Beyond the Uniform

“I think that the biggest thing is don't sell yourself short. I see too many people getting out - on both the officer and enlisted side - that look at these really simple programs. They’re great programs that may have transition assistance to get you into certain career fields, or take that first available job, or do something - if you’re working in logistics - to go right back into logistics. But all too often people do it because it’s convenient, rather than because it’s what they want to do. And I think that by really realizing that you’re capable of looking at a lot of different things, and that you’re capable of working at a lot of different places - figure out what you want to do rather than what’s easily available."
– Ben Vickery

Ben Vickery works at Google as a Finance Associate. He is also pursuing his MBA at Berkeley while full time at Google. He started out as Sergeant in the Marine Corps and served for nearly five years, including time as an Afghan Pashto Cryptologic Linguist at 1st Radio Battalion. After the Marines, he went to Columbia University and then on to Google. He also works as an Associate Instructor at Four Block, an organization that equips high potential veterans to achieve great careers at our nation’s top companies.

The top reason to listen to today’s episode is:

1. Rockstar - Ben was a Sergeant in the Marine Corps. Since transitioning out of the military he went to Columbia University, and landed a job at Google as a Finance Associate directly out of Columbia. As if that weren’t enough, he’s pursuing an MBA at Berkeley’s Haas School of Business WHILE at Google. He has a great story of how he got there and what he learned along the way.

Our Sponsor

Audible is offering one FREE audio book to Beyond the Uniform listeners. You can claim this offer here, and see a list of books recommended by my guests at BeyondTheUniform.io/books

• Ben interned at the startup, Venwise
• Google's Veteran Network is known as VetNet
• Another related great interview to check out is my interview with Jimmy Sopko
• Organizations mentioned in our discussion
  • Student Veterans of America
  • Service to School
  • Leadership Scholar (for US Marine Corps)

• 1:37 - Ben's background
• 2:13 - Ben's decision to transition from the Marine Corps to the civilian world
• 2:53 - How Ben decided to go to college vs. directly to industry
• 3:38 - Resources and advice that were helpful for Ben in applying to Columbia
• 4:31 - The internships Ben pursued while at Columbia, and how this helped him narrow in on what he didn't want to do
• 8:02 - How Ben decided to apply to Google
• 10:56 - Advice for veterans thinking of applying to Google
• 12:04 - How Ben prepared for his interview at Google
• 12:51 - An overview of Ben's role as a Finance Associate at Google
• 13:40 - What Ben's life at Google looks like on a day-to-day basis
• 14:55 - Common advice Ben gives to veterans who reach out to him about Google
• 18:33 - Habits Ben has tried to maintain - and break - from the military
• 21:12 - Indications that a veteran may like life as a Finance Associate at Google, and indications that it may not be a good fit for you
• 22:58 - Advice Ben would give to himself when he first left the Marine Corps
• 23:54 - The ways in which Ben has felt ahead and behind his civilian counterparts
• 27:18 - How Ben thought about the Reserves
• 27:50 - Advice to those on active duty about what they can do right now to prepare for their civilian career
• 30:40 - Final words of wisdom

“From the process of going through West Point and then being an officer and then deciding where you're going to next, one of the first things that is told to you is that you can go do whatever you want; you can write your own path. I think I took that to heart. If I can do whatever I want, this is what I want to do. It was a thing where I picked up a camera and started photographing a few things, and really, really enjoyed it. It was very intuitive and I liked that. It was the closest thing I had found to playing sports, where I was building muscle memory and then let that instinctive ability take over and get lost in the flow of what's going on. And I really wanted to keep doing that - if I got to choose what I would do, that's what I wanted to do. Then just dove neck deep in it and tried to figure it out."
– Chris Pestel

Chris Pestel is the Founder of Pestel Photography, and has worked as a freelance photographer for ESPN for nearly 9 years now. He started out at West Point after which he served as an Army Officer for five years. After his transition he started out as a photographer at Carolina Sports, before moving on to Playboy Enterprises as a Junior Designer & Photo Editor. He’s also served as the Director of Public Relations for his high school alma matter, Montini Catholic. Chris has run his company - Pestel Photography - for over 9 years, making him on the verge of the 4% of entrepreneurs who keep their company running for 10 years.

In this conversation, we cover a lot of topics, including:

• How Chris got his start with photography
• How Chris found his first job in photography with Carolina Sports
• What Chris' day-to-day life looked like at his first job with Carolina Sports
• How Chris trained and improved himself as a photographer
• What day-to-day life was like at Playboy
• How Chris founded his own company, Pestel Photography
• How Chris got started with ESPN
• And much, much more…

Our Sponsor

Audible is offering one FREE audio book to Beyond the Uniform listeners. You can claim this offer here, and see a list of books recommended by my guests at BeyondTheUniform.io/books

• Lynda.com - free with many public libraries ($20-25 / month), but a great resource for learning any new skill
• Book Recommendations:
  • Stephen King's book about writing: On Writing - A Memoir of the Craft
  • The Art of Play: Ignite Your Imagination to Unlock Insight, Healing, and Joy
  • Big Magic: Creative Living Beyond Fear

• 2:45 - Chris' background
• 3:28 - Chris' decision to leave the Army
• 4:35 - How Chris got his start with photography
• 6:20 - How Chris decided to start a career in photography
• 8:10 - How Chris found his first job in photography with Carolina Sports
• 10:57 - What Chris' day-to-day life looked like at his first job with Carolina Sports
• 13:30 - How Chris trained and improved himself as a photographer
• 14:58 - Specific resources Chris would recommend to other aspiring photographers
• 19:32 - How Chris transitioned from Carolina Sports to Playboy
• 27:39 - What day-to-day life was like at Playboy
• 30:00 - How Chris approached the opportunity at Playboy
• 32:50 - How Chris' approaches mentors and role models as an artist
• 37:12 - How Chris founded his own company, Pestel Photography
• 40:31 - How Chris got started with ESPN
• 43:24 - In what ways Chris' military service has helped him and in what ways he's had to break habits
• 49:34 - If Chris could give advice to himself when he separated from the military, the one piece of advice he'd give to himself
• 53:39 - Final words of wisdom

“I've been retired for 6.5 years now and some of the things that I've learned are that it's different after you leave active duty; the people are different and your motivations are different. One of the things you need to figure out how to do is relax, because most things just aren't as important as they were when you were wearing a uniform. And that's ok. It's ok to relax."
– Robert Underwood

Robert Underwood served as an Officer in the Marine Corps for 25 years, retiring as a Colonel and works as a Business Development Manager in the Electronic Manufacturing Industry at Eaton.

The top two reasons to listen to today’s episode:

1. Start with why - Bob has some incredible advice about figuring out what you want to do with your career, and how this is a process that occurs every 3-5 years for most people. He talks about finding the why that makes sense to you right now - not the one that made sense in the past, and provides a specific example of how this got him a job at Amazon
2. Interview prep - Bob has some exceptional advice about preparing for interviews. Rather than using books like “200 questions to prepare for an interview” he provides practical and tactical steps to get ready now
3. Perspective - Bob left the military and returned shortly after as active reservist through his retirement. He talks about the perspective this has given him and the the advantages of retiring
4. Business Development - at very end, describes job at Eaton in BD, which is a great overview.

Audible is offering one FREE audio book to Beyond the Uniform listeners. You can claim this offer here, and see a list of books recommended by my guests at BeyondTheUniform.io/books

• Placement agencies (free and get you lots of exposure): Lucas Group, Orion Group
• Book recommendation: The Everything Store: Jeff Bezos and the Age of Amazon
• Operation connect - San Diego Chamber of Commerce
• American Corporate Partners - matches veterans with veterans FOR FREE
• LinkedIn's Veteran Mentors Network

• 1:55 - Bob's background
• 4:11 - How Bob approached his decision to leave the military
• 5:21 - How do you know whether or not leaving the military is the right decision for you?
• 6:21 - How to consider leaving the military when you're uncertain of whether to disclose this process to those around you
• 8:55 - How Bob approach his first job search
• 10:20 - How Bob hired a PhD to help him figure out his ideal career
• 11:40 - What Bob's 30 minute coaching sessions looked like
• 13:06 - How Bob's coach - after he understood Bob's motivations - helped him explore job possibilities
• 20:33 - How Bob revisits his "why" frequently as he evaluates new job possibilities
• 32:00 - How Bob found his way to Amazon
• 33:04 - Advice on how to best prepare for an interview
• 35:20 - Advice on how to find a coach
• 39:30 - Other resources Bob would recommend
• 44:01 - An overview of Eaton and the role of Business Development
• 47:57 - Final words of wisdom

“I know that sounds really broad, but that's what people in academia are doing - it's knowledge production. It's not just sitting around sitting on a beach chair reading and thinking 'I love foreign policy' it's actually reading some of the dry stuff, engaging with others, writing, thinking and seeing whether or not you agree with the way we see things now and if you don't, do you know ways to change the way we look at things."
 – Aileen Teague

Aileen Teague is a Ph.D. Candidate at Vanderbilt University, where she studies, U.S. and Latin American History. She will finish her doctoral studies next summer and move toward her ambition of being a history professor. She teaches history at both Vanderbilt University and Nashville State Community College. She serves as an assistant coach on the marksmanship teach of the Nashville all boy's school Montgomery Bell Academy.

She started out at Boston University where she studied History and participated in the NROTC program. After this she served for 4 years active duty and then 4 years as a reservist as an officer in the US Marine Corps. After leaving the Marine Corps, she earned a Masters of Arts in History at Vanderbilt, and received a Fulbright Scholarship that took her to Mexico City to conduct research on Mexico's experience with the U.S. war on drugs over the course of 10 months. Since returning from Mexico Aileen has published various opinion pieces on her research and continues to write her dissertation, which focuses on the effects of U.S. drug control policies in 1970s Mexico.
In this conversation, we cover a lot of topics, including:

• An overview of life as a PhD student
• Having so much unstructured time, how Aileen structures her day
• How to prepare financially to give yourself time to find what you want to do
• Some typical career paths post-PhD
• An overview of the Fulbright Scholarship
• And much, much more…

Audible is offering one FREE audio book to Beyond the Uniform listeners. You can claim this offer here, and see a list of books recommended by my guests at BeyondTheUniform.io/books

• 2:16 - Aileen's background
• 3:53 - An overview of life as a PhD student
• 5:12 - Having so much unstructured time, how Aileen structures her day
• 7:07 - How long a PhD process takes
• 10:25 - How Aileen knew she wanted to pursue a PhD
• 14:16 - How to prepare financially to give yourself time to find what you want to do
• 16:06 - Side jobs that come to mind as ways to generate side income
• 20:06 - What the PhD application process looks like
• 23:15 - What Aileen plans to do after her PhD
• 25:27 - Some typical career paths post-PhD
• 29:03 - Indications that you may love life as a PhD... and indications that you may not like it
• 31:58 - The hardest part of pursuing a PhD
• 35:05 - Advice for veterans pursuing a PhD
• 36:46 - How Aileen decided to leave the Marine Corps
• 37:47 - An overview of the Fulbright Scholarship
• 45:57 - Advice to any veteran considering applying for a Fulbright Scholarship
• 48:00 - The more surprising aspects of Aileen's transition to civilian life
• 50:44 - Final words of wisdom

“In the private company world these companies are typically on 2-2.5 year funding cycles. If you don't get the next check in, the entity may go belly up. The person who feels the most pressure in that situation is the CFO - you're looking at payroll, vendor payments, at office lighting. You've got better visibility into when things reach cash exhaustion. And you expect CEOs to be very optimistic and Heads of Sales to be very optimistic in believing it will come, but when you're not seeing it, you're not holding the sales order and you've got a backlog of payments that can be pretty nerve wracking. But you can also thrive in the fact that in some situations the weight of the company is on your shoulders and for me that's highly motivational. "
 – John Quarles

John Quarles has served as the Chief Financial Officer (CFO) for two different startups, where he has raised over $150M of equity and debt for his companies. John is a graduate of the US Naval Academy, and served as a Navy SEAL as part of SEAL Team 8. After transitioning from the military, he worked as a consultant at Accenture for one year prior to attending Harvard Business School. After HBS, he entered the Finance Industry and began his progression towards CFO.

In this conversation, we cover a lot of topics, including:

• What day-to-day life looks like as a CFO
• The most challenging aspect of being CFO
• The advantages of gaining experience prior to pursuing an MBA
• More tried and true career paths to the position of CFO
• And much, much more…

• Recruiters: Lucas Group
• FP&A - Financial Planning & Analysis certification
• Finance Companies mentioned: Deloitte, Ernst & Young (EY), Price Watterhouse Couper (PwC), Grant Thornton, Baker Tilly

• 1:53 - John’s background
• 2:35 - An overview of the role of Chief Financial Officer (CFO)
• 4:30 - What day-to-day life looks like as a CFO
• 11:50 - The most challenging aspect of being CFO
• 15:37 - John's journey from the Navy to consulting and his initial job search
• 18:06 - The advantages of gaining experience prior to pursuing an MBA
• 20:06 - How John decided to pursue a career in finance
• 24:00 - John's path from entering finance to becoming a CFO
• 27:00 - More tried and true career paths to the position of CFO
• 29:45 - Indications that you may love the job of CFO... and indications that you may hate it
• 36:11 - The ways in which John felt ahead and behind based on his military service
• 38:38 - Habits John had to break when he left the military, and positive habits he's tried to maintain
• 43:03 - Some of the more surprising aspects of a transition to civilian life
• 49:30 - Final words of wisdom

“Veterans, writ large, miss being in the military because of that sense of community and a greater pruprose. In that sense, politics is a perfect fit for veterans: you work hard with a group of people to solve problems, and make a difference and serve your country; the mission statements are perfectly aligned. The thing that I think gets hard for a lot of veterans getting into the political space is that in order to get elected you have to be able to go out and tell a community of people why you're so great and why they should vote for you. Veterans as a group are a little more reserved about that."
 – Kate Kranz

Kate Kranz is the Director of Women's Initiative at Veterans Campaign, a non-partisan, non-profit organization whose mission is to encourage, mentor and prepare veterans, transitioning service members, and other members of the military community for a "Second Service" in civic and political leadership. She started out at the Naval Academy, and served as a Naval Flight Officer for 11 years. She is finishing up a Masters of Law and Diplomacy from Tufts University, and a Master’s of Administrative Leadership from Oklahoma University.

In this conversation, we cover a lot of topics, including:

• An overview of the Veteran's Campaign and what they do
• How veterans can work with Veteran's Campaign
• In what ways veterans would enjoy the world of politics and what might be more challenging
• How Kate figured out what she wanted to do after an unexpected transition to a civilian career
• And much, much more…

• Kate's company, Veterans Campaign: http://www.veteranscampaign.org/
• Center for American Women in Politics at Rutgers: http://www.cawp.rutgers.edu/
• Homefront Rising - encourages and helps military spouses to run for office
• Service 2 School - free help for any veteran to get into your ideal college or graduate school program
• American Corporate Partners - free mentorship for any veteran pursuing a career in business
• Vets for Diplomacy
• Hill Vets - increasing veteran involvement in government and advocacy
• Vet Tech Trek - VetTechTrek runs immersive recruiting events for veterans and their spouses.

• 2:02 - Kate's background
• 2:52 - An overview of the Veteran's Campaign and what they do
•  3:56 - How veterans can work with Veteran's Campaign
• 6:08 - What Kate's day-to-day life looks like
• 10:40 - In what ways veterans would enjoy the world of politics and what might be more challenging
• 13:43 - Kate's decision to leave the military
• 19:33 - How Kate figured out what she wanted to do after an unexpected transition to a civilian career
• 24:33 - The most surprising aspect of Kate's transition to civilian life
• 30:10 - How people on active duty can start preparing right now for their eventual transition to civilian life
• 33:00 - Final words of wisdom

“[Veterans] rush into [their first job]. They worry so much about the changes that they don't pause and really think about what the next step is. Now, not everyone has the luxury of preparing for six months. Sometimes they are medically discharged or there are other extraneous circumstances that make their transition come upon them much quicker. But there are so many times that I see veterans rush into a role without looking at the broad picture first."
– Liz McLean

Liz McLean is the Senior Program Director of Veteran Employment at Military.com, as well as the Owner & President of Liz McLean Veteran Solutions. She started out at the Air Force Academy where she served for five years as a Logistics Readiness Officer. Since 2010 she has worked as a recruiter for civilians and veterans, with multiple companies including positions at Booz Allen Hamilton and Hewlett-Packard where she worked to refine veteran programs. Liz holds a bachelors in behavioral science and a Masters of Science in Industrial Organizational Psychology, where she focused on the people versus the product for program efficiency. Her passions are fueled by ultra-running and up to the ironman distance triathlon

The top three reasons to listen to today's are:

• #1 Transition Advice - Liz has worked as a recruiter for top companies including Booz Allen Hamilton and Hewlett-Packard. Each of us only make a transition from the military once, but Liz has worked with hundreds of veterans in their transition. Her advice on this is really worthwhile.
• #2 Recruiting - a career path that not a lot of veterans consider is being a recruiter. Liz talks about what it's like, and how you can succeed in this career path.
• #3 Starting a company - Liz chose to start her own recruiting company rather than join an established company. She's got some great advice for vets thinking of starting their own organization.

Selected Links

• Military.com
  • Lots of articles on how to know what you like
  • Skills Translators - help you break down the areas you might go into based on your prior military field
• Liz's company is Liz McLean Veteran Solutions
• Book
  • Moving the Needle: Get Clear, Get Free, and Get Going in Your Career, Business, and Life! - How to network properly; does a good job of breaking down the networking skill sets
  • Leaders Eat Last: Why Some Teams Pull Together and Others Don’t

• 1:43 - Liz's background in the Air Force until today
• 2:30 - Liz's decision to leave the Air Force and how she approached this decision
• 3:50 - What Liz learned in her first job search outside of the Air Force
• 8:03 - How Liz thought about agreeing to 100% commission based salary, and why she wouldn't recommend that veterans consider a commission based salary for their first job
• 12:07 - Liz's current role at Military.com and what her day-to-day life looks like
• 14:58 - With so much experience recruiting, a few common mistakes that Liz sees veterans making in their first job search outside of the military
• 18:30 - Resources that Liz would recommend to veterans to help in their civilian career
• 20:48 - Liz's advice for veterans interested in starting their career as a recruiter, and an overview of the career of a recruiter
• 24:26 - The most challenging part of Liz's job
• 26:06 - How Liz started her own company, and why this was an important career decision for her as a recruiter
• 28:08 - The Pros & Cons of starting your own company as a recruiter, vs. joining an established company as a recruiter
• 31:33 - Liz's advice to any veteran interested in starting their own company
• 33:00 - One of the biggest mistakes Liz made since leaving the Air Force and what she learned from it
• 34:54 - What habits Liz tried to maintain from the Air Force, and habits she needed to break to be successful in her civilian career
• 39:15 - What surprised Liz the most about her transition from the Air Force to civilian life
• 41:24 - Liz's final words of wisdom

“When you go into a project, everyone has the understanding that they probably don't know what the right answer is. At Slack we're very successful and we've done a lot of right movement: when there was a decision to go left, we went left; when there was a decision to pick door #3, we happened to pick door #3. A lot of it is by chance and luck and at the same time when we attempt a project, I don't think anyone assumes that they know what the right answer is. Because of that there is a lot of open mindedness of being ok if this doesn't work out. A lot of the time we do things here to try it out and if it doesn't work it doesn't work."
 – Tom Pae

Tom Pae is a Sales Enablement Manager at Slack - one of the fastest growing startups in San Francisco, who has raised $540M in funding. He started out at West Point, and served in the Army for over seven years as an Armor & Military Intelligence Officer. When he left the Army he went to Columbia Business School. After that, he joined LinkedIn - first as a Sales Operations Manager and then as a Senior Learning Technology Strategist. He is married to fellow Army veteran, RaeAnne Pae, who I interviewed in Episode 26.

In this conversation, we cover a lot of topics, including:

• An overview of the role of Account Operations Management
• The lifestyle component of working in a high-growth startup
• How life at Slack (and a high growth startup) compares to life at LinkedIn (an established company)
• How Tom used nights and weekends to prepare for his transition to tech
• And much, much more…

• My interview with Tom's wife, RaeAnne - http://beyondtheuniform.io/btu-26-raeanne-pae-army-to-facebook-and-business-development/
• Slack's incredible commercial about their vision for the workplace: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x6sSa5NpqUI
• Articles mentioned about tech
  • Recode - http://www.recode.net/
  • Venture beat - http://venturebeat.com/
  • Tech crunch - https://techcrunch.com/
  • Wall Street Journal Tech & Marketing section - http://www.wsj.com/news/technology
• General Assembly - short form content on different topics at night. Helped Tom figure out what he wanted to do

• 2:37 - Tom's background
• 3:18 - An overview of Slack
• 5:50 - An overview of the role of Account Operations Management
• 7:42 - The day-to-day life of an Account Operations Manager
• 9:18 - The lifestyle component of working in a high-growth startup
• 11:20 - Career progressions for an Account Operations Manager
• 13:20 - Indications that you may be well suited for a role in Account Operations, and indications that you may not enjoy it
• 16:47 - How life at Slack (and a high growth startup) compares to life at LinkedIn (an established company)
• 21:28 - How Tom approached the decision to leave the Army
• 23:28 - The most surprising aspect of Tom's transition to civilian life
• 26:26 - Advice on whether or not to pursue an MBA after the military
• 30:10 - How Tom found his way from business school to LinkedIn
• 37:50 - How Tom pursued Operations as a starting point for his career
• 41:04 - How Tom decided to move on from LinkedIn
• 44:00 - Final words of wisdom

“In the military we like to talk about, 'we accomplish more before 9am than the rest of the world.' If you take that thought into the civilian world, it's going to hurt you. There are really smart people out there and there is so much to be learned as you make the transition. Everyone has chosen to do something different - whether you're in the military or working for Chick-fil-a, or somewhere else. They're adding a lot of value where they are. So just keep in mind that - 'I can add value too in a unique way and I have a unique skill set to bring, but there are also a lot of people around me who are really smart and adding a lot of value too."
 – Mandy Psiaki

Mandy Psiaki is a Senior Team Lead at Chick-fil-A Corporate. She started out at West Point, and served in the Army for five years as a Finance Officer. She received her MBA from Colorado State University while still on Active Duty. She started her civilian career at Proctor & Gamble, where she worked for three months as an Associate Manager, Consumer and Market Knowledge. Before she transitioned to Chick-fil-A, where she has worked for nearly five years: starting as a Franchisee Selection Consultant, a Senior Franchisee Selection Consultant, and now her current role as Senior Team Lead, Specialized Training.

In this conversation, we cover a lot of topics, including:

• An overview of Mandy's work at Chick-fil-a
• What it was like getting an MBA while on Active Duty
• How Mandy transitioned to Proctor & Gamble
• How Mandy started working at Chick-fil-a and an overview of her first role as Franchisee Selection Consultant
• How the separation between Mandy and her husband in the corporate world differed from their separation while on Active Duty
• And much, much more…Show Notes

• 2:07 - Mandy's background
• 2:51 - An overview of Mandy's work at Chick-fil-a
• 4:15 - What her job looks like on a day-to-day basis
• 7:05 - The lifestyle component of her work
• 8:08 - The most challenging aspect of Mandy's work
• 9:25 - Mandy's decision to leave the Army
• 10:53 - How she thought about the Reserves
• 11:42 - What it was like getting an MBA while on Active Duty
• 14:46 - How Mandy transitioned to Proctor & Gamble
• 20:01 - How Mandy started working at Chick-fil-a and an overview of her first role as Franchisee Selection Consultant
• 22:20 - How the separation between Mandy and her husband in the corporate world differed from their separation while on Active Duty
• 25:53 - How Mandy's next role at Chick-fil-a compared to her first role
• 26:59 - Indications that you may like a job like Mandy's... and indications you may not enjoy it
• 29:07 - Common career paths for someone in Mandy's shoes
• 30:30 - How leadership outside of the military has differed from leadership in the military
• 32:12 - Positive habits Mandy has tried to maintain from the military... and bad habits she had to break
• 33:44 - The most surprising aspect of Mandy's transition to the civilian world
• 35:08 - How Mandy felt ahead of her civilian counterparts, and where she felt behind
• 39:40 - Final words of wisdom

“When I left Bain I reached out to a variety of folks… to explore what was out there. I kept in touch with those folks, and made a point to regularly get back in touch with people and see what they’re up to. It was after a meeting like that - we grabbed coffee and didn’t think much of it at the time, but he called me a few weeks later to let me know that Lyft was starting up in Atlanta. It was basically a lightening bolt that made me aware. It appeared and it appeared because I made contacts and maintained them."
 – Sam Bond

Sam Bond is a General Manager at Lyft - a company most listeners have probably used for their app which makes it simple for you to find a ride whenever you need one. Although only four years old, Lyft has raised $2B in funding, and has nearly 6k employees listed on LinkedIn. Sam started out at Princeton University and then served as an officer in the Marine Corps for 4 years. After his service, he attended the University of Virginia - Darden Graduate School of Business. He worked in consulting at Bain & Company as a Consultant and then Case Team Leader. He also worked at the Coca-Cola Company - first as a Director Supply Chain Strategy and then as a Group Director of Strategy and Portfolio Management.

In this conversation, we cover a lot of topics, including:

• An overview of the General Manager position at Lyft
• Indications that a veteran may enjoy the role of General Manager, and indications that it might not be a good fit for them
• What it's like to work at an explosively growing startup (and the pros and cons of joining a company on an exponential growth path)
• An overview of entry level positions at Coca-Cola for a newly transitioned veteran
• How Sam looks back on his journey to a role of General Manager
• And much, much more…

• The ride sharing service, Lyft

• 2:23 - Sam's background
• 3:27 - An overview of the General Manager position at Lyft
• 7:27 - Sam's day-to-day life at Lyft
• 11:58 - Indications that a veteran may enjoy the role of General Manager, and indications that it might not be a good fit for them
• 15:00 - What it's like to work at an explosively growing startup (and the pros and cons of joining a company on an exponential growth path)
• 19:20 - Sam's decision to leave the Marine Corps
• 22:05 - Sam's view on an MBA and how essential it is to a veteran aspiring to a General Manager role
• 24:04 - How Sam decided to enter Management Consulting at Bain & Company
• 26:25 - Some of the skills that Sam learned at Bain that have helped him in his role as General Manager
• 29:45 - How Sam's lifestyle changed between a Consultant to a Case Team Leader
• 31:50 - After three years, how Sam transitioned from Bain & Company to Coca-Cola
• 34:50 - An overview of Sam's roles at Coca-Cola
• 38:20 - An overview of entry level positions at Coca-Cola for a newly transitioned veteran
• 41:10 - How Sam transitioned from Coca-Cola to Lyft
• 47:32 - How Sam looks back on his journey to a role of General Manager
• 50:00 - How leadership outside of the military differs from leadership within the military
• 52:20 - Final words of wisdom from Sam