What's Your Military to Civilian Project Manager Story?

What did you do in the Military? Army, Intel (35P/98G - Cryptologic Linguist/Signals Intel)

What steps did you take to prepare for a career in Project Management? In service, had Operations (S3 shop) for long duration at Brigade/Division level. Saw the MDMP aligned well with civilian PMBOK and PM methodology and low and behold, civilians pay a lot for our skill set. Got my PMP, Scrum Master, Lean Six Sigma Black Belt, and Agile certifications to set me up for success.

What type of civilian jobs did you land in and what has career progression been like? IT Project Manager in local school district immediately following running small to enterprise level projects, CFO of a start-up running operations and internal projects in addition to increasing revenue and managing systems, and now am a Director of Operations and Sr Project Manager for a Salesforce Consulting partner.

What skills from the Military translated well to civilian Project Management? Stakeholder management, briefing skills, decision making, risk identification and mitigation, communication skills, planning skills, and consolidating lessons learned (AAR/Post-Mortems)

What skills did you not have that the civilian world was looking for? Direct hands-on with some technology or difference in verbiage/terminology for PM processes.

What have you found different about managing civilian projects from military ones? The possibility of not everything doing their job and being a team player is higher on the civilian side, in the military, rank and teams, as well as the caliber of individuals help ensure the quality of effort, whereas on the civilian side, that can be hit and miss.

How did your civilian salary or compensation match up to your expectations? PM is a very lucrative industry and there is a great need for successful PMs in the civilian sector. Get in, make a difference, show them your value!

How did your job search go? Once I realized how important networking and informational interviews were, it went very well.

What advice do you have for others just starting their transition journey? While your resume is important, networking and who you know is extremely more important. Employee referrals carry so much weight, and I would advise everyone coming behind me to take advantage of things like mentoring platforms and informational interviews.

How did project management certifications play a part in your story (PMP, PMI-ACP, etc.)? I got my first PM job post-Army without my PMP certification, but I could speak as to how my experience translated to the PMBOK methodology at least as a key. Having your PMP and being able to relate your experience to the PM methodology and the impact you've had as a PM is critical for the more senior positions.

What did you do in the Military?

1. MOS' - M1A1 Tank Crewman, JTAC, Primary Marksmanship Instructor, Small Arms Weapons Instructor

2. Key Billets - Platoon Sergeant, Bn Operations Chief/Assistant Operations Chief, Bn Master Gunner, I&I Staff - Training Chief

What steps did you take to prepare for a career in Project Management?

1. Practical application using military planning processes

2. Practical application in civilian employment

3. PMP and PMI-ACP certifications

What type of civilian jobs did you land in and what has career progression been like?

1. Project Manager - Software Implementations

2. Program Manager - Software Implementations, API Development and Integration

3. Assistant Director - Professional Services

4. Instructor - PM-ProLearn

5. Director of Operations - PM-ProLearn

What skills from the Military translated well to civilian Project Management?

1. MCPP and MDMP transfer very well to predictive project management

What skills did you not have that the civilian world was looking for?

1. Leadership

2. PM Experience

3. Team Development

What have you found different about managing civilian projects from military ones?

1. The emphasis on cost management and contracts is much different in civilian PM than in military PM

How did your civilian salary or compensation match up to your expectations?

1. Did not meet expectations for the first job, but improved significantly after gaining PMP certification.

How did your job search go?

1. This was the most demoralizing part of my transition and I wish I had worked harder on networking prior to getting out.

2. I did not get my PMP until well after I left the military which made my job search much more difficult

What advice do you have for others just starting their transition journey?

1. Spend time networking

2. Get certified prior to leaving the military

3. Targeted job searches

How did project management certifications play a part in your story (PMP, PMI-ACP, etc.)?

1. Once I was certified, it enabled me to take my career in the direction I wanted to rather than being forced to stay on a track dictated by my organization.

What did you do in the Military? 25P; Microwave systems op/m

What steps did you take to prepare for a career in Project Management? AA degree while in the Army, general interest in networking (worked with satellite nodes while attached to SF) and the biggest thing was the Microsoft Software and Systems Academy.

What type of civilian jobs did you land in and what has career progression been like? I landed a Business Analyst/DB admin position before even getting out of the MSSA course but had to resign as I landed a job at Microsoft as a Program Manager. After initially being in release management I pivoted to becoming a security program manager. From there I kept learning by enrolling in Arizona State University where I earned a BS in IT. After four years of progression (three promotions, one promo 5 months after switching teams) as a security PM I interviewed and landed a Senior Technical Program Manager position in a Security Architecture team at Oracle.

What skills from the Military translated well to civilian Project Management? My time working in S3 was extremely beneficial because I had to take on long range planning for schools and training NCO (two separate positions). These positions kicked my ass and I even got divorced during this time. But it was one of the hardest positions within the battalion so I took it, I excelled, it set me up for future positions. In addition to that my time working in 1st Special Forces Group also helped instill a lot of project based skills due to constant short training exercises and deployments. These small trips require a lot of planning on your part to ensure successful deployment of comms. In the SF world it is big boy rules which allow you to sink or swim. In the tech world it's the same and I believe that's why a lot of my peers from 1st SFG (Green and Red berets) who also went through the MSSA course have become successful Engineers and PMs at Microsoft.

What skills did you not have that the civilian world was looking for? Initially, I lacked the ability to dive deep into technical discussions. This spurred my curiosity into obtaining a technical degree at ASU. But a degree is not needed to get into the tech industry let me be VERY clear about that. If fact my manger who hired me into a security PM position at Microsoft didn't have a degree. He was just thirsty for knowledge in the technology space. You can learn everything on the internet for free a degree is just a piece of paper confirming you learned it that's all (it does make it easier to get your foot into the door though).

What have you found different about managing civilian projects from military ones? Civilian projects fail and you can adjust scope, or other factors and still be successful. Military (esp. on deployment) you can lose lives of your brothers/sisters. In tech you manager will pressure you to show impact(go above and beyond) where in the military you are expected to do your job and do it well.

How did your civilian salary or compensation match up to your expectations? Exceeded.

How did your job search go? I landed my first job (outside of the military) on craigslist the BA/DB admin job. You need to look everywhere and anywhere for a position. After landing at Microsoft and taking on harder and harder assignments (plus keeping my LinkedIn updated) I don't have the need to look for jobs anymore because recruiters will seek me out. (Amazon, Google, Facebook, Oracle, Microsoft, Salesforce have done so)

What advice do you have for others just starting their transition journey? Start as early as you can. You don't need TAP to transition to a new career (it can be beneficial for sure). But you need to take your career and life in your own hands. Your military experience is a great start but 9/10 it doesn't directly transfer over to a job. You need to take initiative to learn and set yourself up for the life YOU want to live. This is kind of silly but back when I was leaving the military Destiny came out and I am a big gamer. I shut off my Xbox and focused on my transition because I knew my time was better off spent learning than playing games.

How did project management certifications play a part in your story (PMP, PMI-ACP, etc.)? None, but these are always considered icing on the cake for Tech industry. The big thing for Tech industry PMs is can you have a technical conversation with an engineer and contribute to the technical discussion? For other looking to be straight up PM then I would say these certs will help a ton. I plan on working on a PMP cert after I obtain a Masters degree. This is not a road map to success it's merely my journey. You're going to have to take your own path to get to where you want to be. For anyone who'd like to connect or ask follow up questions feel to reach out on LinkedIn. https://www.linkedin.com/in/mwilliams718/