For Army officers who are considering a transition to civilian life, what the headhunters may not tell you.

7. FACTS- Military Versus Civilian Areas of Parity…

14. FACTS- Military Versus Civilian Where We Do Better…

21. Common Situations, With Our Responses

23. You are finding it difficult to balance the demands of family and work. This is a legitimate gripe. I don’t see how the civilian world would be any different though, possibly worse. Young officers are under the impression that they work long hours, and corporate types work 40 hours a week. Not true. I’ve been both, and the successful, well paid, corporate types work as hard as their military counterparts. Also, commute time needs to be factored into the equation, and this almost always favors those in the military. The Army also provides both formal and informal family support networks. Counseling provided by the chaplaincy and medical corps are free of charge. Expect to pay a professional on the outside $75-100 an hour to provide marriage counseling. Family support and readiness is another formal support structure that doesn’t exist on the outside. Morale, Welfare, and Recreation provide heavily discounted or free activities to soldiers and their families. Informally, the entire military environment provides a support network to make family life easier. For example, the spouses who live in company grade housing are usually of similar age, have similar age children, attend the same churches and a lot of the same social functions. This doesn’t happen in most civilian work settings.

25. Officer is finding it difficult to make a dual military career marriage work. At least the Army tries to help spouses coordinate careers and assignments. Most businesses don’t bother. If the two spouses work for different corporations then it is even worse. Officer’s spouse is miserable because of need to put his/her career on hold. Reasonable gripe. I have learned though that you simply don’t get everything. There aren’t enough hours in the day. So while it is true that two folks who are only focused on careers might have an easier time coordinating those as civilians, this is not necessarily the case. For example, let’s say Bob leaves active duty to become a mid-level manager for XYZ company that produces toilet tissue, tires, or whatever. His wife Sue is now happy that she can pursue her legal career and joins a firm that specializes in criminal defense. They’re raking in the cash, but soon realize that they get to work at 7 in the morning and home at 7 at night. They eat out all the time because they’re both too tired to cook. The laptops are open on weekends because any business concern will keep piling on the work until you say “enough!” and both of them want to look good to their bosses. Then Bob’s boss calls him in and gives him good news. They want to boost his salary and bonuses by 20%, promoting him to district manager and having him spin up a new office in Baton Rouge (which means even longer work hours). But Bob and Sue live in Memphis. Now what? Does Sue drop the criminal defense cases she’s working (which can often last for years) and start all over in a different city trying to make partner? Or does Bob turn down the district manager position, realizing that this might be the one shot he’s offered to do the corporate world’s equivalent of a company command? Unlike the Army, corporations DO have the equivalent of career privates- they are called mid-level managers. This is a job that I have seen people do, and do well, for twenty or thirty years without moving up. They were content. But it isn’t for everyone. Most military types get bored to tears by the monotony.

27. Officer is frustrated with family benefits such as TriCare, dental, housing, and/or quality of schools on post. Let’s cover these separately. Housing first. One of the biggest shocks I received upon leaving active duty was paying that first rent bill out of my after tax income, and paying bills for electricity, gas, water, and trash collection. Recently I had to re-carpet my house and put in granite in the kitchen. These are all issues those on active duty don’t have to deal with. Also, underlying the desire to buy a house is the belief that it will appreciate in value. Well, I’ve made money, and I’ve lost money, on houses. There are no guarantees. Having to sell a house right now might mean you lose your shirt and write a check to walk away. Quality of schools is going to vary from post to post, as it is in various civilian zip codes, unless you want to spring for private school at six grand plus a year per child. Tri-care and dental are about average. The days of full medical and dental with no deductible are basically over in the corporate world. Further, a military retiree gets health care until Medicare kicks in. Most corporations don’t have this benefit. And most corporations definitely don’t give you 30 days of paid vacation annually right off the bat.

30. Officer is frustrated because s/he has not been able to get a leadership position that will aid his or her development as an officer. There are two facets of this question. The first is a your concern that you are not getting the “right” assignments to ensure future promotion. Each branch has a branch career roadmap, which has a lot of paths from point A to point B in the course of a career. When Branch says “to make O-6 you don’t need to have been an airborne platoon leader”, they mean it. If you have a concern, call them and ask, and listen to what they say. Besides, if you don’t make flag rank and happen to retire as an O-5 in your mid 40s with an annual pension of well over $50K is that really the end of the world? You’ve got 30 years to do a second career in. The second issue is the expectation that as part of being an Army officer you get a wide variety of assignments. You do. This is one of the big pluses of being in the Army. There is a specific branch manager looking after you, trying to get you in the best position to succeed. In the corporate world YOU are your own career manager. I did one job for seven years before a chance to advance came up.

35. Officer is experiencing a bad command climate due to poor leadership of company or battalion CO. It happens and I’ve been there. Hang in there. You will be rotated to another assignment before you know it. Call branch and ask for their advice, letting them know that you will tough it out, but want to rotate as soon as the needs of the Army permit. Even if you get a referred OER, don’t worry about it. Junior officer OERs are masked later on anyway. Do your job and know that selection for captain and major are at levels higher than anytime in the past several decades. Contrast this with the corporate world, where if you get a bad boss, you are on your own to figure out a way to get out of the situation.