We can all agree that our service men and women deserve better than to leave the military and be dropped cold turkey into a difficult civilian job market. The Transition Assistance Program (TAP) is a good start, but doesn’t go far enough to set our veterans up for success.
Each military branch has their own version of TAP—the Army has ACAP, the Navy has TAMP, the Air Force has TAP, and the Marine Corp has TAMP. So what do all these versions of TAP do? They provide pre-separation counseling, employment workshops, benefits briefings, and ‘individual assistance,’ which from the looks of it, offers more in the way of skills and aptitude assessments and website recommendations than actual individualized personal help.
A large portion of TAP’s time seems to be devoted to training in how to access your benefits post-separation. That’s a worthwhile thing to know, but that doesn’t help you get a job.
Some TAP training involves how to choose what you would like to do as a civilian career, and what your skills and aptitudes might match up with. Also a worthy thing to spend a little time on, but again, not something that actually gets you hired.
So how does TAP try to help you get hired? From what I can see, it recommends job boards, posting your resume, job fairs, and employment offices. This is where TAP and I officially and dramatically part ways.
It’s almost never a good idea for job seekers to rely on job boards and online applications to get a job. It just doesn’t work; they get lost in the tsunami of other job seekers. It’s an especially bad idea for transitioning military veterans, because they aren’t going to have the experience, keywords, and background to make them stand out and get called for interviews. The most effective strategy for veterans (or anyone) is to go directly to hiring managers at companies they’re interested in and start that conversation.
I’m seeing some resume writing assistance available through TAP, but where’s the rest of it? Where’s the interview training? Where’s the training for how to get interviews? Where’s the training for how to communicate with corporate hiring managers to sell yourself for the job? Where’s the training for how to ask for the job? Where’s the training for how to negotiate compensation and benefits?
Job search requires skills that even civilian job seekers don’t usually have. Once they develop those skills, they stop struggling in the job search and become job-getting machines. Those who have spent the last 5, 10, or 20 years in military service absolutely do not have the skills they need. Why would they? They’ve had no opportunity to develop or use those skills. But in this transition time, they need them more than ever. This first job hunt is critical; it sets the bar for every job after that…in other words, the rest of your career will be affected by this first job.
Do I think that participation in TAP is worthwhile? I do…I think all training and education is valuable in some way, and this has some elements that are especially helpful. I just don’t think it goes far enough at steeping veterans (or soon-to-be-veterans) in the mindset and culture of corporate America.
What will get you hired? Read what I have to say (or watch the video) on this page – Mission: Transition.