Charles T.
Web Services Developer
Jobs after leaving the Air Force
Job experience before the Air Force
Biggest challenges in adapting to civilian work
Job search after the Air Force
Interacting with veterans at Royce Geo and support for veterans at the company
Overview
Charles (Chuck) served in the Air Force for 22 years before transitioning to being a civilian. He offers valuable insights into how service members can prepare financially, medically, and professionally to life outside of the military.
Job at Royce Geo
“I was release ops, which was basically software updating and patching for a couple of years and then we had a changeover and I started doing some technical writing for the last three and a half years with people that were working on agile platforms. And now, I’ve moved from the technical writing piece to now straight operational support. I’ve been in this position a month, so I’m still kind of getting my feet wet and figuring out my niche in this job. We’ve got a couple of specific websites that we’re supporting within the organization, and I’m on the opps side of that support structure.”
Jobs after leaving the Air Force
“This was a real challenge. I was supposed to be hired the day I got out of the Air Force. I was lined up for a position with NGA with a different contract group. They ran into some roadblocks. The physicians got stalled for like six months, so while I was burning through all the savings I put aside that I was going to have for a 401, I had to work at Best Buy as a geek squad member to bring in some additional income in the interim until I got picked up.
When I got picked up, I worked for NJVC for the first 13 years. So I was in the Chenega branch of the contracting scheme for NGA.”
Job experience before the Air Force
“No, I went to the Air Force straight out of high school. I just worked typical part time jobs in restaurants and stuff.”
Work in the Air Force
“So, I started off what they used to call a 511, which is a computer operator and then they did a realignment in the Air Force and they started calling us 3COs, which is a computer specialist. So, for the most part, for a big chunk of the Air Force time, at least early on, I was working on big room size mainframe computers.”
Biggest challenges in adapting to civilian work
“I had challenges, honestly, the pay jumped and I had my retirement coming in at that point. If there was anything, it was just kind of the lack of structure. You had to be a little more self aware. It’s hard to explain but as opposed to not being told how to cut your hair, if you can have a mustache or a beard or not, what time you’re going to lunch. But NGA being what it is, there’s still a lot of that. There’s kind of a shadow of its government. So it still has a lot of that kind of hoop jumping stuff that goes on that you just got to do because they’re telling you and you just got to say how high and do it otherwise.”
Job search after the Air Force
“So, I went through all the pre-separation interviews. They had the personnel center on base that had their post transitional team. You had guys from the VA, not only the federal VA, but the Illinois Department of Veterans. You had all these guys feeding you info, telling you, hey, here’s the things as a veteran or retired veteran you’re entitled to if you go apply for them, make sure you apply for them. Here’s a list of contracting agencies. And for me, it was easy because I already had family members that had had ties with NGA. So, I was already familiar with NGA, so I already kind of had an idea that that was my target because I had the clearances. That piece of it wasn’t as tough as it could have been. It was just that little hiccup right at the start that set me back six months.”
Interacting with veterans at Royce Geo and support for veterans at the company
“Well, I think in general, you’ve got, and especially, well, at least out here where I’m at, you’re dealing with a good number of veterans anyway on any given basis. The thing is, I’ve been out of the Air Force for 20 years. So, you just got to be mindful. It’s kind of a different era that we’re dealing with now. I mean, you deal with military guys and gals, and you know, they’ll just cut on you all day long. It’s kind of…it’s just the military attitude…that’s just how things are. You get out of the uniform. Initially, it didn’t really stop. It’s a mindset. But obviously, in the last, oh, I don’t know, more than a decade things have kind of changed. I mean, yeah, I don’t know. It’s a different set of ground rules now. But, I mean, it’s fine. You just have to adapt a little bit. I think probably if some of the people who are working for NGA that’re still putting on a uniform, depending on what their services, they’re still probably, you know, given each other the business day in day out, but it’s just not maybe as out in the open as it used to be when I was in the military.”
Advice for someone transitioning out of the military
“Okay, so I was kind of expecting that. Let’s see, I made a list. I got more than a couple things. At least immediately, and lucky I did this, I had a fallback fund. Just, you know, if I would have taken it for granted that I was going to have that job on day one, I would have been in a really rough spot or I would have had to make some more aggressive choices. I couldn’t have been as selective in waiting, so that was one thing. And tied in with that, prior to exiting, you definitely want to be as debt free as possible. Just so that’s not hanging over your head as you’re trying to get yourself adjusted.
So the next thing I would say is you gotta consider what you’re doing prior and if you’re gonna make a change, maybe that’s the time to make it. You don’t necessarily have to like pick up kind of what you’re doing. In my case, it just seemed, you know, it just kind of fell on my lap and I’m not the biggest change guy in the world, so, you know, I like a comfort zone and I was like, alright, this is a good in between…the job I took, I felt like I was good enough at it that I didn’t have concerns. And since then, I’ve changed so many times now and just now I’m kind of used to the change thing, but you know, it’s kind of like the marine Marina slogan, you know, adapt and overcome. Just, you know, you got to be prepared to do that. And if not just for the situation just to maybe set yourself up better.
And then, right before you separate, you just need to make sure that…well, one of the things that I kept noticing from people is…and they told us this before we separated, they said like, get everything possible checked out that you could possibly ever, ever check out medically, and I thought I did, but I probably didn’t. So I probably lost access to some benefits just because I didn’t bring up every possible minor ailment that I’ve ever had to the doctors and the VA before I separated, which basically, you know, if you don’t have it addressed in your service records, it’s almost like it never existed. Now some people say you can go back and challenge based on other scenarios, but I feel lucky that I’m not…really didn’t suffer physically too much from my military experiences. But that pre-separation check is pretty important. That along with taking advantage of all the GI Bill offerings. I put myself in a really good spot following the military because…with kind of like the freehand, the free time I had, I started filling a lot of that time taking night school…evening classes. So, I only had an Associate’s coming out of the Air Force. And then a year later, I finished my bachelor’s. Then I still had GI money available, and I was already doing school and almost felt like I had no reason to stop and ended up getting…I went into an accelerated master’s program and then finished that up a couple years later. So I mean, I ended up with a master’s degree and I never, you know, never expected to almost get the bachelor’s degree. I think that’s been pretty beneficial as far as through hiring cycles and just overall numbers for salary based on experience and education. So that’s pretty critical too.”