John Stevens ⋅ Middletown , MD ⋅ 20 years experience

Dan, It sounds like I'm doing all the right things. Thanks for your feedback. It appears we have very similar approaches.

Dan Eddinger ⋅ U.S. Navy, Lieutenant Commander ⋅ 20 years served

John, The obvious answer is through an organization like this. Outside the successful relationship that I had with my ACP mentor I also developed mentors through the Rotary in the city near where I was retiring from, reaching out to folks in the LinkedIn groups I joined, and perhaps most-importantly through another veterans program that I was participating in.

The Seattle Rotary had a fledgling program to support Veterans and I took advantage of the opportunity. I was paired with a local CEO who helped me greatly and continues to provide excellent advice as I grow in my current role.

LinkedIn also provided me the means to the job I ended up taking where I found a contact inside the company I was courting who had a similar background and they gave me the inside track and mentored me as I came onboard.

The first effort I made in my transition was with another veterans group who put on seminar-like events to talk about transition. Since I was starting to get motivated about my post-retirement career I went into that event looking for folks to teach me how to do it. I collected cards and made the effort to stay in touch and have gotten a ton of benefit from it. One specific contact took the time to talk with me occasionally and shape my expectations for the way ahead.

I believe that overall it has to do with the vet's attitude and motivation to make the connections and cultivate them.