Some veterans I speak with are often a bit naive and misguided in how they think of a career focus. Often I hear the “I’ll do anything!” line. Great! Type “anything” into a job search engine and see how that works.
Figuring out a new career is tough...but it is eminently important as part of a successful transition. This is not as easy as it sounds. Veterans are used to picking a direction and charging head-forth in the muck. But this jungle - your transition - is different.
Why do we hesitate to determine a career focus? Maybe we have a family to support or other stresses in life and do not have the luxury to consider a career when more immediate needs, and a paycheck to provide them, are pressing. Maybe it scares us because of the sense of commitment involved. What if we realize we do not like it or that we are not living our life’s true path? Sometimes we think we can’t change course and will be locked into one career for the rest of our lives. Or what if we worry that the focus we pick will be the wrong path to get us to our eventual dream job? We fail to realize though that people take all kinds of paths to get to their ultimate goal and in most cases, there is no black and white, right or wrong path.
Check out the rest of the article, from civilianchick, here.
This is can be a very uncertain and uncomfortable part of the transition -- but it can also be the most exciting!