Mission Transition is an essential career-change guide for any transitioning veteran that wants to avoid false starts and make optimal career choices following active duty. Every year, about a quarter of a million veterans leave the military - most of whom are unprepared for the transition. These service members have developed incredible leadership, problem-solving, and practical skills that are underutilized once they reach the civilian world, a detriment to both themselves and society. Well-intentioned Transition Assistance Programs and other support structures within the armed forces often leave veterans fending for themselves. The mission-first culture of the military results in service members focusing on their active duty roles in the year leading up to their separation, leaving them little time to adequately prepare to join the civilian world. President of Purepost, a next-generation staffing solution and public benefits corporation, and author Matthew J. Louis guides military personnel through the entire process of making a successful move into civilian professional life. In Mission Transition, this book will: Guide you through the process of discovering what path you want to take going forward Teach you the strategies that will make your résumé stand out Provide suggestions to help you prepare for and ace the interview Discuss ways to acclimate to your new organization’s culture and pay it forward to other veterans Each chapter includes advice from other veterans, illustrations of key concepts, summaries, and suggested resources. Let this well-written and easy to follow guidebook help you transition out from the military and commit to being successful in the next chapter of your life.

Change is a given in the United States military, but the soon to be applied “Blended Retirement System” is a financial change like no other the military has ever experienced. It is a huge deal that will not only affect the wallets of many active duty service members today and certainly 100% of them beginning in 2018, but it could also have a significant impact on future recruiting and retention of our volunteer military force. Mission Transition: Managing Your Career and Your Retirement is a needed introduction of the military’s new “Blended Retirement System,” representing the big shift in how the DoD manages military retirements. In the process, it encourages service members to adopt the new concept of retirement in the military, improve their own financial literacy, and assume responsibility for their own retirement planning. Finally, it provides new civilian job survival tips and strategies for service members in the process of leaving the military for civilian life. For those who are contemplating joining the armed forces and who wish to better understand the myriad of changes to the overall military retirement system this is the ideal guide.

Where do the spies, diplomats, soldiers and FBI agents go when their formal service ends? For most of us, full retirement is not an immediate reality. The decision to leave or retire from government is hard! Deciding what to do next is even harder. Author and Career Coach Alison P. Bouwmeester served for 28 years as a senior leader in the Central Intelligence Agency's Directorate of Operations. After retiring from the CIA, she spent nearly a decade as a senior business executive in the defense contracting industry, rising to Vice President for Business Development. In 2018, Alison became a Certified Professional Career Coach and founded Futurity to coach others through successful career transitions as someone who has "walked the walk". In this book, dozens of former intelligence, diplomatic, military and national security professionals provide candid comments, valuable tips and sage advice. These careerists represent those who chose full retirement in warm, sunny climates to play golf, and others who aspired to high-powered second careers in industry, sought part-time work or chose to be self-employed, and still others who opted to continue with the government in some capacity. In this guide, these individuals talk about their own decisions to leave, their biggest fears, and the many positives (and few negatives) that came out of leaving government. This guide also addresses key questions facing many government employees who consider leaving, such as: -Making the decision to go: how/when/why-Potential paths to consider (from full retirement to full time employment, and all the options in-between)-The mechanics of leaving, as well as job hunting tips, job search strategies, self-assessment, resumes, networking, LinkedIn, interviewing, and the dreaded contract negotiation.Considering a job change? Pondering a second career? Thinking about potential retirement? Read on!

Herb had a successful military career in which became the only person ever to earn the Green Beret and Army Drill Sergeant of the Year award. Finishing up his military career he had doubts about leaving the military and becoming a civilian. The Army was the only thing he knew since enlisting at the age of 17. Like most veterans, the transition process was not easy for him, and he had bad days filled with self-doubt. However, after over 2,000 informational interviews, thousands of hours of internet research, and hundreds of hours of personal reflection, he found his way. He landed a job at a top-tier Management Consulting firm and a seat in the Executive MBA program at Cornell University. In his free time, Herb has mentored hundreds of transitioning service members. This book is not a checklist to follow for a soft landing upon exiting the military. There is no possible checklist, every service member's situation is unique. What Herb has done is lay out a different approach and way of thinking for the transition. Instead of teaching you what to think he opens your eyes with how to think about the transition. Herb doesn't sugar coat the process, but reveals his failures in transition and demonstrates vulnerability with personal anecdotes from hanging up his uniform. The reality of transition. The hard questions you need to answer. Techniques to be successful. Ways to succeed and others destined for failure. You don't have to do this alone, allow this book to be your battle buddy along the way.

Essential teaching for every short- and long-term outreach participant & every church and mission agency that sends them. Peter Jordan's vital, insightful teaching on the challenges and opportunities that await returning missionaries makes this essential reading for everyone involved in missions. A missions "must-read"!"I'm really excited about this book and thank God for its important and vital message. It is thirty years overdue! Short-term missions without this emphasis and teaching can easily end up as a tragedy instead of a triumph."- George Verwer, International Dir., Operation Mobilization "Having counseled with hundreds of returning missionaries, Peter & Donna know from experience the re-entry challenges and opportunities that await missionaries worldwide. They have much to say on this vital subject of re-entry... and the authority to say it."- Loren Cunningham, Founder and President, Youth With a Mission Pages: 156 (paperback)

A New York Times bestseller! A pioneering and timely study of how to navigate life's biggest transitions with meaning, purpose, and skill Bruce Feiler, author of the New York Times bestsellers The Secrets of Happy Families and Council of Dads, has long explored the stories that give our lives meaning. Galvanized by a personal crisis, he spent the last few years crisscrossing the country, collecting hundreds of life stories in all fifty states from Americans who’d been through major life changes—from losing jobs to losing loved ones; from changing careers to changing relationships; from getting sober to getting healthy to simply looking for a fresh start. He then spent a year coding these stories, identifying patterns and takeaways that can help all of us survive and thrive in times of change. What Feiler discovered was a world in which transitions are becoming more plentiful and mastering the skills to manage them is more urgent for all of us. The idea that we’ll have one job, one relationship, one source of happiness is hopelessly outdated. We all feel unnerved by this upheaval. We’re concerned that our lives are not what we expected, that we’ve veered off course, living life out of order. But we’re not alone. Life Is in the Transitions introduces the fresh, illuminating vision of the nonlinear life, in which each of us faces dozens of disruptors. One in ten of those becomes what Feiler calls a lifequake, a massive change that leads to a life transition. The average length of these transitions is five years. The upshot: We all spend half our lives in this unsettled state. You or someone you know is going through one now. The most exciting thing Feiler identified is a powerful new tool kit for navigating these pivotal times. Drawing on his extraordinary trove of insights, he lays out specific strategies each of us can use to reimagine and rebuild our lives, often stronger than before. From a master storyteller with an essential message, Life Is in the Transitions can move readers of any age to think deeply about times of change and how to transform them into periods of creativity and growth.

Your Next Mission: A personal branding guide for the military-to-civilian transition, is a powerful new employment resource available for the millions of veterans currently or soon-to-be transitioned into the civilian sector. This book specifically addresses the gap in current tools available for the military-to-civilian transition challenge by providing a clear, compassionate, and compelling guide to building a unique personal brand, evaluating career options based on individual values, and providing clarity in the job search process for veterans. With interviews from key executives from America s leading companies, transitioned veterans and veteran advocates, Your Next Mission provides insight, tools, confidence, and competitive advantage for the veterans next chapter in their lives. Author Lida Citroen offers numerous exercises, examples and scenarios for veterans to learn to promote their value on social networking; through in person networking, image and body language; and in the development of their core messages, including their elevator pitch.