What was biggest/hardest personal or professional adjustment going from military to civilian life?

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I miss the stability of military life. You don’t have to worry about being laid off and there is a clear path for promotions.

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Unless you get injured like me…

Then not so stable

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The biggest adjustment and still an adjustment on both professional and personal life after the military is people staying in their own lane. In the service we all knew what was expected of us and accepted some outside help from our NCO’s. People butt into the learning or just have a complete lack of respect for their subordinates, bosses, or fellow coworkers.

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I "grew up" professionally speaking with that lack of respect, and unfortunately, it can be hard to get away from.

Translating your experience into what makes sense to the industry you’re entering. It can take time to figure that out. You also can’t assume pay grade/level necessarily means much to the civilian sector (generally). It’s on you as the veteran to communicate what you bring to the table.

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How would a career counselor have been able to reach out to someone who was trying to translate that experience? I've heard over and over how ineffective TAP is, but how do folks transitioning access other resources if they need further assistance?

Lack of quality people was a huge adjustment for me. And people in leadership roles with no instincts to lead.

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Medical insurance, billing, and associated tax planning is the worst.

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My biggest adjustment to deal with was civilian work ethic as well as their personal accountability and integrity. Except a certain few I’ve worked with in the construction industry, it’s been almost a complete 180 degrees with what was expected of me when working as well s how I was expected to conduct myself as a man. I remember one time I was working at one job and I do something where some damage to company property occurred due to my error.

I actually went and informed my supervisors of what happened and let them know I was going o repair the damage and if they wanted to dock my pay for it, I would understand. Management didn’t know how to deal with that. Neither did HR. I was told to just repair the damage and I wouldn’t have to reimburse the company. I would t be let go just don’t let it happen again.

When I first told them what had happened I could see their faces change with he satisfaction they were going o be able to cm down on me, but my offering to rectify the situation before they could chew me out completely pulled the wind out of their sails and they became confused. It was the oddest experience.

But yeah laziness and the willing to pass the buck and not accept responsibility for any wrongdoing is the hardest thing I’ve had to deal with from civilians. I’ve been out since 1997 and I run into it all year time.

It sucks.

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Does the control over being able to apply to other jobs make up for the uncertainty at all?

And vacation days?

Understanding that corporations and businesses don’t give a crap about your service and only care if you have a college degree.

Sadly I'm not surprised about that.

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