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.

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.

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!

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)

Ever since the days of Homer, warriors have faced an epic battle for which many were ill-prepared - coming home after a life of military service. Whether you served three years or thirty, transitioning to civilian life is an Odyssey in its own right. Despite over 40,000 veteran advocacy organizations trying to assist military members, massive corporate hiring programs for veterans, and increased efforts by the Department of Defense, veteran transition is tough stuff - not just for our military service members but their families as well. Many veterans say that transition to civilian life is the biggest obstacle they've ever faced. What if it didn't have to be this way? What if everything you needed for a happy and prosperous transition was already inside you? What if the very warrior ethos forged in the mission-focused environment of military service was the single greatest asset in your kit bag? Mission America combines a no B.S. look at the realities of military transition and an eye-opening perspective on how to leverage the highly relevant warrior attributes you already possess. Retired Green Beret and strategic entrepreneur Scott Mann takes you on a journey where you'll see that, in order to live the life you've so richly earned through your selfless service, there is still one more mission in front of you...MISSION AMERICA.

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.

INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER An edge-of-your-seat thriller about a group of retired Green Berets who come together to save a former comrade—and 500 other Afghans—being targeted by the Taliban in the chaos of America’s withdrawal from Afghanistan. In April 2021, an urgent call was placed from a Special Forces operator serving overseas. The message was clear: Get Nezam out of Afghanistan now. Nezam was part of the Afghan National Army’s first group of American-trained commandos; he passed through Fort Bragg’s legendary Q course and served alongside the US Special Forces for over a decade. But Afghanistan’s government and army were on the edge of collapse, and Nezam was receiving threatening texts from the Taliban. The message reached Nezam’s former commanding officer, retired Lt. Col. Scott Mann, who couldn’t face the idea of losing another soldier in the long War on Terror. Immediately, he sends out an SOS to a group of Afghan vets (Navy SEALs, Green Berets, CIA officers, USAID advisors). They all answer the call for one last mission. Operating out of basements and garages, Task Force Pineapple organizes an escape route for Nezam and gets him into hiding in Taliban-controlled Kabul. After many tense days, he braves the enemy checkpoints and the crowds of thousands blocking the airport gates. He finally makes it through the wire and into the American-held airport thanks to the frantic efforts of the Pineapple express, a relentless Congressional aide, and a US embassy official. Nezam is safe, but calls are coming in from all directions requesting help for other Afghan soldiers, interpreters, and at-risk women and children. Task Force Pineapple widens its scope—and ends up rescuing 500 more Afghans from Kabul in the three chaotic days before the ISIS-K suicide bombing. Operation Pineapple Express is a thrilling, suspenseful tale of service and loyalty amidst the chaos of the US withdrawal from Afghanistan.