AUGUST 6, 2021 – Military service is one of the best job training programs in the world. Besides the core mission that every service member attends to, people on active and reserve duty acquire all kinds of valuable job and career skills. From technical expertise and fleet management, to broader things like leadership and communication, the armed forces are the perfect place for young people to prepare themselves for work in the private sector. Here’s a brief look at four things enlisted personnel can learn within one or two years of duty.
Fleet Management
Anyone who’s ever been part of the fleet team on a military installation knows that the duty is a busy one. But, aside from keeping your 100 percent alert, armed services fleet management positions are the perfect way to acquire knowledge and skills that transfer directly to the transport industry. Keeping track of expensive assets like cars, vans, jeeps, trucks, and specialized vehicles on a base is what private trucking company fleet managers do every day. To learn more about fleet management, review an in-depth guide that explains how the process works. If you end up working as a transport industry professional, managing your fleet will be that much easier if you begin with a couple of years of active-duty experience.
Financial Management
Some mid-career finance professionals learned all their core skills while in the armed forces. That’s because the operation of bases is much like the way a large corporation is run. There are monthly budgets, financial projections, and everything that goes into the typical day-to-day financial life of a busy installation. A bonus for many military members is that it’s possible to take finance and accounting college courses while serving, which makes writing a private sector resume that much easier. The combination of real-world experience and academic training is one reason finance professionals often transition quite quickly into civilian finance careers.
Communication
Armed service is ideal place to learn basic, business-level communication skills. Civilians who attend college to earn business or engineering degrees typically lack the communication ability that nearly every service member picks up within a few months of duty. One reason for this situation is that in the armed forces, it’s essential to communicate just to do your job. College students are more focused on theory and academics than real-world performance, which is what military service is all about. The communication skills you pick up can also translate to your spouse in their job pursuits. The military offers a professional guide for spouses to navigate their own careers in a way that supports their unique needs.
Leadership
There’s a myth about leadership skills. Some say that you either have them or you don’t. Anyone who’s served in a military branch for a month or a decade could easily dispute that assertion. Some private sector jobs, like sales, do a good job of teaching new hires how to be better leaders. But, there’s no match for military service, which is actually based on the concept of teaching every member how to lead others in all kinds of situations. Hiring managers value past job experience that taught candidates how to lead. Former service members usually move to the front of the line when a job calls for a proven ability to lead.