Cameron-brooks

Almost 80% of the junior military officers (JMOs) we help transition from the military to a business leadership career are either married or have significant others involved. This creates complexity in developing a transition strategy that makes it possible for the JMO and civilian spouse/significant other to reach their career goals. In this episode, you will learn transition strategies for JMOs with a professional spouse. You will want to listen to this podcast to hear how one couple pivoted their strategy after speaking with Cameron-Brooks and propelled their careers forward. In this podcast, I interviewed Mark and Jade Rupinski. Mark, a former Army Logistics Officer, accepted a Senior Project Manager position with NextEra Energy Resources. Jade manages a legal office and will now open a new office for her firm in south Florida, near NextEra’s headquarters. The Challenge of Narrowing to One Location When I first met Mark in January this year, he had been applying for positions in Tampa, FL, because it wou

Many Junior Military Officers (JMOs) transitioning to business are curious about what to expect in an interview and what hiring managers want to see or hear. From a high level, they wonder how they should communicate their experiences to business leaders. Then they even worry about the more minor details. Do they call the hiring manager by their first name or more formally? Do you have the same questions? Hear Directly from a Hiring Manager You can listen to this podcast and hear directly from Erik Fihlman, who has hired JMOs for his global company for over ten years. Erik is also a former Navy officer, so he has been on both sides of the interview. You will be surprised to learn that the most essential characteristic Erik looks for is someone who can carry on a conversation. This will blow the paradigm that an interview is a recruiter or hiring manager working down a list of questions; all the candidate does is provide answers. Instead, Erik explains he wants to speak to candidates who can share ideas bac

We are honored to bring this episode to you. You might say it's a story of "hoops to heroes". Last year, Melissa Miles, Cameron-Brooks alumnus from 1994, approached Cameron-Brooks and shared with us a project that she and West Point teammates Melody Lutz and Dena Caradimitropoulo were working on. Melissa (Miss) and Dena were USMA class of ’81, and Melody was USMA class of ’84. Miss, Melody and Dena were among the first graduating classes with women at West Point (the first class with graduating women cadets was the class of 1980.). Basketball was the first varsity athletics team that women formed at West Point. Those three, along with many others, were pioneers as some of the original members of the Army Women’s Basketball team. A few years ago, Miss and Dena formed a nonprofit organization with the purpose of commissioning a professional writer to tell this special story, as seen through the eyes of West Point leaders, team supporters, coaches, and Army women’s basketball players. It covers from the start of

Welcome back for another special episode where we will give you keys to interview success! Rob Davis interviewed 3 of our most recent alumni from the April 2023 Career Conference for our post-April 2023 Conference review webcast.  At the time of the interview, all three alumni had already accepted an offer of employment.  These episodes are particularly valuable as it allows those who are planning to attend an upcoming or future Career Conference a glimpse behind the curtain to how everything transpired.  It is also helpful for those just curious about how a Cameron-Brooks Conference runs. Our featured alumni included: Taylor Compton:  Navy Submariner, USNA '15 Applied Mathematics Javy Rodriguez:  Army Infantry, USMA ' 16 Economics Zach Thompson:  Army Armor, USMA '15 Military History In this episode, Rob spends the initial part of the webcast covering some of the details, statistics, etc. about the April 2023 Career Conference and sharing some of the companies that attended the Conference, types of role

Welcome back! We are pleased to welcome Connor Pratt to the podcast. Connor is a former USMC Logistics officer who attended the Cameron-Brooks Career Conference in January 2018— and the perfect example of how a prepared officer has options when making the transition to business. He spent eight years in the USMC and held many positions, including Battalion Maintenance Management Officer, Platoon Commander, Battalion Motor Transport Officer, and Joint Logistics Directorate Officer. Connor has a degree in Marine Transportation from the US Merchant Marine Academy. When he attended the Career Conference, he interviewed for roles in Team Leadership and General Management, Business Analysis, and Business-to-Business Sales. Breaking Down Misconceptions At the Career Conference, Connor interviewed with 15 different industry-leading companies, including Boston Scientific, Corning, Kaeser, and Altec. He intimately chose to work for Globus Medical, a world-leading spinal and trauma medical device company. He started his

If you are a JMO, do you have what it takes to be a Development Candidate? I interview thousands of JMOs a year who tell me they want to leave the military and continue their leadership career in business. They express the desire for increased responsibility and the opportunity to grow and develop to reach their full potential. They want to become a part of the top 10% of leaders in corporate America. I get excited; they describe what Roger Cameron labeled the Development Candidate in the early 1970s when he helped companies discover the JMO. Ability to be a Development Candidate When Roger created this Development Candidate concept with his client companies 50+ years ago, he said it takes two things to be a Development Candidate: ability and desire. He then went on to say that ability is the easy part. Ability is the track record of success over time. A JMO who has been a leader and top performer in college and in the military, demonstrated by academic success and military evaluations, has the demonstrated

Many blogs, books, and LinkedIn posts advocate negotiating the initial employment offer.  Their advice sounds well-intentioned and thoughtful on the surface.  They assume the company needs to provide a better offer, is holding back, and wants the candidate to negotiate. These resources provide the questions and statements to ask that will help the candidate earn more base salary, signing bonus, and potentially more vacation. Unfortunately, these well-intentioned advisors do not explain the risks of negotiating. When a candidate negotiates an offer, you are essentially turning down the initial offer and asking for a different one. For 23 years, I have advised military officers on transitioning well into business.  Transitioning well includes earning and accepting an offer professionally.  When these officers bring up the idea of negotiating an offer, I first want to understand their reasons.  If their primary reason is that is what they are being advised or read, I explain to them the downside before they sta

Welcome back for a special episode where we will give you keys to interview success! Pete Van Epps interviewed 3 of our most recent alumni from the January 2023 Career Conference for our post-January 2023 Conference review webcast. At the time of the interview, all three alumni had already accepted an offer of employment. We really enjoy doing this type of episode because it gives those who are planning to attend a future Career Conference (or those who are curious about the details of the conference) a "peek over the fence" to how exactly everything went down. Our featured alumni included: Hannah Legler: Lieutenant, Navy Helicopter Pilot, USNA '13 Eric Poletti: Lieutenant, Navy Submariner, USNA '16 Wyatt Boyd: Captain, Army Field Artillery, USMA '18 In this episode, Pete spends a few minutes going over some facts and figures about the January 2023 Conference as well as sharing some of the companies that attended the Career Conference and the types of roles they represented. He also shares the

The key to career progression is initiative! In this episode, I am glad to introduce Chris Benson. Chris is a former USMC Field Artillery officer who attended the January 2014 Career Conference. After the follow-up interview process concluded, he received multiple offers for employment and ultimately chose to work for INVISTA. INVISTA, a company within Koch Industries,  is one of the world’s largest integrated producers of polymers, chemicals, and fibers. Why INVISTA? Chris earned many offers through his process but said one of the main reasons he chose INVISTA was because of their guiding principles. Koch Industries operates using Principle Based Management and fosters a culture of empowering employees to build the organization and serve their customers. Even within INVISTA, Chris was given multiple job offers and chose the role to start as a Shift Supervisor because the work closely related to what he did in the USMC. The interesting thing about it is that he decided to work for INVISTA after he met them, n

Welcome back to another episode of the PCS to Corporate America Podcast, where we answer the burning question..."How will the 2023 economy affect JMO career options?" This episode is the second half of an interview I did with Cameron-Brooks CEO Chuck Alvarez.  Chuck and I reviewed JMO to business career transition best practices and the outlook for 2023.  I recorded the full interview on December 15, 2022, in a webcast format that you can watch here.  You can also listen to the first of the interview in Episode 164. What We Covered in Episode 164 (Part 1) - Trends for 2022 Why Cameron-Brooks client companies continue to have high demand for Junior Officer leaders. Why Cameron-Brooks client companies hiring demand remained robust, and why we had many more open positions than candidates. Transition lessons we learned in 2022 that every JMO should know in preparing to make a pivot to a business leadership career. What We Cover in Episode 165 (Part 2) - Outlook and Best Practices for 2023  A recession

Happy New Year!  All of us at Cameron-Brooks hope you had a wonderful Holiday Season and feel refreshed to reach your goals in 2023. At the end of every year, I interview Cameron-Brooks CEO, Chuck Alvarez, to review JMO to business career transition best practices and get his outlook for the following year.  We record this in a Webcast video format that you can watch here.  If you prefer to listen to it, follow the links in this post.  We started this at the end of 2020 to educate officers on the unique JMO transition lessons learned during the pandemic.  We received so much positive feedback; we made this an annual event. While it seems the virus is now just a part of our lives and a new way of living, it is still making an impact on the economy.  We are experiencing inflation, the federal reserve raising interest rates, and some lingering supply chain issues.  The combination of these issues raised the dreaded “R” word – recession to hit the news. This caused many JMOs to ask questions about what we expe

If you were ever wondering about military-to-corporate history or the history of Cameron-Brooks, this is the episode for you. On this show, we welcome Mary Lou White to the program. Mary Lou is one of the founding members of Cameron-Brooks and has been helping Junior Military Officers move from the military to Corporate America for over 45 years! As you can imagine, she has seen a lot in that time. In this episode, we take it all the way to the beginning. As a native of California, she met Roger Cameron and Rene Brooks. Roger and Rene were both working for a company names Career Seminars at that time. The company worked with JMOs but also did other types of recruiting. After Career Seminars underwent a restructuring, Roger and Rene decided to build their own company focused on helping military officers transition to the business world. The rest, as they say, is military-to-corporate history. Mary Lou takes us on a journey from the early days of Cameron-Brooks, her favorite candidate (spoiler alert: she ma

Learning how to use your technical aptitude to propel your career is our focus for this Episode. We welcome back Chazz Hoskins. Chazz was featured on Episode 82 of the Cameron-Brooks podcast. This podcast is a career check-in, but as a reminder, Chazz is a former Air Force Development Engineer who transitioned to Lam Research. Chazz's last job in the Air Force was as a data analyst working on missile telemetry within a fighter squadron. Lam is foundational to the semiconductor industry, and they make the machines that make some of the most sophisticated semiconductors in the world. From the Career Conference, Chazz was able to evaluate multiple employment offers, so we spent a couple of minutes exploring why he chose to launch his business career at Lam. He started at Lam as a Pilot Manufacturing Engineer. His job was to manage the component supply chain, quality surveillance, contingencies for faulty components, safety and cost implications, and create documentation for manufacturing procedures. Being a Pi

Successfully transitioning from military officer to business leader is a strategic multistep process.  In my 23 plus years as a military to business headhunter and recruiter, I have coached 5,000+ junior officers through the 8 stages of a military to business transition. In this 30-minute podcast, I explain the 8 Stages of the Transition to give you a roadmap to help you reach your goals.  Like any roadmap, I help you identify your destination, the different routes to get there and where you can take disastrous wrong turns and how to avoid them. Before I jump into the 8 Stages of the Transition, I devote time to defining the successful transition.  It's critical you understand the difference between just finding a job with good pay and location and truly establishing yourself in a new industry, company and career field.  The latter is the successful transition and requires the 8 Stages.  The former is landing a new job and only requires about 3 or 4 of the Stages.  The 8 Stages will seem like overkill if yo

Welcome back to another episode of the Cameron-Brooks Podcast. In Episode 157, I talked about the similarities of financial investing and managing your career for future opportunities— which ties right into why finding the right opportunity fit is more important than location. After I recorded that podcast, I wanted to find an alum who modeled this.  Coincidently, I spoke with C-B Alumnus Chris Parks that day.  Chris called asking me for advice.  He just had an incredible offer to leave his current company and be a Director of Sales at another company.  Chris had only been out of the military for 5 years, so this was very fast to be considered for a Director level position. During my conversation with Chris, I asked him how he earned such an opportunity so quickly.  He credited it to two decisions he made in the transition.  I asked if he would share those decisions on our podcast. Decision 1 Chris agrees: The right opportunity is more important than location, so he prioritized opportunity.  Chris accepted a

Let's dive into an economic discussion for transitioning JMOs. As military officers consider moving from the military to corporate America, we often receive questions about the state of the economy. These questions typically come in a few different forms, but the question behind the question is this: will the economy support my transition from the military, and will I find employment that is meaningful and commensurate with my level of leadership and experience? The question is extremely logical. Many officers consider leaving the military for a myriad of reasons, but regardless of the reason, the military is perceived as a safe option, and so they want to ensure their transition to Corporate America will be successful. This episode has two parts. The first part is a discussion that Joel Junker and Pete Van Epps had recently about the state of the economy. They basically have an economy discussion for transitioning JMOs where they talk about employment situations, both past, and present, as well looked into

Welcome back to another episode of the Cameron-Brooks Podcast. Do you want to make a successful transition from military to business? Do you want to be in a top leadership role of a leading company?  If you do, you don't need to reinvent the wheel to help you get there.  You can follow former military officers who have become key business leaders' steps for career success. One such former military officer I recommend following is Ben Berkowick. I first met Ben in Pensacola, FL in December of 2008.  At that time, Ben was a Navy Naval Flight Officer preparing to make the transition to business the following year.  Do you recall the Great Recession of 2009?  Ben made the transition during one of the weakest job markets in the last 60 years.  Not only did he successfully land a position in sales with Biosense Webster, a division of Johnson & Johnson, but he also went on to several promotions and is now an Area Vice President of Sales with Biosense Webster. In this podcast, Ben and I cover: Ben's 5 Steps for Suc

I like to use the lessons of investing to help Junior Military Officers (JMOs) understand the tradeoffs and choices they will make during their career search process.  In this podcast, I walk through the value of investing early in your life.  I share the financial benefits of sacrificing today for reaching financial and career goals in the future.  Chiefly, I explain how that same investing discipline applies to making sacrifices and tradeoffs early in your career, leading to reaching your career goals. The Value of Investing Early You can search online about the benefits of investing early and the almost impossible nature of trying to reach financial goals by starting later.  When you do, you will find tables and charts like the one I found from USAA. The article states the amount you will have at age 65 if you start saving $250 a month starting at different ages (it assumes an eight percent average annual investment return). If you start at age: 25: You’ll accumulate $878,570 by age 65 35: You’ll accumu

When you hear the phrase “Corporate America,” what imagery immediately comes to mind? Personally, my brain first goes to a fictional photo of Wall Street – probably something snapped in the mid-1990s that would be found in a dusty textbook. My mind forms lots of gray buildings and gray suits. However, I think this idea of Corporate America is a stereotype where a lot of misconceptions about business are founded. I’ve had multiple conversations with military officers who have told me something along the lines of, “I don’t want business, I want project management.” I think the knee-jerk reaction to this statement stems from our stereotypes (e.g., the Corporate America imagery exercise above). Because of these conversations, Pete and I decided to tackle the five most common misconceptions about business we hear when speaking with junior military officers on the podcast. 5 Common Misconceptions About Business Corporate America = Wall Street Is Wall Street part of Corporate America? Absolutely! However,

What is the formula to launching a successful business career? And what does a "successful business career" mean for a military officer who wants to transition? We define this concept more HERE but wanted to share a story of how a Cameron-Brooks alum utilized three strategies to successfully transition with a long-term goal in mind. When we published the Transition Guide "3 Game-Changing Strategies for JMOs Making the Jump to Business", I thought about many of our Alumni who executed these strategies perfectly and are now achieving the personal and professional success they envisioned when leaving the military. They committed to investing in their careers early by getting on board with an industry-leading company that valued their JMO experience and built a track record of success within the first 3 to 5 years.  They made tradeoffs such as time to get their MBA, starting in a good location but not the ideal location and avoiding easy assignment for the tough ones that moved their organization forward.  I s