I left the military with high expectations that civilians were smart mfs and that I would have to focus to be able to keep up with their level of work...I was wrong. In under 5 years, I went from being a Senior NCO to being a Director of Technology Programs, telling other civilians how they should be organizing their work. Truth is, civilians lack a lot of the basic qualities that we take for granted in the military.

In the military, we know what we're walking into before we enter it. We even have "Daily Orders" that tell us what clothes to put on in the morning and what we're doing as a team every hour of the day. In the civilian world, people will give you a 1000 mile stare when you kickoff a call with "meeting objectives". Why is this weird for them? Because civilians don't value execution as much as us veterans, instead they value having "good working relationships" with others. That means instead of starting a meeting with "clear and explicit objectives", they would rather start with a light bit of humor to ease the mood of the room, or a compliment about their dress sense or new haircut...the objectives are an ancillary to the relationships being built.

Keep this in-mind when you're getting ready to discharge. There's a saying, "it's not what you know, it's who you know"...this is a civilian saying that basically translates to: “have great relationships with people to make stuff happen”. If you're connected with the right people, it will make the relationship building effort at work much easier, the rest will follow.

It's a mindset shift when you discharge, people interact differently and there is more focus on your reputation in the workplace - you need to have a good rapport with people to get anything done. Which explains why civilians can take the odd nap at their desk and get away with it...be ready for it.

If you’re thinking about hanging-up your uniform, checkout my online course: ‘Discharge with Confidence’, it’s for anybody that is active duty or recently discharged veterans. Drop your email below and get a copy of the course brochure.