Bridging the Transition to Retirement Part 2

The last time I posted about the process of transitioning from the Army back into the civilian world was in March. I shared four tools and a couple of specific thoughts. You can find that post here: Bridging the Transition to Retirement.

It’s only been four months, but WOW it feels like it has been a year already!!! I’ve attended the mandatory Army classes as well as found a few other sources of free education or certifications and I wanted to share the tools I’ve been shown. In no specific order…

• Veterati: Veterati is a FREE mentoring network for veterans. You set up a profile and then look at the profiles of mentors to see who you would like to ask for professional advice. The mentors agree to have a 1-hour phone call with the mentees. It isn’t a long-term mentorship relationship like ACP, but it is great for getting information about different fields or just a wide swath of information.

• USO Transitions:  The USO has a transition assistance team who can set you up with a plan detailing various training opportunities and employment tools to help you navigate the transition preparation process. One of the training opportunities I like is the certification training through Coursera. For example, I am working through the IBM Cybersecurity Analyst Professional Certificate. The USO also points people to the Onward 2 Opportunity program which will provide the training and costs for one certification. They also share where to get assistance with creating resumes, both civilian and for federal service. The USO isn’t just free snacks at the airport, these are great tools and wonderful help. Go see your local USO to see if they have a transition assistance specialist.

• Army Transition Assistance Program (TAP): Yes, it is mandatory that you attend, but I found it to be extremely helpful, especially having a Veteran’s Administration representative come and speak for an entire day. Lots of great info throughout the classes and I found myself highlighting items in the books and then coming home at night, looking up the various items and then I made a calendar with important dates/ deadlines between now and my retirement date. I was also able to schedule appointments, find new jobs sites, and find new free training websites. TAP is so much better than when I got out of the Army the first time.

• O’Reilly Learning: (Use your .mil email to register for free access.) O’Reilly Learning has Labs, Cloud Labs, and Sandboxes for AWS, Kubernetes, SQL, Linux (many distros), Azure, and lots of other things.

• VA VET TEC: As long as you have one (1) day of your GI Bill available to you (not your kids or spouse) then you can take advantage of the VET TEC program which covers the cost of training and certification for one IT certification and pays E-5 BAH (BAH is only given if the program is used after exiting the military.) while you are in the course. It does not use your GI Bill benefit, but it must be available.

• Various IT/Cybersecurity Training Sites:

1. Palo Alto Networks offers veterans free training here.
2. VetSec (not through the VA) offers veterans free cybersecurity training here.
3. Fortinet offers veterans (and spouses) free training and certification for NSE 4-7 here.
4. Splunk provides veterans free training here.
5. The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has a list of various training sites here.