Can an Army Man Make It in the Corporate World?

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Dear Stanley,

I’ve been reading your articles and advice for the past few weeks as I try to make the transition from the U.S. Army into the business world. I’ve been an officer for three and a half years and have worked in a variety of leadership positions. Unfortunately, it’s hard to determine what translates over to the business world and how I can best portray myself to a future employer. How should I present something that is military based to the business environment?

Not At Ease

Dear Soldier,

Don’t worry — your career in the military has made you a very attractive candidate for the corporate world. It has also, possibly, bequeathed some problems you may have to overcome, given the corporate culture of the places at which you will be interviewing. Your pitch to employers should emphasize the assets you’ve acquired and do as much as possible to dispel the potential liabilities that hiring managers may associate with your background. Let’s look at it a bit systematically.

Assets:

You know how to follow orders. That’s good. You’ll be getting a lot of them. You know how to give orders. That’s also good. You’ll be expected to know what to do and make others do whatever that is. You understand hierarchy. That’s excellent. Corporate organizations all thrive on people reporting to people who report to people. You can look good in a uniform. Every company has one. You just got out of a place that has a more formal one than most. But you made it work there, and you can certainly do it again. You have good posture and grooming. That counts. You can be tough when it counts. Believe me, that’s even more important than grooming — except in certain West Coast entertainment companies. You think strategically and tactically. Both are good.

It’s not all stars and bars for you, however.

Potential liabilities:

You may be overly reliant on following orders. Great business people are self-starters. They soak up the commands of others, sure, but their basic occupation has a lot more to do with things they generate on their own. You may delegate too much. You’re used to giving orders and spreading responsibility down through the ranks, but don’t forget that great managers do not diffuse accountability, and they often do a lot of the real thinking and working themselves. Big organizations like the military very often discourage the kind of entrepreneurial drive that makes a great business operate. You don’t want to just be a conduit for action, unless you’re working for a large utility or a Japanese corporation. You may be too hung up titles and job descriptions. In the contemporary workplace, your job may have a lot more to do with teamwork and flexibility than with which vice president should talk to low-level directors and managers and that kind of nonsense. People pitch in. In some companies, there are a lot of vice presidents running around, and some presidents (of which there can also be many) are less powerful than executive VPs. Titles, schmitles. It’s all about who does the work and who, in the end, is the most fun to work with. You may have a stick up your butt. The military does that to people sometimes. If so, try to get rid of it. If you can’t, see if you can whittle it down to size. People in business don’t really like to work with a person who suffers from this disability. Certain companies don’t mind it as much as others, of course. But it may be an issue. You may be too tough. That’s important, but can you be gentle, too? Not every problem or opportunity is best served with a heavy hand or a clenched fist. You may think too rigidly. Sure, you’re strategic. But can you also be impulsive and instinctual?

Bottom line, Soldier, your military background will serve you well, if only because you’ve gotten confidence and courage during your term of service. Both are huge assets in any line of duty.