budget or operations, I feel confident drawing on my experiences in the Army. 

While they bring many useful proficiencies, Veterans’ resumes often lack specific industry experience, key technology, or software familiarity that jobs nowadays require. As the generalists that we are, Veterans will often require additional training to be brought up to speed. Some programs exist for transitioning Veterans to teach them coding and other specific in-demand industry skills. Despite this need for industry-specific training, Veterans are great candidates for many positions because you’re likely to have a hard-working and adaptable new addition to your team.