and he does,” says Crampton, “but he’s also using a lot of planning and per- sonal skills, often managing conflict resolution and personal relationships in hostile situations.”
How MOAA can help The reality is finding employment right now isn’t easy for anyone, veter-
brought these lectures to 33 states, and over 50 percent of those who attended were NCOs and enlisted personnel. MOAA also holds two large career fairs every year, as well as eight smaller ones. Among the employers who have attended are 3M, Allstate Insurance, Amazon, the CIA, IBM, Lockheed Martin Corp., and Northrop Grumman. Career fairs are open to all servicemembers and their spouses. In 2010, more than 60 percent of career fair attendees were NCOs and enlisted personnel. Crampton says the career fairs
an or otherwise. But MOAA’s career- transition services can help. According to Crampton, TOPS of- fers about 150 lectures a year across the country on how to market oneself for a second career. In 2010, TOPS
are an ideal place to meet a future employer. “Employers recognize MOAA’s career fairs have a higher number of officers,” he explains. “They know a lot of the men and women they see are going to have degrees, leadership and staff experi- ence, and security clearances.” The group that has the toughest
time transitioning to civilian employ- ment, says Crampton, are those junior and enlisted servicemembers who are leaving active service in their 20s. His most pressing piece of advice? “Don’t
wait until the last minute: Start work- ing on your career transition at least a year out, and take advantage of all veterans’ employment and training services available to you after leaving the service.” Crampton also advises all service- members to take full advantage of all the services available, including tran- sition assistance programs offered on bases. “There are a lot of resources,” he says. “They’re just not all syn- chronized.” But MOAA is working to change that. With the establishment of the
Veterans Employment Initiative in 2009, MOAA became one of several veterans’ associations to join a co- alition with OPM to offer greater synchronization of career-transition services for retiring servicemem- bers. Decker says the coalition meets once every four months to talk about career issues facing vet- erans, recent updates on the federal job front, and how to improve com- munication among veterans’ groups. MOAA also keeps members posted on employers specifically interested
Lisa Johnson is a work and family life consultant at Warfighter & Family Services, Joint Base Anacostia-Bolling, Washington, D.C., and wife of retired Navy CWO4 Greg Johnson. During her husband’s Navy career, they moved seven times, causing her to find a new job with each move. Johnson has a degree in parks and recreation management and during college
interned with the U.S. Navy doing recreation programming in Naples, Italy, opening the door to other jobs with the Navy. When she first married her husband, she found finding a job to be fairly easy. “I like to travel, I like to move, so for me in the field I chose, it was great because for the most part it was easy to find jobs.” However, Johnson’s career focus changed when the couple moved to Guam.
“When you move as a spouse, you’re only there for a short time and you have to take whatever job is there, so when I got to Guam, someone mentioned fleet and family support. It was a different topic than parks and recreation management but had similar [responsibilities].” She became hooked. As a work and family life consultant, she provides one-on-one consultations and facilitates workshops and seminars for service- members and their families, including the transition assistance program and Hearts Apart Deployment Support. Johnson says her experiences as a military spouse have helped her in her career — especially being adapt-
able. “I’ve learned to go with the flow and start the process early.” She advises other spouses looking for jobs to start looking before going to their new duty station. “Contact local programs, and look ahead of time at their job postings. Get a plan together —and a backup plan — and work on your education,” she says.
G MILITA R Y O FFICER MAY 2011 MOAA CAREER GUIDE IMAGE: COLIN HAYES
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