Follow the Leaders
Industry leading high-tech firms like Intuit, T-Mobile, AT&T and Verizon want to put your military leadership skills to work.
By Marty Levine 

Ever wonder how you’re going to apply the skills you learned in the military to a civilian job? So did Jason Jackson. “In the military, sometimes you have trouble imagining how your skills are going to be applicable in an industry,” said Jackson, 31, a former Navy lieutenant who joined leading high-tech company Intuit in 2007 after graduating from the U.S. Naval Academy and serving one deployment in Iraq. “But across industries, in general, what’s transferrable is just leadership.

“It’s what makes veterans attractive to Intuit,” added Jackson, now a human resources manager with the company. “And it’s what veterans should be realizing in making their transition out of the military.”

Get Intuit
America’s high-tech giants – from a software, IT and online services company like Intuit to telecommunications companies like Verizon, T-Mobile and AT&T, which are increasingly large players in the Internet and entertainment worlds – report they are looking for veterans in larger numbers.

“We have people inside Intuit who have done just about every type of MOS – and most aren’t doing in the civilian world exactly what they did in the military,” said Chris Galy, 42, Intuit’s director of talent acquisition. Galy also leads the company’s Military Network of 300 people, not all of whom are veterans, but who provide support and outreach to Intuit’s veterans and military families. Intuit – developer of small business solutions such as QuickBooks and the consumer tax prep product TurboTax – has been named to the G.I. Jobs Top 100 Military Friendly Employers® list for two years in a row.          

Professional and Customer Care Jobs
Intuit is hiring for both customer-care and professional posts. The former includes remote positions such as tax-assistance representatives, call-center representative and other similar roles. On the professional side, the company is looking for new hires in telecom, mobile application and software development and software development, law, finance and HR.

“We offer salaries that are very competitive in the high-tech industry and a total rewards package with great benefits, an employee stock purchase plan, free Intuit products, and recognition programs, Galy said.”

Why Vets Fit
Hiring veterans is the right thing to do, said Galy, a West Point graduate and 15-year Army veteran who left the military as a major in 2006. “But we also know they make great employees,” he said. “That op tempo and 24-hour operation, the culture of the military – preparedness, discipline – really fit in well with our teams that work on Software as a Service products that customers expect to be available at all times.”

Jackson started out as a facilities manager, but just two years later he manages an HR team in Intuit’s employee support center, making sure employees can get their questions answered.

“I still have much growing to do in my current role,” Jackson said. “But what’s really exciting about Intuit is that it is so focused on personal growth and development. We try to nurture that leadership potential in all employees.”

That’s what it’s like to be part of a winning company – in a prospering industry.

T-Mobile: No Phoning It In
Unlike most people who transition from the service, Army Spc. Robert Reina, 30, didn’t look for a job until about four months past his 2009 exit date, after two deployments to Iraq. Instead, he took time to enjoy a new marriage. He recalls the trepidation of applying online for his current job as tech support representative at T-Mobile’s Colorado Springs call center.

“Honestly, I never even thought I could pass that [step] until I got a call back about two weeks later,” Reina said. “I was excited about that.”

And he’s happy about his work today. “They have a really military-minded core value set up at the organization,” he said. “Own your work. Take responsibility for your actions. It feels like I’m in the military, only without having to go overseas.”

T-Mobile gives its call-center reps a full-time, eight-week training course in the company’s systems, products and services, transitioning them to the call center in only the last few weeks. After six months there, Reina said he is pleased with the performance-based incentives, the salary (which included extra for his veteran status) and the benefits – from health, dental and vision to the 401K and identity protection service.

Benefits to Beat
“I tell people I have the absolutely best benefits package I’ve ever had,” said 13-year Navy veteran Chuck Vlasin, 53, program manager for T-Mobile’s Military/Employee Referral Programs in Overland Park, Kan. The former chief petty officer left the service in 1989 after flying P-3s on the commander of Naval Operations’ Special Projects Crew, where “we got all the new stuff and got to go out and see if it worked,” he recalled.

T-Mobile today is looking for veterans in many roles, especially engineering – but not in the traditional sense, Vlasin added. That means network operations, field operations, switch operations and wireless engineers, “the corps that keeps the network up and running for us,” he explained. They’re drawn primarily from the Army Signal Corps, where the MOS’  s match up very well with the wireless industry.

The company also hires a lot of veterans in customer service and retail sales.

Jobs considered entry level by the industry “can expect to come in at no less than $35,000 to 40,000 a year,” with cost of living adjustments for various regions of the country. Managers may start at between $60,000 and $70,000 a year.

“Military veterans tend to come with dedication, a teamwork attitude and sometimes loyalty to a fault,” he concludes. While the tangible skills may point toward a particular job, the intangibles make veterans great hires for any position.

AT&T: Being Number One Makes a Difference
Chris Norton, 38, never expected to stay with the Army after his ROTC commitment, but he always expected to keep moving up at AT&T.

Today the Army Reservist is a social media and digital care strategist for the world’s number one telecom company, which employs more than 250,000 and added nearly 5,500 new jobs last year in growth areas such as wireless, video and technology operations.

He began as an entry-level manager in 1999, spending most of his career in direct or indirect customer service management. Today, after returning recently from Iraq, his job is to make sure the company is adept at using social media in the business-to-business realm. He also is a major with the First Mobilization Support Group out of Fort Totten, N.Y.

It’s great working for such a large employer, he said. “You can really reinvent yourself and still stay ‘within the doors.’” He also appreciates that pay levels and benefits were maintained during his deployment, and that AT&T has a 3,000-member Veterans Employee Resource Group.

“I learned in the Army to be adaptable, and to think in terms of the second-, third-, and fourth-order effects of my actions,” Norton said. “In my current role, it’s an invaluable asset to be able to think in those terms [since] organizations as large and layered as mine don’t necessarily respond nimbly in all cases.” He uses the cause-and-effect approach of war gaming to show his superiors at AT&T what they can gain from changes he might propose. “It’s a lot like being a staff officer,” he concluded.

Right at Home
“AT&T has a long-time commitment to hiring military men and women,” said

Rachel Book, the company’s associate director of talent attraction who leads the company’s military, diversity and disability recruitment initiatives. The company takes pride in participating in Hire Heroes USA, the American Corporate Partners mentoring program, and other programs such as the Employer Support of the Guard and Reserve program. It was among the first 10 corporate partners to join the 100,000 Jobs Mission, a military hiring campaign launched by JPMorgan Chase in March. AT&T also has been honored as a Top 100 Military Friendly Employer® four times.

“We have aggressively recruited veterans for decades, in part because the technical skills and leadership experience gained in the military transfer very well to our company and culture,” Book said. “Veterans who contributed to disciplined, motivated and successful teams in the military fit right in, and feel right at home, at AT&T.”

Vet-to-Vet Mentoring
AT&T is doing significant hiring in current areas of growth, she said, such as mobility retail, the company’s U-verse video product, business-to-business sales and IT/engineering. It has a Careers4Vets job search mentoring program to help match veteran experience and skills to AT&T posts.

The average starting salary, Book said, “varies depending on the job, but I can tell you that AT&T offers highly competitive wages and benefits, and that we truly feel our jobs are among the best in the U.S. And in an era when many companies are either curtailing or abandoning benefits, we continue to provide great benefits – including market-competitive health and welfare, pension and savings plans.”

Moving up at Verizon
Michael Rodriguez moved up through five ranks in five years in the Marine Corps, finishing as a sergeant in 2009.

He has moved up just as quickly with Verizon, starting as a customer support agent, then becoming a first-level supervisor of 15 to 20 agents. Today he is manager of network operations for Verizon’s FIOS call center in Pittsburgh.

“The leadership style I learned in the Marine Corps helped me with that,” Rodriguez said. His current duties include creating and implementing training for 150 agents. He also helped institute the company’s corps of universal agents, who work on Twitter, Facebook and blogs, responding directly to posted commentary or customer issues.

Learn, Adapt, Move Up
During one Iraq deployment in her 33-year career in the IRR, Army Reserve, Army National Guard and Active Duty, then-Sgt. 1st Class Cheryl L. Dupris recalled seeing fellow Verizon employees take care of phones for her fellow Soldiers in Iraq.

“That was really a proud moment for me,” said Dupris, now a Verizon consumer business and marketing customer representative. “Veterans have that adventurous soul and that challenging mind. Most companies don’t offer the opportunities that Verizon does. We offer them the chance to learn, adapt, move up.”

Multitudes of Openings
Verizon is one of the leading global communications companies in the world, points out Evan Guzman, Verizon’s manager of strategic talent acquisitions for military/veterans. “Being a top-notch organization will require top talent to be competitive in the marketplace,” he said. “We’re looking for strong leadership – attributes veterans have already given to their country. We want to give veterans that dream of finding meaningful employment where they can grow …”

According to Military Recruiting Associate Nicolas Relacion, currently a sergeant first class in the Army Reserve with two Iraq tours under his belt, there are “multitudes” of openings. The company is looking for technical customer service analysts, as well as veterans in IT administration, HR, finance, accounting – the entire spectrum of jobs at the company.

The starting salaries, he said, vary depending on the position and the potential hire’s degree and experience. “We consider military experience to substitute for some of that experience,” alongside a potential hire’s degree. The company is even looking for veterans to become interns while they finish school.

“The future of Verizon is bright, and hiring veterans will be a big part of that,” Guzman said. “We highly value these individuals for what they bring to the table.”

INTUIT
HQ: Mountain View, Calif.
Employees: 7,700
Founded: 1983
2010 Revenue: $3.5 billion
www.intuit.com
www.intuitcareers.com

Jobs
Intuit offers jobs both in the professional and customer service arenas:

• Software, Data and Quality Engineering
• Information Technology
• Customer Care / Call Center
• Product Management
• Marketing and Web Marketing
• Finance and Audit
• Human Resources
  

Pay
Pay varies by performance and location.

Competitive salaries with robust benefits and recognition program.

Jobs
T-Mobile has openings in both engineering and customer service:

• Network operations
• Field operations
• Switch operations
• Wireless engineering
• Customer service
• Retail sales
  

Pay
Average starting salary for entry-level: $35,000 to $40,000
Average starting salary for managers:$60,000 to $70,000
 

AT&T
HQ: Dallas, TX
Employees: 266,590
Founded: 1876
2010 Revenue: $124 billion
www.att.com
www.att.jobs
www.att.jobs/Military

Jobs
AT&T has openings in:

• Mobility retail
• U-verse video product
• Business-to-business sales
• Technology
  

Pay
Starting salaries vary depending on the job but are “among the best in the U.S.,” according to the company.

Jobs
Verizon offers jobs in:

• Technical customer service (analysts)
• IT administration
• Human Resources
• Finance
• Accounting
  

Pay
Starting salaries vary per position, life/military experience and degree

Chris Norton is a 12-year AT&T employee and Army Reservist who spent 2008 deployed to Iraq with the 55th Sustainment Brigade supporting coalition and Iraqi forces in central Iraq. He then was attached to the 2nd Stryker Cavalry Regiment to plan and coordinate its relocation from Baghdad to Diyala Province.

Norton’s Advice:
1) Do skimp on your service record in your résumé, but make sure hiring managers understand exactly what you accomplished.

2) Spend time working that résumé and converting what you did in the service to ‘corporate-ese.’ Too many of us discount our service, partially because civilians don’t understand it. At a job fair recently, I ran into a young Navy vet who is a year out from graduation from college with a bachelor’s in statistical analysis. He had one line on his résumé that indicated he served in the Navy and received an honorable discharge, on the advice of his college career counselor.

What was missing, though, was this:

• By the age of 23, he attained the rank of petty officer and supervised 10 other highly trained aviation mechanics. He was responsible for them 24/7 – what they did, and what they failed to do.
• He acted as a career counselor for his 10 Sailors and ensured they maintained the educational requirements of their ratings.
• He mastered complex technical skills and applied them at an expert level on the job, in a hostile and highly stressful environment.
• By the age of 23, he was responsible for the maintenance of more than $140 million in U.S. government property: 5 Navy UH-60 helicopters, plus the lives of those operating them.
• His team had a 98 percent maintenance ‘up-time’ on the airframes they maintained.
  

I’m of the opinion, as a hiring manager, that these are fairly significant facts. Without calling them out, in English, many résumé screeners will miss them.

3) Emphasize professional networking and trade memberships. One of the best tools out there for networking is LinkedIn – it allows people to easily find common links to each other and to find people who can mentor you. In addition, it’s a great resource to find examples of the ‘magic language’ that works on résumés.

There is no substitute for the crucible serving in a combat zone provides for an employment stress test. I thought I understood that prior to going “over there,” but it was not until I saw the proverbial elephant that I truly understood. On the part of service members, we can all do a better job in translating our hard-earned experience and skills to those an employer understands.