"Open your eyes, be receptive, try to learn about what's unknown to you, in addition to what you're already aware of."
– Tom Wolfe

Tom Wolfe is a career coach, author, and columnist. He is the author of OUT OF UNIFORM -- Your Guide to a Successful Military-to-Civilian Transition, as well as a columnist of 11 years for CivilianJobs.com. Tom has over 29 years of experience in the Career Development industry. Tom is a graduate of the US Naval Academy, and served as a Surface Warfare Officer and Admiral’s Aide.

In this interview we discuss:

• Stereotypes about veterans - how to use stories in interviews to reinforce the positive ones, and preemptively combat the negative ones
• Common mistakes veterans make - like being too humble or understated in an interview
• Job hunting techniques (like using informational interviews to see if you’d like a career and potentially get your foot in the door of an organization)
• Using Filters for your job search so you can avoid boiling the ocean when looking for your ideal job
• Using a career coach as a personal trainer for your career
• Tactical exercises you can use to improve your self knowledge as part of a job search
• And much, much more…

• Listen to it on iTunes.
• Stream by clicking here.
• Download as an MP3 by right-clicking here and choosing “save as.”

QUESTION OF THE DAY: How can I make these episodes more valuable to active duty military personnel considering transitioning to the civilian world? Please let me know in the comments.

Scroll below for links and show notes…

Selected Links from the Episode

• Tom's book: Our of Uniform
• Contact Tom at: http://www.tomwolfe-careercoach.com/index.html
• Tom's book's website: http://www.out-of-uniform.com
• Canines for Service: http://www.caninesforservice.org/

Show Notes

• [3:10] - Tom’s background in writing and career coaching
• [4:10] - The most common mistakes Tom sees veterans make in their career transition
• [13:27] - Stereotypes - how to reinforce the positives and preempt the negatives
• [24:26] Reasons why veterans get rejected in interviews
• [27:00] - A surefire way to succeed in an interview
• [28:33] - How to gather information about what you want to do as efficiently as possible
• [33:18] - Using Informational Interviews to figure out what you want to do… and potentially get your foot in the door
• [36:12] - How to use filters to simplify your job search
• [43:20] - 1/2 of veterans end up working for a company they weren’t aware of at the start of their search..how to broaden your search to be aware of broader opportunities
• [47:50] - A personal trainer for your career - Career Coaching
• [57:03] - Using mistakes to learn in you job search
• [58:32] - Where you can learn more about Tom’s work