Veterans Series: If you don't find a job, create one! Conversation with Fred Wellman

This post is part of a series that already includes conversations with:

Chris Norton: Veterans are social and connected

Lance Sapera: The service is a long version of University

Caleb Fullhart: An army recruiter changed my life forever

Arron Daniels: I Can Knock It Out of the Park!

Rhonda Stickley: Embracing the Learn and Grow Veterans' ethos to understand leadership

Brenda Bell: Veterans will help your company succeed

Max Dubroff: Ten recommendations to veterans.

By Marylene Delbourg-Delphis

Fred Wellman is the founder-CEO of ScoutComms, a social enterprise communications, advocacy and philanthropic strategy firm supporting veterans, military families and organizations committed to their well-being.

How did you get into the military? What did you do and for how long?

I “rebelled” as a teenager and instead of going to the University of Missouri like the rest of my family I got crazy and went to the United States Military Academy at West Point. I graduated in 1987 and was commissioned as an Aviation officer and eventually found myself as a Scout helicopter pilot in various units around the world and in Operation Desert Storm. I served 13 years before leaving the Regular Army for the Reserves only to be mobilized on 9/11 and return again to the active force. I deployed with the 101^st Airborne Division for opening year of Operation Iraqi Freedom and while in Iraq found myself supporting the local population and eventually in the news. The division commander was then Major General David Petraeus and he decided to make me the division public affairs officer when we returned. I later served as his spokesman in Iraq as well as then Lt. Gen. Martin Dempsey who is now the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs. I attended grad school at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government and was assigned to the Pentagon. After my third Iraq tour in 2008 I decided to retire after 22 total years of service.

If you don’t find a job, create one! Right?    

Yes! After leaving the military, I joined a small firm but soon found out that it wasn’t a good fit. Then I interviewed for jobs, but no one was hiring me in November of 2010; so I struck out on my own.  I saw there was a niche for someone who understood the military, defense and veterans’ worlds at larger PR firms. So, I started my own firm essentially as a professional sub-contractor to larger PR firms. Gradually we just grew on our own merits and kept picking up unique opportunities and partners. Our big break came when The Home Depot Foundation decided to focus on veterans housing issues and brought us on to their team for the launch and program three years ago and since then more and more of our work has focused exclusively on veteran’s issues. For the last year or so, a significant part of our work has focused on veteran family issues, on military caregivers for our wounded and disabled veterans, and on supporting the Get Skills to Work program bringing veterans to work in the advanced manufacturing industry. We also got involved in supporting the Institute for Veterans and Military Families at Syracuse University, which does a lot of the thinking on these issues and focuses on entrepreneurship and job training. So really, that’s our thing.

ScoutComms, my company, which is based in Virginia, has now been around for three years and at the beginning of this year we turned it into a social enterprise ‘Benefit Corporation’. So we now have a structure as a benefit corporation with social mission focused on veterans and military families.

We’re really a weird little company. It’s foundation are communications-based initiatives; advocacy, being experts in our field; helping craft philanthropic strategies and reach veterans and military families. It’s just sort of a unique niche, and we’ve gotten pretty good at it. A lot of people first hire us as PR, but also look to us as a military expert, if you will, even though I hate that term – “expert.” Then, when we grew, since all we did was veterans and military families, we thought we would go out and meet non-profits for them, we’d vet them for the client, we would look for opportunities for them to apply their mission to new ways, sniffing out fakes or poorly run non-profits. I think we’ve done it all, as far as being people who understand the veteran’s space and help our clients navigate this unusual sector.

As a PR firm, what do you exactly do?

We are specialists in focusing on the military and veteran’s media and target audiences. Take The Home Depot for example. On the corporate side we’ve quite a bit and won awards for our work with them. Our biggest project was the Mission: Transition campaign last year. We partnered with the MSLGroup on that one and we were brought in by The Home Depot to serve as the military focused extension to the campaign. We handled the military focused media, government media, and outreach to the military transition programs to reach potential attendees. We did a lot of outreach to the Army, for example the Army’s Soldier for Life campaign and the Army’s community relations program to get as many soldiers as possible to attend the workshops with postings in every Army transition office around the world. We also leveraged our extensive relationships with the veteran’s service organizations and non-profits to get the word to their members and reach more of the veteran population. In the end every workshop at over 100 locations were filled and the campaign won several awards including two Silver Anvils from PRSA.

Tell me more about the Get Skills to Work program

We have been very fortunate to be part of supporting GE’s leadership of the Get Skills to Work program. Just over a year and a half ago, GE recognized they faced a skills gap of employees in the manufacturing industry. To address it they decided to focus on bringing veterans into the industry, but they wanted to go beyond just a hiring program – they had that already. So they partnered with the Manufacturing Institute, which is a part of the National Manufacturing Association here in Washington and several other companies and non-profits.  Now they’ve built a coalition of now over five hundred companies, ranging in size from twelve-man operations here in Fredericksburg, VA to GE, Alcoa, Boeing, Lockheed Martin, the founding partners. And they’ve also built a coalition of over fifty schools, where veterans can go Get Skills to Work training, at community colleges and technical schools, to get advanced manufacturing certifications and qualifications. We’re talking CNC Machine Operator, Machinist, Welder, Logistics Analyst’s there’s some eleven specific career fields, and then these guy and girls find jobs in the manufacturing industry. The program is growing every day and is really just getting its legs and making a difference in the community.

What are your top recommendations to organizations?

I apply the “kitchen sink” approach to working with the veterans and military family communities. In other words the challenges for these communities is that they don’t have just one solution so we need to throw everything and the kitchen sink to solve the problems. I tell organizations to look for areas that aren’t being addressed. For example, while young veteran unemployment is finally coming down to manageable levels we continue to see our military spouses struggle to find work and it impacts the military community. I believe organizations should seek opportunities for impact giving instead of throwing out “cardboard checks” where possible. In other words, find quality non-profits that are making a difference in the communities and ensure your money is making as big an impact as possible. I believe giving should align with a companies core principals and priorities. If your company is oriented on the health and wellness of its employees then seek out organizations like Team Red, White & Blue which use physical fitness activities to bring veterans and their communities together. Don’t believe the hype about veteran’s challenges fitting in companies and especially all of us having PTSD or other problems. The overwhelming majority of veterans in poll after poll are well adjusted and better for their service. There are clearly those in our community struggling but don’t assume all veterans are in that place.

Veterans Series: Ten recommendations to veterans. A conversation with Max Dubroff

This post is part of a series that already includes conversations with:

Chris Norton: Veterans are social and connected

Lance Sapera: The service is a long version of University

Caleb Fullhart: An army recruiter changed my life forever

Arron Daniels: I Can Knock It Out of the Park!

Rhonda Stickley: Embracing the Learn and Grow Veterans' ethos to understand leadership

Brenda Bell : Veterans will help your company succeed

By Marylene Delbourg-Delphis

Max Dubroff is the"HR MAXimizer" of Buy for Le$$, a leading grocery provider of fresh, diverse, unique and economical food products in Oklahoma which he joined in 2009 after over 20 years in the military. He graduated from the US Air Force Academy and selected the Security Police career field, which he says was "a fantastic decision.  I learned tremendous amounts about leadership and had many opportunities to have positive impacts on the mission and people.  For one-fourth of my career, I was entrusted with command of two squadrons, the most rewarding role in my life."  If I had to summarize Max's approach, I would say that he never left his life entirely up to chance and instead deliberately created his own luck with amazing focus and determination.

What did you do to transition from the Military to a civilian position?

I got educated.  I earned a degree in human resource management 17 years prior to retirement, because I thought I might like that field; it was a key differentiator and helped me earn more.

I was mentally prepared.  Although I was never impacted by a RIF (Reduction-in-Force), I realized that everyone needs to be prepared at all times. My professional readings included books and magazines that helped me get an understanding of the culture outside the military, particularly in business. I went to transition assistance twice, once prior to retirement in Germany and then while on terminal leave in Oklahoma. Both were a little out of touch with what companies really want, but they helped me figure out my own path.

I networked.  I found a great mentor in the HR field who specializes in networking. I joined Toastmasters; I went to Rotary meetings; I joined the local HR professionals organization... None of it got me a job.  But, I was learning more about the community. I got certified.  I studied for professional certification and earned it.  Military certifications do not mean much to civilian employers. I looked everywhere.  I had to get over the idea of working for the #1 company in the area and look at industries I had not considered.  I accepted every interview opportunity and saw it as a chance to hone my skills; that is how I found my job ... I wasn't looking at them, but I was ready for when I met them. I accepted a challenging position in a company that was strong and growing, that I knew I could have a great impact on.  I didn't get paid as much as I wanted, but I knew I would earn more as I proved my value.

What are your top ten recommendations to veterans?

 1. You're not the only ones who work hard.  Small and medium businesses (i.e. the majority of businesses that exist) have a level of 'do more with less' that exceeds what most veterans can fathom.  Sure, there are some nice, laid-back companies out there; but, many of them are getting passed by the smart, hard-working ones.

 2. It is competitive.  Don't presume that 'qualified' is enough ... There are plenty of people who are qualified.  Know yourself and have a focus on what you want. Note that as a hiring manager, I am turned off by someone who says, "I'll do anything" because it won't be a good marriage."

 3. Look for entry points to organizations you want.  It might not be the dream job at first, but it will give you the opportunity to prove your value and progress to that dream job after a long time. The military culture typically thinks in shorter 'tours' than civilian businesses, so be ready to persist.

 4. Be realistic.  Picture yourself in the military, having numerous years of experience ... and then they announce that they are bringing in a person who has extensive experience in leading businesses ... to be your commander!  How absurd, right?  Well, the same logic applies to you.  Don't expect to enter the business world at (or near) the top after having no experience in their industry [see #2 above].

 5. Learn the civilian jargon.  I met a retired E-8 who wrote on his resume that he was the chief operations officer for his organizations.  He had no idea what that meant and his rationalization exposed his weaknesses.  Yes, we hope they will accommodate us and try to figure out what our jargon means; but, they are looking at piles of resumes and you want yours to stand out.

 6. A good resume takes lots of work; but a good resume won't get you a job.  You need a great resume to even get noticed, and that will take tons of work.  Buy or borrow some books and get advice from others.  Trim it down and make it focused on the key points.  Leave white space and make it readable.

 7. Interview a lot.  Every interview is different and you will learn about yourself and be better prepared for the most important interview when the opportunity comes.

 8. Do not pay for assistance right away.  Resume writing services are most helpful if you have been working on your resume for months and can't see the next rendition.  There are also agencies that will help prep, network and place you for a mere $3k-$4k. I haven't seen a good one yet, but I am sure they are out there.  Make sure you do your homework and check their results carefully before you open your wallet.

 9. Volunteer.  It's a great way to network and develop some experience.  During my employment, I have continued to volunteer, which has resulted in more great leadership opportunities, including a position as a board chair and nomination to be a commissioner.

 10. Be real and positive.  The interview is not just about them deciding if they like you; it is also about you deciding if you like them!  Use this as the opportunity to prevent getting into a bad relationship.  Look at non-selection as a chance to re-evaluate what you are and what you want.  If you come into the interview exhausted and beaten by repeated rejection, I will not be interested.

Veterans Series: Veterans will help your company succeed: Conversation with Brenda Bell

By Sophie Delphis

This post is part of a series that already includes conversations with:

Rhonda Stickley: Embracing the Learn and Grow Veterans' ethos to understand leadership

Lance Sapera: The service is a long version of University

Chris Norton: Veterans are social and connected

Caleb Fullhart: An army recruiter changed my life forever

Arron Daniels: I Can Knock It Out of the Park!

My mother (Marylene Delbourg-Delphis) hired Brenda Bell in the late eighties to work for her company at the time, ACIUS, the maker of 4^th Dimension. Back then, Brenda was barely out of her teens, with two children, a limited college education, little job experience and a place in the Army Reserve (Military Police —670 MP Company California Army National Guard), but my mother was interested in this young woman in spite of her less-than-perfect corporate package. During and after her time at ACIUS, Brenda was called in to First Gulf War, earned two college degrees and worked her way through a series of high tech jobs that eventually landed her in her current position at IBM. I grew up hearing her interesting and inspiring story, and I was excited to learn that my mother was interviewing her as part of her ongoing series on hiring veterans. 

Brenda was very young, and not necessarily an obvious hire... In fact, both women laugh at the memory of my mother teaching Brenda how to put on make-up, how to talk to a diverse group of people, etc.

Brenda Bell: I was twenty years old. You took a chance on me, and you taught me a lot. It really helped, because you deal with a lot of people. And I’m comfortable to be dealing with lots of different people on a day-to-day basis.

Brenda was the first veteran my mother hired. Since then, she has been able to experience first-hand how flexible and versatile veterans can be when given a chance.

She did not see it as a problem that Brenda was in the Reserve, nor that she ended up taking some time off because of the first Gulf War – ultimately accommodating an employee was worth a bit of restructuring. And Brenda’s choice to enter the military made sense.

Brenda Bell: I had gone to college, and I wasn’t successful. I didn’t have parent financial support, so I had a lot of student loans. The military paid off all of my loans, and they provided me educational benefits: for staying in the Reserve after I got out of the military, they paid for further college. That’s really why I went into the military: I had a lot of student loan debt, and I didn’t have a lot of job skills, and it was a good way for me to start paying back my college debt and then gain some skills and allow me to go back to school.

After initially earning her two-year Associate’s Degree in Management, she returned to school after the military to earn two Bachelor’s Degrees in Organizational Management and Computer Science.

Brenda Bell: After I left ACIUS, I went to work for Sybase. And, you know, just being immersed in that environment, working with development tools, I really had to understand software development and design, so having this degree in organizational management wasn’t enough. I had to continue to grow. And that’s another thing you learn in the military, because they keep having you take leadership courses to grow and learn, so that helped me to be willing to go out and get that second degree, to learn more.

So I went back to school, part-time in the evenings, out here in New England, and I got a second degree and continued to work for some software companies and a couple of start-ups. One of the start-ups I was working for was going out of business and sold their code to Rational, which was then acquired by IBM and so I was able to branch out to other divisions within IBM.

Brenda's background in the military has proved immensely useful.

Brenda Bell: The relationships I formed in the military and my understanding of military structure help me pretty much everyday. In my particular environment, I sell to federal customers on a daily basis, so being able to understand what their needs and their challenges are is very helpful. Being able to speak the same language that they speak puts you in a better rapport with them. And also the relationships: I don’t think anybody can discount the value of the relationships that you build in the military, and that a lot of military veterans, once they go out, are willing to help other veterans. So you can use those relationships, too, to help improve your career and help your company to succeed.

This does not mean that veterans have an easy time transferring to civilian careers, however. This is particularly true in the current economic climate, in which employment is tough for young veterans, and tough for young adults in general.

Brenda Bell: My son just came back from a couple of tours, and he was going back to work, and I think one of the hard things, not just from my own experience, but from seeing his experience, is that they don’t know how to translate military skills to civilian skills. He had a very hard time with his resume: he was in the infantry and he was a team leader, but I had to help him translate “What does a team leader do?” into civilian terms.

Brenda is a fantastic example of a single mother who had to get through some rough patches in her life but eventually made it work. She is now a client executive in the Federal Business unit for the Americas at IBM. She lives in New England with her husband and has come a long way from the unfocused, insecure kid she was when she started working at ACIUS. My mother took an interest in seeing this ex-employee develop, and “will always be proud of the role that [she] played in [Brenda’s] career.”

Veterans Series: The service is a long version of University: Conversation with Lance Sapera

Learn more about best practices in recruiting veteran and military job seekers by joining a Talent Circles sponsored webinar on 2/13/14 at 9:00 PM PST. Click here to register & learn more. 

This post is part of a series that already includes conversations with:

Chris Norton: Veterans are social and connected

Caleb Fullhart: An army recruiter changed my life forever

Arron Daniels: I Can Knock It Out of the Park!

Rhonda Stickley: Embracing the Learn and Grow Veterans' ethos to understand leadership

Conversation with Marylene Delbourg-Delphis

Lance Sapera started his civilian career at 24 Hour Fitness in early 2007. He first led multiple Lean/Six Sigma-based Business Process Excellence initiatives, then became the Director of Equipment Standards and was responsible for all fitness equipment purchases, and after that, he led staffing/recruiting efforts across 400 locations in 18 states between 2010 and 2013. Think of it. These are three very different jobs. Where do you find people with a knack for excelling in multiple areas in record time? Your best bet is to look for them in the military, where the key for success is to continuously learn in order to continuously grow. Lance Sapera was from the Navy. He grew up in a Navy family and served in the Navy for 21 years...

Why did you choose the Navy?

Growing up in a Navy family, I already looked favorably upon the idea of public service and considered this option when I was in high school. One of the things that was exciting to me was the opportunity to earn a Naval Reserve Officers Training Corps (NROTC) scholarship. I joined NROTC at the University of Virginia and over the course of four years received extensive leadership and military training while earning my degree.  At the same time I graduated from the University of Virginia, I was commissioned an Officer in the Navy and went to flight school right out of college. This was a very exciting and intense time for our nation.  It was the height of the Cold War as detailed in novels like Red Storm Rising by Tom Clancy about a Third World War in Europe. Coming out of flight school, I selected for the P-3C Orion; the “Mighty Hunter” was the plane I flew.

How do you go from being a pilot to joining 24 Hour Fitness to now the Director of Program Delivery (Talent Acquisition) for ManpowerGroup Solutions supporting Intuit? I am sure that a MOS translator will not immediately reach this conclusion...

One of neatest things about the Navy was the dual requirement in every job.  Although I was a pilot and always training with my crew to be combat ready, I basically got a new job every two years - each with increased responsibility and leadership requirements.  It is important to note that while the new jobs and responsibilities came fast and frequently, I was fortunate to work for - and with - great leaders and mentors who helped me and the teams I led be successful. 

In my first aviation squadron in Brunswick, ME, I worked hard and earned qualifications as aP-3C Instructor Pilot & Mission Commander completing multiple operational deployments including Operation Desert Shield.  Three years later, I was at the Pentagon, first as a Joint Chiefs of Staff Action Officer and then as a White House Liaison Action Officer. My next opportunity came as the Flag Secretary for the USS John C. Stennis aircraft carrier battle group in Norfolk, VA. After only 18 months and earning qualification as a Battle Group Watch Officer, we were transferred to Jacksonville, FL where I served as an FRS Instructor Pilot training newly-winged naval aviators how to fight the P-3C and leading the Instructional Systems Development Division in developing curriculum for all P-3C aircrew.  In 1997, selected to become a squadron Maintenance Officer, I was again in Brunswick, ME flying combat missions in Operation Allied Force and leading 300+ Sailors operating forward deployed in Iceland and Sicily. Two years later I was stationed back in Norfolk, VA, this time as Assistant Chief of Staff, Tactics & New Technology where we crafted a new global operational strategy for the Maritime Patrol and Reconnaissance Community following the Attacks of 9/11. My last position was Commanding Officer, Navy Recruiting District San Francisco in Mountain View, CA where we recruited the best and brightest for naval service.

It was always part of my job to fly the airplane so having this physical piece to my job where you have to get it right every time was exciting, but the additional responsibilities of what the Navy calls "ground jobs" were every bit as challenging and rewarding.  I had the chance to grow from just being a Naval aviator to also being a leader and a mentor for Sailors in my charge.  The emphasis on investing in my own people and teams helped further develop my own “servant leader” philosophy that I first learned from my father.

In short, a MOS translator may provide useful indications, but may not necessarily capture the potential that service men and women have built up through the Military's continuing education

That's right. The service is a long version of University: every two years I was given a new job and they were not concerned whether I had a background in it. The rule is that you must learn quickly, become a subject matter expert and get the job done! Again, I want to emphasize how fortunate I was to have outstanding leaders and mentors supporting my development in each new role.  It is the “Navy Way.”  The Navy was 21 years of constant learning and personal and professional development. You would think I should have become an airline pilot after the Navy. Or that I would have moved immediately into Human Resources given that my last position as Commanding Officer of Navy Recruiting District San Francisco in charge of 300 recruiters. It's not what happened. 24 Hour Fitness used my leadership ability as opposed to any specific skill set. I believe that leadership is a process that you develop over time through different occupations, and to use a quote by John F. Kennedy, "Leadership and learning are indispensable to each other.” The training that the Navy provides is exceptional.

What was your selling point as Commanding Officer of Navy Recruiting District San Francisco?  It must have been very hard to recruit in this area...

Competing against the private sector in Northern California and Northwestern Nevada was a real challenge. But a big selling point was precisely the exceptional training offered by the Navy, and we were able to attract super smart young men and women who realized that the Navy could get them started in their career. It was equally important to them to be part of an organization that was greater than themselves; to be part of making the world safer for democracy; protecting and defending the constitution of the United States along with the fact that they would be able travel the world and make a difference any time there was a global crisis. We saw again recently in the Philippines with the devastating typhoon: a US Navy aircraft carrier,  ships, and aircraft were the first responders to the Philippine islands and the people bringing food, water, electricity and medical supplies. Yes, you attract bright people when you have a mission. Like the advertisement says, “The U.S. Navy, a global force for good!”

How did you approach your search for a civilian job?

I started my search with a couple of criteria. The first was joining an organization that had a mission that was larger than all of us, and one I could believe in. That's why I chose 24 Hour Fitness. The idea of being part of an organization that helped people improve their lives through fitness was exciting, and being part of something like that was a mission I could commit to. The second was a company with great people and strong core values because that was one of my favorite things about the Navy. Really, just like in the Navy: the mission and the people I served with. Fortunately, I found the same things with ManpowerGroup Solutions and Intuit – great companies operating by strong core values with great people.

What is the biggest obstacle for Veterans to land a civilian job?

First, it's the disconnect between society in general and those who have served because less than 1% of Americans have served in the military. So most people don't have an understanding of what military service is about, nor do they really understand what military personnel are capable of (i.e., their skills and abilities).  Second, most veterans work hard in their military job until the day that they separate or they retire. And so for that reason, they don’t give proper thought to “How am I going to transition to the private sector?” It's important to help veterans to do a better job at thinking about how they can take this long university in the service and apply that to some specific opportunities in the private sector. They must not count on just the MOS military translators and then applying for some random job, which only ends up being, as you and I both know, a résumé in a black hole. Those are the two big barriers. Ultimately, it's always a good idea for veterans to target military-friendly companies!

Of course, as far as military-friendly companies, Lance does know what he is talking about. While developing an “employer of choice” talent attraction model for civilians at 24 Hour Fitness, Lance led the efforts that enabled 24 Hour Fitness to rank #74 among the Top 100 Military Friendly Employers and #4 among the Top 25 Military Spouse Friendly Employers in 2012 and 2013. I am certain that his personal leadership will make a difference at ManpowerGroup Solutions too!

Clearly, Lance's years of service are dear to his heart, along with the immense and justified pride he takes from having lived through fascinating times of our history, when he was forward deployed when the Berlin Wall came down or to Desert Storm for example. But what was striking to me as we were talking for this interview, was how his strong emotional bond to the Navy allied with a deep personal kindness and courtesy drove him to help others meaningfully.