“I'm in the beauty industry. I'm this ex-combat arms officer who knows way too much about cosmetics now. I think it's really funny. For me, timing really worked out. When we started Soko Glam, I was an Executive Aide to a General Officer. Although my time was really sporadic, for the most part I was in garrison. So I had a lot of time to research and take night classes, research certain things and go out and network. That would be my piece of advice - when you're still in really take the time to meet people and figure out what you want to do. Do as much reading as possible but you gotta go out there and meet people."
– David Cho
David Cho is the Co-Founder and CEO of Soko Glam - an eCommerce beauty shop and lifestyle brand with the best selection of Korean Beauty products and content. Dave started out at West Point, and served as a Combat Arms Officer for over 8 years. After his transition from the Army, David attended Columbia Business School, during which he worked at Facebook as a Global Accounts Intern. In this conversation, we cover a lot of topics, including:
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“Aim high - aim way higher than you think that you should. Because you have so much to offer and we need your expertise and talent in the private sector; we'd be lucky to have you. But you've gotta go for it. Don't let this be the moment in your career or life where you settle. You've got to go for it. And so let this be the time when you really shoot for the stars because you've earned it - you've earned this opportunity."
– Bethany Coates
Normally, I interview a veteran about their civilian career. In this episode, instead, I interview an amazing company that is helping veterans in their career transition.
BreakLine is an education and employment company that builds an affordable path to compelling careers. Their programs combine skills-based training with professional networking and connect participants directly with hiring managers.
Bethany Coates is the Founder & CEO of BreakLine. She has served as the Assistant Dean at Stanford Graduate School of Business, and has been a consultant at McKinsey & Co. She holds an MBA from Stanford Business School, and a BA from Princeton University.
In this conversation, we cover a lot of topics, including:
Selected Links
“Instead of complaining about what I can't do because I'm in the Navy, I decided what can I do to help the Navy? How can I be the change that I want to see? Because if everyone leaves and decides to get out... I hate to break it to you, it's not that easy. You have all types of irritants. Just like you have irritants in the Navy there are irritants in every industry. That doesn't mean you shouldn't get out, but don't expect to not have irritants. And I've learned to deal with those irritants a lot better.
– Nicole Schwegman
Nicole Schwegmen is an industry Fellow (Tours with Industry) with USAA and is currently on active duty in the US Navy. She started out at the Naval Academy, after which she served as a Surface Warfare Officer for four years, and then a Public Affairs Officer. She first left the Navy in 2008, where she worked at a small PR firm, as a Contractor for Deloitte, and then as a Communications Partner for Gallup. She returned to Active Duty in 2010 after a deployment to Afghanistan, moved to San Diego, deployed on two different surface ships (USS Essex and USS Peleliu) then got a Master's in Journalism and Media Studies at San Diego State.
In this conversation, we cover a lot of topics, including:
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“I think that’s one of the things that I love most about my job is that my whole life I’ve always been interested in the news and what’s going on in the world. Now I feel like I get paid to pay attention to it. Any obscure reference, you could make a case that it can have an effect on the market. And for that reason, you truly have to stay engaged in what’s going on."
– Casey Carroll
Casey Carroll lives in Charlotte, North Carolina and works with Wells Fargo in their Credit Sales department. He started out at Duke University, where he studied History and Visual Arts, and was on the Men’s Lacrosse Team. He served for four and a half years in the Army with the Rangers as a Fire team Leader. After transitioning from the Army he returned to Duke, this time at their Fuqua School of Business.
In this conversation, we cover a lot of topics, including:
“In a brand new, early stage startup, no one can be above doing something. As the months rolled on, I started to get an appreciation for just how much a startup was like my military experience. I really leaned in and relied on that experience in saying, “I’ve never done marketing, I’ve never worked in a CPG company, I’ve never worked in an e-commerce company, but what I have done is worked in a really chaotic environment without a lot of guidance and had to roll up my sleeves and get it done. So I might not know startups, I might not marketing, I might not know e-commerce or food, but I know how to operate in this environment. So trust yourself, trust your gut - you can do this."
– Molly Laufer
Molly Laufer is the Director of Client Strategy in the Marketing & Advertising space with the Company, Oxford Road - which is the fastest growing full-service ad agency serving the Consumer Tech industry.
She started out at the University of Virginia, where she did ROTC and earned a Bachelor of Arts in Foreign Affairs and Russian. Molly then served for four years in the Navy as a Surface Warfare Officer, serving onboard the Frigate USS SAMUEL B. ROBERTS as well as with DESTROYER SQUADRON 23. When she transitioned from the Navy, she was the first employee of the startup, NatureBox - a company that now has over 100 employees and has raised over $58M in funding. At NatureBox she started with Social Media and Content Marketing, and eventually became their Director of Customer Acquisition
In this conversation, we cover a lot of topics, including:
QUESTION OF THE DAY: How can I make these episodes more valuable to active duty military personnel considering transitioning to the civilian world? Please let me know in the comments.
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“Just being totally honest - you really are far behind. It's a better assumption that you're behind that you're ahead. It's not like everyone else who didn't spend time in the military is out there playing Lincoln Logs. They've got a job and they're developing skills and they're learning. I went into my transition with the assumption that I was nine years behind every pedigreed person out there. And I feel that attitude helped drive my hunger to play a very intense game of catch up."
– Brit Yonge
Brit Yonge is the Chief of Staff to the CTO at Palantir Technologies, a Palo Alto based technology company that has raised over $2B in funding, and was co-founded by silicon valley legend, Peter Thiel.
Brit started out at the Naval Academy and served as an officer in the Navy for 5 years, where he served in Operation Iraqi Freedom (OIF) and Operation Enduring Freedom (OEF) supporting Special Operations Forces (SOF) in kinetic and non-kinetic operations. Brit transitioned from the military directly to Palantir Technologies, first as a Deployment Strategist and then as their Head of Asia ex Japan, where he lead Palantir's Asia HQ, and now as the Chief of Staff to the CTO.
In this conversation, we cover a lot of topics, including:
QUESTION OF THE DAY: How can I make these episodes more valuable to active duty military personnel considering transitioning to the civilian world? Please let me know in the comments.
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“What a lot of people do in networking is they go in with the mindset of “what can I get from it.” The important switch i made was, “what can I give to this relationship that I’m looking to start.” Stop trying to figure out what’s in it for you. Give and it’s the law of nature - if you plant seeds of good and positive vibrations all the time, it’s going to come back to you."
– Andreas Jones
Travis Collier is is the CEO and Principal Business Strategist and Leadership Consultant at Combat Business Coaching. Andreas served in the US Army for over 8 years, where he was as a Logistics & Supply Chain Manager. In his civilian career he has worked as: a contributing writer to Forbes and The Huffington Post; a Project Manager work at The Home Depot; and a Vice President of Procurement and Strategy at the Financial Services Company, the Sun Trust.
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In this conversation, we cover a lot of topics, including:
QUESTION OF THE DAY: How can I make these episodes more valuable to active duty military personnel considering transitioning to the civilian world? Please let me know in the comments.
Scroll below for links and show notes…
“Really its a full time job to get a full-time job. Sometimes with veterans, we're bringing these unfathomable managerial skills to these organizations that we transition to. But we forget that stuff shouldn't just be handed to us... I'm the queen of the cold email now, and I wish that I would have had that confidence as I transitioned to try to find veterans at companies that I was interested in, and to hear what their transition was like."
– Brooke Jones-Chinetti
Brooke Jones-Chinetti lives in New York, where she most recently served as the CEO of VetTechTrek - a startup that facilitates high-impact trips to leading tech companies for veterans and their spouses. She started out at West Point, where she received her Bachelor of Science in Portuguese and Environmental Engineering. She served in the US Army for over 6 years, during which she deployed to Iraq as part of Operation Iraqi Freedom, and to Kuwait as part of Operation Enduring Freedom - Spartan Shield.
She also served as Senior Director of Human Resources and served as the executive officer for the Army's Chief of Signal, a 2-star general position. After her transition from the Army, she spent a year in the Financial Services industry with JPMorgan Chase & Co. as part of their rotational Executive Development Program. She is currently studying at Columbia Business School.
In this conversation, we cover a lot of topics, including:
QUESTION OF THE DAY: How can I make these episodes more valuable to active duty military personnel considering transitioning to the civilian world? Please let me know in the comments.
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“It's so unfortunate that veterans don't practice their new life, until they're in their new life. And really by then, you're behind the eight ball. So really any chance you get to take now while you're in uniform - look at it this way: the military is funding you as the R&D project to find the best life and the best way you can serve others. Finding those condensed opportunities to gain that experience, to gain that data. It's really traingulating - you're taking a fix on geography, income, occupation and fit. If it works it works, if it doesn't then you just keep trying something else."
– Travis Collier
Travis Collier is a Journeyman Marine Inspector with the US Coast Guard, where he has served for the last 15 years. He holds a Bachelors Degree in Government and International Affairs from the US Coast Guard Academy, and a Master’s in Instructional & Performance Technology from Boise State University.
He is the author of the books "Command Your Transition" & “SCALE”, and works as a coach for military members with 8-10 years of service to implement an intent and strategy to transition out the military and achieve even greater success on the outside .
In this conversation, we cover a lot of topics, including:
QUESTION OF THE DAY: How can I make these episodes more valuable to active duty military personnel considering transitioning to the civilian world? Please let me know in the comments.
Scroll below for links and show notes…
“I was under the impression that theres this war for talent out there and everyone is trying to recognize talented individuals. My experience is that companies are looking for a round peg to fit into a round hole, and it doesn't really matter how awesome the peg is; if it doesn't fit exactly they're not interested. It doesn't matter how valuable a jack of all trades is - because they are - a swiss army knife is an incredibly valuable tool. But that doesn't help you get your foot in the door."
– Eric Hulbert
Eric Hulbert is a Consultant at the Boston Consulting Group in their Atlanta Office. He started out at the Naval Academy, where he graduated with a Bachelor of Science in History. After that he served for over 11 years as a pilot, Wing Asst Training Officer, Maritime Watch Officer, and ROTC instructor. After his transition from the military, Eric worked in the Finance Industry at Bank of America - as a Vice Principal of Strategy Analyst. Eric holds an MBA and a Masters of Science in Industrial & Systems Engineering from the University of Florida
In this conversation, we cover a lot of topics, including:
QUESTION OF THE DAY: How can I make these episodes more valuable to active duty military personnel considering transitioning to the civilian world? Please let me know in the comments.
Scroll below for links and show notes…
“I think that failure is such a scary word to anyone in a large organization, because generally in a large organization - like the military or government - they train you to not discuss failure openly. But in grappling with what you want to do next in life and coming to gips with who you are you need to develop a lot more candor. And you need to develop resiliency. It helped me to really reflect on how much sacrifice will I be willing to make in order to achieve what I want to achieve; and how will i talk about my failures to other people so I can help them."
– Graham Plaster
Graham Plaster a Senior Adviser at the Defense Language and National Security Education Office. He started out at the Naval Academy, where he received his Bachelors degree in English. After that, he served in the Navy for 11 years as: a Surface Warfare Officer, the Assistant Dean of Students at the Naval War College, a United Nations Liaison Officer, a Foreign Area Officer, and a Navy Staff Officer for the OPNAV Staff. Since his transition to his civilian career he has worked as a consultant, author, editor, founder and advisor in a variety of capacities in the Washington D.C. area
In this conversation, we cover a lot of topics, including:
QUESTION OF THE DAY: How can I make these episodes more valuable to active duty military personnel considering transitioning to the civilian world? Please let me know in the comments.
Scroll below for links and show notes…
“I think that startups - both sides, employers and vets - are a perfect match. If you think about what they ask you to do when you're a Junior Officer... I was a Truck Platoon Commander. They literally dropped me in Iraq and were like 'Go run convoys.' and I was like 'Well... I gotta figure this out.' Anyone that can do that, who has had those junior positions - either on the officer or enlisted side - can absolutely do what it takes to get something done, and quickly analyze the solution, make the best decision you can with 80% of the information or maybe less than that. So that's why I think it's an incredible fit."
– Katie Horgan
Katie Horgan is a the Senior Director of Operations at Crave Crush - a very interesting New York based Health & Wellness startup. She started out at the University of Southern California, where she earned her Bachelor of Arts in Political Science. After that she served for over six years in the Marine Corps, serving as a Platoon Commander, Company Commander, and Operations Officer, spending time as a convoy commander in Iraq and serving as part of a crisis response force in the pacific theater. When she transitioned from the military she went to Columbia Business School where she earned her MBA. From Business school she went to the NY-based startup, Plated, first as their Director of Operations & Logistics, and then as their Senior Director of Operations & Logistics.
In this conversation, we cover a lot of topics, including:
QUESTION OF THE DAY: How can I make these episodes more valuable to active duty military personnel considering transitioning to the civilian world? Please let me know in the comments.
Scroll below for links and show notes…