May 5, 2025
00;00;00;00 - 00;00;34;00
Unknown
You're listening to the Oracle Maven podcast, where we bring people
together from the veteran affiliated community to highlight
employees, partners, organizations and those who are continuing the
mission to serve. Welcome to the Maven podcast. I'm your host,
Chris Spencer, and in this episode I'm joined by Bridget Doc
Miller, Oracle talent advisor, U.S. Army veteran, and military
spouse. Bridget's personal and career journey is marked by purpose,
resilience, and an evolving understanding of what it means to lead
with intention.
00;00;34;00 - 00;00;55;11
Unknown
From her early ambitions to a role today in supporting veteran
transitions through coaching for role fit, she shares how her
personal and professional experiences have shaped her approach to
career growth and mentorship. Through Honest reflections, doc talks
about developing the self-awareness to identify what she truly
wanted and how that clarity transformed the way she shows up in her
relationships, her work, and in the guidance she offers others.
00;00;55;12 - 00;01;20;08
Unknown
In this episode, you'll hear a grounded take on the realities of
ambition, the importance of emotional balance, and how veterans and
military spouses can translate their strengths like grit and drive
into any environment without losing what makes them unique. With
insights on communication, adaptability, and owning your story,
this episode is a thoughtful look at how to move forward with
purpose and why doing the internal work is often the most important
part of any process to include getting from where you are to where
you want to be.
00;01;20;08 - 00;01;39;01
Unknown
We have all we need to become the person we want to be. So let's
remember how to connect with others with sincerity and genuine
intent. As we continue the mission to serve. Thanks for listening.
We hope you enjoy this episode, and please remember to check in on
your buddies and family. Doc's contact details are in the podcast
description and you can always find me on LinkedIn.
00;01;39;03 - 00;02;02;24
Unknown
Bridget Miller. Doc, what is going on? Hey, how are you? So good.
How are you doing? Doing all right. So we're here talking about
some things. We're coming into Military Appreciation Month, and for
you, I'm sure that's considered every month. Veteran's day is every
day, that type of thing. Spouse day is every day, every day, every
day. So let's do that.
00;02;02;28 - 00;02;24;12
Unknown
Let's talk about Bridget Doc Miller. Yeah, sure. First of all, you
know how much I love talking about myself. So you must have some
special magic to get me to agree to this, but really excited to be
here. Thanks for having me on. I guess going back to the beginning,
I grew up in Ohio, went and did my undergraduate, the university of
Akron.
00;02;24;14 - 00;02;45;09
Unknown
And then during that time, that's where I enlisted into the Army
within the National Guard component. So I was A68 whiskey or a
medic within the National Guard. I would say that's kind of the
point. That really changed the pathway of my life. And I've been
working with the military population pretty much ever since then.
In college.
00;02;45;09 - 00;03;08;11
Unknown
That's where I met my husband, Tyler. Back then, he was a, you
know, cadet in ROTC. I loved making fun of him for that one, but he
eventually commissioned, when active duty, and we actually spent
the first six months of our marriage geo batching. So that was
pretty much a crash course in the solitary lifestyle of a military
spouse that we see sometimes.
00;03;08;14 - 00;03;32;25
Unknown
And I really got to see, you know, the military affiliation from a
new perspective. During that time, I stayed back in Ohio while he
did his initial entry training. So that that bullock training that
Army officers need to go to when they first start finished up my
MBA. It was definitely just a total head down, grinding time of my
life that it is absolutely quick as I could.
00;03;32;27 - 00;03;57;18
Unknown
And I also worked in the military science department helping
recruit for the RTC program. Got to do some pretty cool stuff while
I was in that role. Even got to read my husband's commissioning, as
the MC, which was pretty cool. We met back up later, my husband and
I at Fort Bragg and I worked for a university, helping to build
their military pipeline as a national military recruiter.
00;03;57;21 - 00;04;23;19
Unknown
So traveled around all over the United States just helping build
that military affiliated pipeline, meeting tons and just awesome
people. That role in particular was, you know, really life
changing. I developed really quickly as a professional and learned
how to hold my own in a roomful of veterans that looked different
than me. Right? I was the only woman veteran at the time.
00;04;23;23 - 00;04;48;23
Unknown
I worked with only male military retirees. So I was the young woman
in a crowd that just was completely different on the experience
level than I was, but I had a really good leader there. Shout out
to Bob Habib if he's listening. But he always amplified my voice,
and he really gave me a seat at the table in the veteran space,
which I think was the push that I needed.
00;04;48;26 - 00;05;09;17
Unknown
I couldn't take that role with me when we pieces. We ended up
moving after a few years to Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri, and I
couldn't take it with me there. But honestly, that was kind of a
blessing in disguise. Because that's how I landed here at Oracle.
Started as a military veteran sourcing a recruiter, actually, at
that time, got to work pretty close with you.
00;05;09;17 - 00;05;34;11
Unknown
And that's how we met. So loved that experience. But I was helping
build the military veteran pipelines into multiple of the military
pathways here at Oracle. So things like that academy, you know,
skill bridge, sweet beds, those types of things, and then later
moved into the talent advisor role handling the full cycle of the
candidate experience from, you know, that first call all the way to
the offer.
00;05;34;14 - 00;05;59;07
Unknown
And I still have some hands and things like skill bridge, sweep
pads, those types of programs as well. Now where I'm at today, I am
currently out of Fort Campbell, Tennessee. We are kind of in the
midst of a PKS move right now, like we were talking about before
this, to the Washington, DC area. So moving to Springfield, dealing
with the new military, moving contracts and all of that.
00;05;59;07 - 00;06;22;17
Unknown
So I'm definitely kind of in the middle of all of those challenges.
But looking forward to moving there next month. Very nice, very
precise backstory. Appreciate the the work putting in there to make
it simple. There's no doubt way too much detail. No, no, I think
you just write them out. You left out a piece though, because
you're going on a career path and talking about education in
somewhere in there.
00;06;22;17 - 00;06;52;02
Unknown
You earned a PhD. Yeah. So that leader that I had mentioned, doctor
Bob Habib, he it really encouraged me to kind of pursue my passion
of working with the military population. And at the time, I didn't
know exactly what I wanted to look like. I knew I wanted to have an
impact on military affiliated individuals, whether that be spouses,
veterans, active service members, whatever it was, I knew that's
the space I wanted to be in.
00;06;52;04 - 00;07;17;26
Unknown
And when you get to that level of education, it's really nice
because you can kind of tailor everything you do over multiple
years to a very specific topic. So you're going really deep into
one topic, not so narrow across a variety of topics. So. So the
next few years I researched and developed a seminar series I kind
of wrote.
00;07;18;00 - 00;07;48;12
Unknown
I would call it like a mini book, right? My dissertation
equivalency. But that centered around how organizations can
recruit, retain, develop military affiliated individuals. Where I
saw the need was, you know, I originally went in thinking that I
would help develop something that would help transitioning service
members, moving into the corporate space. But I realized that those
programs were out there.
00;07;48;12 - 00;08;14;02
Unknown
There was a lot of programs out there that already address that
need, and what I didn't see as much of was, from the organizational
perspective, how we can bring veterans in and support them through
their corporate journey as well. So that seminar series was a three
part series. So the first one was just familiarity of the military
population, kind of educating organizational leaders on the
basics.
00;08;14;02 - 00;08;35;29
Unknown
I remember, you know, during my like pre seminar series assessment,
one of the questions was can you name the branches of the military
and very, very few of the participants were able to do that. So I
noticed that a lot of the main findings around readiness for
veterans just centered around the general education to the public
about the military population.
00;08;36;01 - 00;08;57;24
Unknown
So that was kind of the first thing to tackle. And then after that,
we dug a lot more into the recruitment and then specifically the
retention of that population as well. Nice. I'm taking nice, nice.
Yes, because it all ties back. And if if anybody's familiar, if
anybody listening is familiar with how RDoC works now, it makes
sense.
00;08;57;29 - 00;09;17;18
Unknown
It's everything should click right now because you have you have a
yeah I know you're very humble and yes to go back to what you're
saying, it did take a couple of attempts to try to get Bridgette on
on the podcast here, because it is it is to, to define what the
what what the top track would include and things like that.
00;09;17;18 - 00;09;33;28
Unknown
And so but the reality is your influence is greatly appreciated
because of what you do and how you do the how you do what you do
for the recruiting and then the conversations. I think even though
recruiting is a channel and that's the focal, the focal point of
what what you're doing, but why you're doing it is not that so
much.
00;09;33;28 - 00;10;03;00
Unknown
I mean, it is it's inclusive, but it's not same. It's it's the
purpose. So let's go back a bit, because a lot of the stuff that we
talk about when we're having a conversation about what we do, and
then as life occurs and the more that we're involved in what we're
doing, whether it's a career or a, you know, a profession or a
habit, hobby, what have you, it's why so early on when you chose to
go in the National Guard, what was the reason?
00;10;03;02 - 00;10;36;18
Unknown
Yeah, I know you're going to ask this. I'm pretty predictable. If
you listen to me, I said I would. I would love to say that I joined
because I had a long family line of military service or, you know,
something like that. But I think if I'm being completely honest
with myself and with you, I just got got by a recruiter, a
recruiter got me at the right time, right place, right point in my
life where, you know, I was in college and I was trying to
self-fund my way through college.
00;10;36;18 - 00;11;04;01
Unknown
And the benefits of joining the military were something that made
sense in my life for me to do. So. Yeah, I was young. I am so glad
that it happened. Because I think it made me who I am today. And I
don't think I realized it at the time, but I'm definitely the type
of person that enjoys working towards a shared goal and working in
an area that's bigger than myself.
00;11;04;01 - 00;11;25;19
Unknown
So if I hadn't enlisted, I think that my life would be in a very
different place than it is now. So yeah, super glad I think I was
just right time, right place and the right recruiter reached out.
That's why I enlisted that. That's good. And of course, be honest
completely with yourself. Yeah, jokes aside, because that does
matter.
00;11;25;19 - 00;11;49;26
Unknown
I mean, and I would love to talk about that. We'll put a pin in it,
because I think that statement alone is important for the things
that occur now when, yeah, when you're paying it forward and trying
to have a conversation with somebody as to why they're wanting what
they're wanting and introspect is important. So being being honest
with yourself is, is the number one thing that for instance factor
accelerator.
00;11;49;26 - 00;12;07;16
Unknown
Right. So the Honor Foundation has a the project vector accelerator
that that has been spun up that focuses on that identity. Being
honest with yourself on what you want to do and what you want to
achieve and things like that. So it is a part of the equation. But
now we're going to the medic, because even though I think if I, if
I didn't know, which I really don't.
00;12;07;16 - 00;12;24;09
Unknown
So this is going to be I'm going to learn from this also it yeah,
it does track as to why selfless reasoning. Even though you're
trying to put yourself through college, there was a point to go
into that, because the reason why you chose to do that still
includes selflessness. Which medic that track, but not talk about
that.
00;12;24;09 - 00;12;50;04
Unknown
Why? Why medic. Yeah. So a couple of reasons. My undergrad was
actually pre pre med. I had planned originally to go into physician
assistant school, after graduation. And, and I'm not doing that
just because of kind of the path that my life was on at the time.
But I was pre-med in my undergrad. So, you know, I was I was
booksmart, and I had the scores to be able to do it.
00;12;50;06 - 00;13;15;14
Unknown
I remember I went into my recruiter's office and I had told him I
wanted to be the closest thing I could to infantry, which at the
time was not an option for me as a woman. So, yeah, I think based
on, you know, the scores, my, my background, the things that I
enjoyed in the medical field and then just trying to get me closer
to, you know, back then the cool guy stuff.
00;13;15;14 - 00;13;36;21
Unknown
Right. That just aligned really well. And yeah, super glad I did
it. Because of the length of, you know, things like I for medics, I
actually split up that experience. So after freshman year of
college, I went to basic training, for Excel to finish up my
sophomore year of college. And then we had something called the
split option.
00;13;36;23 - 00;13;58;02
Unknown
So I did it sophomore year. I think I missed one semester and a
full summer of school, and then spent that time at Fort Sam Houston
going through medical it, getting my EMT, things like that. Fort
Sill, Oklahoma, for those. Listen, beautiful Fort Sill, Oklahoma,
the first time I've ever heard somebody having been there for in
the conversations I've had.
00;13;58;04 - 00;14;20;21
Unknown
So welcome to the board. Fort sill. So how was that experience
that, you know, so let's talk about the recruiter real quick. I
mean, the skill sets, because you are one didn't learn anything
from what you experienced back then. Stick with you to what you're
doing now. Yeah, 100% transparency is the number one thing that
sticks out when we're talking about that.
00;14;20;21 - 00;14;42;16
Unknown
I am a big believer and transparent and see and finding the right
fit for somebody. I don't agree with the concept of kind of selling
a role, and I've never seen anyone at Oracle do that, by the way.
But, I have seen recruiters do that where maybe they're using
excitement of certain things to get somebody into a specific
military MOS.
00;14;42;19 - 00;15;21;25
Unknown
But he was really transparent about, you know, how difficult that
would be, especially as a small small framed person right on five
foot. So going to meet a guy I knew that would be a big physical
challenge for me. So he was really transparent. And the growth that
I needed to have before going to be successful, and I kind of use
that in my role now, because when I'm talking with somebody, I want
to be very transparent about, you know, what the interview process
is, what the role they're interviewing looks like, what that means
for them.
00;15;21;28 - 00;15;45;28
Unknown
And in addition, addressing those gaps and having some coachable
conversations, especially with the military population on how they
can address those gaps throughout their interviews. Right. They may
not have this very specific skill, but they have something along
those same lines from their military background. So helping folks
kind of translate that conversation as well. Yeah, I think he
caught on that.
00;15;45;28 - 00;16;04;17
Unknown
If you if you use the words give me as close to infantry as
possible, he's probably playing off of that says, yeah, well yeah.
Okay. So good on him. You remember. Yeah. 18 year old duck. Yeah.
Todd Everett, great guy. Actually recently transitioned. I had to
send this to him when I, when it lists out, but.
00;16;04;25 - 00;16;30;26
Unknown
Yeah. Great, dude. Nice. Super thankful. Good. So so while while
you're going through all of that, you know, you going for your MBA?
My guess is challenge had become and obviously the alignment
between pursuing educational goals. But challenge seems to be
something that's in your vocabulary up front. You love a challenge.
Yeah. Do you? Yeah. I can get antsy when something becomes too
easy.
00;16;30;26 - 00;16;50;19
Unknown
So when that happens, I find some way to create a challenge in a
fun way. You know, going from like even here at Oracle, going from
sourcing, which is the front half to moving into full cycle, that
created a challenge for me or, you know, finished with school. But
maybe I wanted to pursue something a little deeper. That was
definitely a challenge.
00;16;50;19 - 00;17;14;05
Unknown
So absolutely, definitely something I value. All right. And then
and then we get to the intention to pursue the PhD with the
specialty occupying your time with another significant challenge
with the MBA pursuing that. But but essentially, it sounds like you
were driving towards something that you and tell me if I'm wrong on
this, you're instinctively gravitating towards something very
specific.
00;17;14;07 - 00;17;38;13
Unknown
Where was that in your timeline before you decided to go into
pursue the PhD in that particular topic? What happened? It stemmed
from being a recruiter for that university, right? So it was
essentially my role to travel the United States, go to things like
career fairs or education fairs or whatever it may be specific to
the military population.
00;17;38;13 - 00;18;05;26
Unknown
And I was traveling to military installations, speaking with
spouses, with transitioning service members. And I just saw the.
Complete anxiety that comes with a transition like that, when
people are leaving the security of a military occupation. Right.
And at the time, I was addressing it in my role with, okay, here's
the next steps for things like education, right?
00;18;05;26 - 00;18;26;00
Unknown
So when you're leaving the military, you're either going to go to
work, maybe you're retiring, but you're either going to go to work
or you're going to go to school. There's a basically the two main
options. So at the time I was addressing it on the education side,
but I saw all of this anxiety surrounding the transition and truly
just the identity shift.
00;18;26;00 - 00;18;54;09
Unknown
And that is where that triggered in me wanting to be able to
address that specific piece. Right? That three, four month period
right before you leave and right after you leave the military.
That's where I wanted to make the impact, because that's a pivotal
moment in somebody's life. And so I got the education piece from my
role and then decided to dig in on the transition, specifically
through the educational journey.
00;18;54;11 - 00;19;30;27
Unknown
You know, like I mentioned, I had originally intended to make it
more of a transitioning program for military veterans. How they can
translate their resume is how they can advocate for themselves in
interviews. But what I found was that space was already saturated,
did in the market with different programs. What I didn't see was
programs that were designed for organizations to understand, you
know, they're at the point where they've made the decision of, yes,
we want veterans or yes, we want military affiliated individuals
here, but they're at this now.
00;19;30;27 - 00;20;13;17
Unknown
What crossroads, right. So after I think it was maybe like six
months, starting that original transitioning year, I switched over
to address the now what organizations looking to hire military
affiliated individuals. Got it. And so to your question, it did.
And thanks for that. And I was a little fuzzy on the ask, but it is
typically because you you briefly mentioned it obviously in your
intro, as you said, you walk us through the timelines, but it's,
you know, I'm usually I notice that there's there's a flash point,
even though we generalize and we talk through this, the story at a
high level to give, give a sense, a general sense of what
occurred.
00;20;13;20 - 00;20;45;03
Unknown
There's usually a circumstance or an event, a specific event that
occurred where the switch flips and then you all of a sudden are
intentionally focused with relentless pursuit of that thing, you
know, and this is the little that I do know of you having worked
with you early on, I mean, early in in my short attempt at becoming
a recruiter, tough to hang with the big dogs, talking to, talking
about doc here, you just say, I need 20 and you blink and all of a
sudden the next morning you got 20.
00;20;45;06 - 00;21;13;14
Unknown
So you have these on Rolodex. How do you get so many people so
fast? Well, you know, we'll talk about that. But there's usually an
occurrence and and that drives, I think, what embeds ourselves to
where we embody the, the purpose. Right. And that's the drive that
makes it consistent. Right. And the conviction I think is in your
recruiting, in your talk tracks and some of those, you know, the
way that you're having a dialog with somebody where they you
establish the trust that shines through.
00;21;13;14 - 00;21;34;29
Unknown
And I'm just looking to see what what appeared for you. Yeah, it
was definitely a slow burn for me. I think the only point in time
where it was an absolute like, I'm only targeting this, was when I
couldn't take my role with me from Fort Bragg, when we PKS to Fort
Leonard Wood, Missouri. I remember, it was like January that
year.
00;21;34;29 - 00;21;53;00
Unknown
We had just moved in and my husband was like, okay, what do you
want to do? And I said, here's exactly what I want to do. I want to
work for a fortune 500 company. I want to have a great impact on
the veteran population, and I want to be specifically working in
some type of talent acquisition space.
00;21;53;02 - 00;22;19;28
Unknown
And then, I mean, I'm a big proponent of faith based open doors.
And I got exactly that. You can tell Oracle. Yeah. Agreed. I mean,
but you earned it. Just to be clear. Yeah. Not to go too far into
that, you know, it's when you set it up, you're prepared for the
opportunity and you are absolutely, seemingly putting in the work
to get to that part, to have earned the opportunity.
00;22;20;01 - 00;22;37;29
Unknown
Let's talk a little bit about now where you're at at that stage is
the the military spouse. Now, you know, you've just recently landed
a new spot and good on your husband for asking the question and
including you and saying, what do you want to do? I mean, it's that
not to that, because that sometimes isn't all the time happen.
00;22;38;01 - 00;22;57;14
Unknown
Yeah, he really gave me the space to figure out exactly what I
wanted and the time to find it, which is a luxury that I'm really
thankful for. Yeah, I that so once, once you once you got to once
you had the opportunity to to think about what you wanted and you
were very intentional on what you were looking for.
00;22;57;21 - 00;23;28;14
Unknown
Fortune 500 having an impact. You came here. How has it gone so
far, like from when you started, which was when? About three, three
and some change years ago? Three and some change. Yeah. And from
then to now, what's worked well, and what are some of the things
that you're still working through to improve for, not only for
yourself, but as you're experiencing putting it all together on
focused on the veterans, really a community trying to help business
leaders find the right talent for their teams and things like
that.
00;23;28;17 - 00;23;56;00
Unknown
You know, help us. Help us see what you experienced so far. When I
started out, I was very specific to the military population, so I
started I was a military source. They're very specific to the
military affiliated population. I did that for about a year. And so
during that time, I really built up my military and affiliated
network and LinkedIn, what you refer to as the Rolodex, right.
00;23;56;00 - 00;24;22;11
Unknown
Just like these individuals that I talk to often reconnect with
within this space. And that did a lot with other organizational,
you know, military affiliated talent. Folks worked a lot with
military talent program management here. And when I moved over to
the team after that, I actually moved out of what would technically
be considered like a military population recruiter.
00;24;22;11 - 00;24;49;02
Unknown
Right. But I don't think a lot of people realize that because I
still put so much effort into building the military pipeline here.
So even though it wasn't necessarily in my job description to do
that, I think that it was really important with my background to
just advocate for those types of candidates. Those types of
candidates transition and then try to create space.
00;24;49;02 - 00;25;15;09
Unknown
When I'm working with hiring managers for those military affiliated
individuals to fit what they're looking for. Right? So, yeah, I
think even though I'm not, you know, necessarily in that military
role now, I still try to have the impact on that population and as
much as I possibly can. Got it. Yeah. I imagine it bleeds into
other things too, where you know, you're taking the best of of
what's worked.
00;25;15;09 - 00;25;41;17
Unknown
And then, yeah, refining it and improving the new space that you're
in. And this changed where you transitioned into this role here. It
was just in the last two months ish. Right? I want to say it was
October 2022 as a tan advisor on the early career team. So I was
doing full cycle with that. And then just recently, you know, a few
weeks ago I moved over to more experienced talent advisory
role.
00;25;41;17 - 00;26;11;06
Unknown
So working on higher level higher, I got into graduate relations on
that. I because you said it, I'm not we're not worried that you're
abandoning you still helping to kind of never never because I want
to weave in some things. So you know we're we're talking about your
own career. You know, you were afforded the opportunity and of
course, supported with your family in, in what your goals included
on on individualizing your focus and, and having your own
thing.
00;26;11;09 - 00;26;33;14
Unknown
Yeah. What are some of the things that military spouse go through,
you talked about early on being separated over a period of time,
talking about some of the goals and aspirations that you have, and
unfortunately, you've had support doing that. Yeah. You just said
the challenges with the military spouse life. Yeah. It's a long
list. Yeah. So I talked a little bit about job matching at the
beginning.
00;26;33;16 - 00;26;51;19
Unknown
You know when my husband was at Fort Leonard Wood and I was in Ohio
job matching for those that don't know is when your spouse lives at
a different installation than you do, fairly common in the military
spouse life. And that's definitely a kind of a solitary experience.
So I have dealt with that. You know, other challenges.
00;26;51;19 - 00;27;24;05
Unknown
I don't think we touched on it actually, in the introduction, but I
do have two children. I have a four year old and a seven month old
as of yesterday, dealing with deployments with children is
indescribable. How much of a challenge that can be? I think that,
you know, folks that haven't been a military spouse, especially
with deployments or long TDY, is they might grasp the concept of
their spouse being away.
00;27;24;12 - 00;27;46;05
Unknown
But I think when you compile that with, you know what they say, it
takes a village, right? With children when your village is in a
different state, right? Everyone you know, everyone you can lean on
for support is in a different state, far away. I mean, the closest
we've ever lived is eight hours from family. So when my husband is
gone or deployed, it's it's just me.
00;27;46;07 - 00;28;18;28
Unknown
So that is definitely a challenge. Just maintaining their routine
and their sense of normalcy during that time, trying to work on
your own professional development, trying to get some chicken
nuggets on a table, just whatever it is. It's a challenge that I
think that it's a really it's a hard concept to grasp until you go
through it. Even me, military background, military spouse, my first
diplomat with children was, very eye opening.
00;28;19;00 - 00;28;48;00
Unknown
And I have a newfound respect for folks who have, you know, lots of
kids that do lots of deployments. And then I would say, finally,
the challenge of your career or your aspirations, just by the
nature of the military, essentially have to come second a lot of
the times, right? So, for example, this year coming up, if I didn't
have a role that could move with me, which was very intentional,
you know, coming to Oracle, I made sure that that was an
option.
00;28;48;00 - 00;29;09;17
Unknown
But if I didn't have a role that could come with me, I would have
to leave right when I worked at Regent and when I couldn't take
that role with me, it wasn't an option, and I had to leave a role
that I just absolutely loved. So that is definitely a big
challenge, especially for, you know, a military spouse that is
within the working space.
00;29;09;19 - 00;29;38;02
Unknown
So I would say those are the three biggest things, really, just the
solitary lifestyle getting used to that, you know, not having the
ability to lean on support that is physically with you, your career
kind of being second to the military and then just needing to to
leave sometimes. Thanks for sharing that. And yes, it is, it is an
experience that it if you haven't gone through it conceptually, you
can understand.
00;29;38;04 - 00;30;08;16
Unknown
But yeah. So you know, it is truly an experience and and shout out
to all of those that are doing it. It's not easy. So you're moving
through into a different role, but your focus and your
participation and your engagement still includes helping others
understand the differences. So, you know, I'm going to kind of
weave this back into that part where you were focused on
organizations and educating them on understanding the the community
or the demographic that they're hiring.
00;30;08;18 - 00;30;29;17
Unknown
How much how much of that still plays a part in what you do here.
Again, going back to helping business leaders find the right people
and then making sure that the hiring side, not the the candidacy
side, the hiring side is, is as informed as possible on why this
person is in front of them and understanding the dynamics of that
individual going into that.
00;30;29;17 - 00;30;59;06
Unknown
That process is still a huge part of my role. Definitely. Having
those conversations with hiring leaders to understand that, you
know, being open minded to the military background can be really
beneficial. You know, a lot of times there's a lot more in a
military affiliated resumé than maybe meets the eye. Right? Unless
they have just amazing translation skills and know little corporate
space very well.
00;30;59;09 - 00;31;18;20
Unknown
A lot of the times it's a simple matter of something like wording
or leaving something out, right? Like for example, you know, you
have a lot of NetSuite folks on, and if I talk to a military
affiliated Canada and say, hey, do you know, you know, what an ERP
system is? They say, no, but they were a super user in GCS.
00;31;18;20 - 00;31;52;15
Unknown
It's like, well, there's a lot of relevant experience that you
might have. That's more than more than meets the eye. And so I have
those conversations pretty frequently with hiring leaders, just
about kind of being open minded to the different military
backgrounds, understanding specifically what is trainable and what
we're looking for. And I think for hiring leaders, understanding
what is trainable and what is coachable is really key, because a
lot of the times those things that aren't coachable are the soft
skills that military affiliated individuals just absolutely crush,
right?
00;31;52;15 - 00;32;14;11
Unknown
They bring the grit that is necessary for a lot of roles. They
bring the things like longevity and commitment there to term, and
they have integrity. So they're always working with integrity and
things like that that are, to be honest, quite an easy sell for the
population because those are the things that we can't teach. Those
are the things that you have to search for in a candidate.
00;32;14;13 - 00;32;39;29
Unknown
So as with strengths, many strengths, you know, they can help you
and they can they can hurt you for lack of better ways of saying
it. Yeah. You know, I have grit. What are some of the downsides of
also that's inclusive of that. Having that quality that that you'd
have to coach these candidates through to understand the level of I
know I'm going to use this word the intensity, right.
00;32;39;29 - 00;33;07;24
Unknown
Or the, the dense, the density. Yeah. That, that particular
characteristic. Yeah. I think with that, the only time that I see,
I guess, what you would consider the potential downside of those
types of attributes are like grit, for example, is, you know, when
you're moving through the hiring process or speaking with potential
hiring leaders. Like you said, the intensity in which you describe
that grit, or whatever that soft skill is.
00;33;07;27 - 00;33;29;03
Unknown
So, you know, say, for example, we are really looking for somebody
that can have clear, concise communication, right? And then that
individual has clear, concise communication every day with the
hiring leader. Or they're really determined for the role, but
they're reaching out to the hiring leader twice a day, every day
trying to get an update right. So everything can always go too
far.
00;33;29;03 - 00;33;56;24
Unknown
Eventually, every strength eventually could become a weakness. So I
think on the front end of that, just coaching candidates to
understand what is culturally acceptable in the corporate
workforce. That may have been different in the military, right. If
you're constantly trying to get an update on your paperwork from
your S-1, your, your, your as when you're knocking on the door
every single day trying to get an answer.
00;33;56;24 - 00;34;22;11
Unknown
And that's sometimes the way you get the answer right. But that
doesn't work in our space. So I guess coaching, like you mentioned,
the intensity of those soft skills is key in finding success. Yeah,
and I bring that up. And it's not to degrade or diminish the the
quality. It's to give an understanding of balance. Right. You know
that when we talk about what we see, if we serve we see this.
00;34;22;11 - 00;34;42;04
Unknown
If you see it in competitive sports, you see it, you know, it's
let's let's go. You know, the the highly motivated ready to ready
to run through things to get to the end state. You know that's
important. But it's also, you know to an extreme example of
explaining it's to be the doc right. You can have have that calm
appearance on the outside.
00;34;42;04 - 00;35;18;12
Unknown
But that fire and tenacity can be burning inside. But you have to
learn to control some of these things and, and I and that's what I
wanted to call out with you, especially with your background on
focusing how to how to educate those on understanding both sides.
If there's an emphasis on you know, consideration for what the
optics would include or what the perception of others might have,
when you show too much ambition, too much potential and desire in
these types of things, it comes in, in the enthusiasm, walking into
an environment to where, yeah, there's going to be some change
needed.
00;35;18;14 - 00;35;46;06
Unknown
And for those who are skilled to see immediately in an environment
or a condition or a situation where we're skilled and seeing the
field of play, if you will, before the play develops. There's a
there's a tact that we still have to include in communicating
effectively what was being observed, instead of just go and try and
fix it, are going to tell people, hey, there's a problem there, I'm
gonna fix it.
00;35;46;09 - 00;36;14;06
Unknown
There's a casualness that needs to be deployed at that point. And,
and this is mostly for the folks that are very excited about the
role. Yeah. That I always tell. Yeah, I always tell folks to, to
try to match the energy of the hiring. It's right. Yeah. If you're
going into a meeting and your your interviewer is very calm and
composed and kind of, you know, soft spoken or something, that
you're not going in there talking about how you're just going to
crash everything all the time.
00;36;14;06 - 00;36;38;08
Unknown
And. Yeah, so matching the energy is like, yeah, that's a good one.
Yeah. Because my, my question, although I could have been a little
bit more concise. What are some of the tips and tricks. And you
just nailed it. It's match the energy that's better safe than sorry
is to have more adaptability to what they're saying. And and of
course what they're saying.
00;36;38;14 - 00;37;06;14
Unknown
And you don't overplay, what else what tips and tricks. Yeah. What
other things are there since we're down here? Yeah, I would say for
job seekers, first things first is take ownership of your hunt.
Understand exactly what you want. A lot of the times, and you
probably see this as well, that a lot of the times will have, you
know, folks reach out, especially from the military space.
00;37;06;16 - 00;37;22;22
Unknown
Maybe they'll send me their resume on LinkedIn and say, hey, do you
have anything for me? That is not, you know, taking ownership of
your job hunt. Kind of like in the military, they always say,
nobody cares as much about your career progression as you do.
Right? So I think first things first is you got to figure out what
you want.
00;37;22;22 - 00;37;43;12
Unknown
And if you don't know what you want, that's totally fine. But doing
things like having informational interviews with people in that
role already are absolutely key. A recruiter can only provide so
much information. A career coach can only provide so much
information. So if you don't know exactly what you want to do, talk
to people that are doing it every day.
00;37;43;12 - 00;38;04;00
Unknown
Get the good, the bad, the ugly, and then be super clear when
you're talking to hiring leaders, whether that be hiring managers,
recruiters, whoever it is about what you want and why you're a fit
for it. So doing the work first before you're you're having that
outreach. Yeah. I mean, honestly, those are probably the two big
takeaways that I could think of.
00;38;04;03 - 00;38;22;14
Unknown
Now. That's a good one. I mean, those are those probably are the
umbrella to which everything else falls into place after that.
Because once you once you start to connect to that and then you do
the work to understand what that means by identifying, well,
considering we talked about it and we'll start to segue into the
close, you're about it.
00;38;22;14 - 00;38;50;01
Unknown
You no one know what you want. And that comes by way of being
honest with yourself, more so than exactly right. Exactly. Want to
comment on that or that's about where it's at. Where it is
self-explanatory. Yeah, I think that's where it is. Just
self-reflection is really key in your transition, and the only way
to minimize that anxiety in the job search is to know exactly what
you want and target it with laser focus.
00;38;50;04 - 00;39;06;14
Unknown
And that port has a sub component to know what that is. What I
don't know what I do. I don't know what I want to do, I know what I
did, and I'm probably going to be comfortable in this. You probably
hear this in every episode of this conversation that we have on the
podcast. Is, you don't have to do what you did unless you want
to.
00;39;06;16 - 00;39;25;05
Unknown
Okay? Right. Yeah, I post about that a lot on LinkedIn. Your role
in the corporate workforce or wherever you're moving, it does not
have to do it does not have to be anything like what you did in the
military. I am not a medic. I'm not an EMT. And I'm doing I think,
okay, am I role. So yeah.
00;39;25;09 - 00;39;50;01
Unknown
Yeah. Well so let me summarize and then we'll get to the to the
final thoughts that you may have. So you you embody these things
and that's, that's what is interesting about this conversation and
you is because the fact is that, you know, the tenacity that you
had to be where you were and then approach identifying what you
wanted to do and then pursue it the way you did, you know, by my
joining, right?
00;39;50;03 - 00;40;21;12
Unknown
You say you got got but maybe that maybe it was less about you
deciding and it was more about influence, but about yourself, man.
Yeah. You were persuaded to do something you probably didn't want
to do anyway, right? So yeah, he matched your energy and he got
you. Got you where you got it. Right. So yeah. And then and then
the MOS that you chose and then, you know, pursuing the degree, of
course, the relationship that that occurred with your husband and
that grew into now having the ability to be separated but still
stay focused on what you were wanting to achieve.
00;40;21;12 - 00;40;42;27
Unknown
And then what really stood out is when you get to that next duty
station and then you're asked by your husband is, what do you want
to do? And you were very intentional. Probably through
oversimplifying and summarizing it. You had to do a lot of things
before that to get to that time to where you said, I want to work
here doing these things.
00;40;43;00 - 00;41;10;25
Unknown
And that's what we're talking about, is that have to do the work to
understand what you want to do with such conviction, because hiring
managers probably don't say this enough. That's what they're
looking for. When you tell your story is, why should we hire used
kind of the theoretical question. It's wanting to be answered, but
how you share what it is that you're interested in, you know, a lot
of it comes down to you running away from something or you running
into something, and we'd rather have somebody running into
something.
00;41;10;27 - 00;41;38;13
Unknown
Not to say we won't discount anybody else and the other factors,
but we want somebody that wants this bad. Yeah, there's nothing
better than a candidate that knows exactly what they want. And what
they want is the role that you have open. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Because
the other side of it too is the hiring, the hiring leaders also
are, you know, in an awkward moment, vulnerability where they're
taking a risk, you know, and, you know, the things that that go
into the investment in the cost and all those things, it's all
relative.
00;41;38;13 - 00;42;06;11
Unknown
But it's a matter does it does take an effect. And so when somebody
says, yes, there's a lot of hope in that. And we're banking on
words perceived by the attitude shared to the story. And so it's
people like you that actually give credibility to the to the
process of recruiting. So appreciate you and for what you've done
and then how the things are that you've gone through those things
to get to where you are and then have the conviction that you have
to help pay it forward through the community.
00;42;06;13 - 00;42;27;29
Unknown
Any final thoughts? Yeah, I guess, you know, for hiring managers
like I see on my LinkedIn a lot, hiring veterans, it's not a good
deed. It's a good business. Be open minded to those conversations.
And for job seekers, you know, take ownership of your hot lead when
you're not in charge. Just do what you need to do to get where you
want to be.
00;42;28;02 - 00;42;42;29
Unknown
Got it. All right. Thank you for that. Thanks for your time. Thanks
for coming on. Thank you, Chris, for having me. You got it,
Padawan. Keep moving forward.