George Oestreich ⋅ Fort Lauderdale , FL First Service Residential ⋅ 40 years experience

Monica: Check-in with Duke Energy and perhaps their subsidiary Crescent Land. Duke Energy is the major electrical power company and Crescent Land is a residential land development company owned by Duke specializing in high-end residential community development.
Thank you for your service to our country and best of success. George

Al Hope, Sr. ⋅ Water Valley , MS City of Oxford, MS ⋅ 20 years experience

Sergeant Williams,

I've traveled the road you are seeking and agree with Joe. But I would like to add that education and experience goes a long way if you want to make the money. I recommend you take a look at the US Department of Labor's Bureau of Labor Statistics at: www.bls.org/ooh. This site will give you the education requirement depending on the level you plan to enter the workforce at. Also take a look at www.careeronestop.org. This site will help you transition from military jargon to civilian terminology.

When you write your resume, assuming you have the required skills, knowledge and abilities (KSAs), keep it to the point and talk to that employer specifically. HR folks don't like to read more than three pages due to the number of applications received especially for administrative careers. And they don't want to see a resume that states: "To Whom it may concern". This shows you have not researched the employer and you probably have other resumes and application that may have been sent to other potential employers.

Bottom line is if you want it, "Go Get It". You will find from these suggested sites the requirement you need to meet. Also check with your State Employment Agency for similar jobs and the salaries associated with them.

MSG Al E. Hope, Sr. USA (Retired)

Monica Williams ⋅ Jacksonville , NC U.S. Marine Corps, Gunnery Sergeant ⋅ 20 years served

Thanks to everyone who has responded to my question. Your advise is greatly appreciated. Up til now I have made quite a few contacts. I am currently in a mentor/mentee relationship with a well respected HR director for fidelty financial in the New England area, she has given me some great advise as well as resume assistance. I am a member of SHRM and plan to make a few trips to Charlotte between now and June to attend a few of the chapter meetings. I also plan to do quite a bit of networking there. Its quite different networking in the military as compared to civilian in my opinion since we speak a completely different language with a different method of interaction. My concern was coming off too strong, or unintentionally offending someone or turninh someone off by my approach.

Alex Berghorst ⋅ Charlotte , NC Wells Fargo Securities ⋅ 5 years experience

Monica,

I would be happy to help you with your resume and with networking in the Charlotte area. At the very least, I can connect you with an HR professional in the area to give you their perspective on the job market here.

I agree with Joe that it is key for you to start exploring/networking ASAP. The more specific your job goal is, the longer it may take for something to fall into place. Additionally, since we are now into the first month of 2015, some firms may already have visibility into their hiring needs for mid-year.

One way to mitigate Joe's very good point about the potentially limited job market would be to recruit as much as possible prior to your move so you can remain flexible and look elsewhere geographically if needed.

I will also add that you may consider your job goal as one side of a pendulum with the other side being geographical preference. It can be hard to get your preference on both so it is always good to think through priorities (and put it on paper).

If you are 100% set on HR, you may find it necessary to be flexible on location, but on the other side of the coin, if you are somewhat flexible on position, you will improve the likelyhood of finding something interesting in Charlotte. It is a useful exercise to weigh the importance of these varying factors (job, location, salary, start date, etc.) as you create your game plan for recruiting.

Let me know how I can be of assistance.

Jeff Shoemaker ⋅ Lake In The Hills , IL Colorado Technical University ⋅ 20 years experience

You start networking today through LinkedIn that has various HR and veteran groups including for specific locations. I would also join, or at least attend some events, the local SHRM chapter. Many of the major corporations in the town will have a veteran hiring program. Research out and contact their representatives to network with.

Joe Paschall ⋅ Madison , AL nLogic, LLC ⋅ 26 years experience

Monica, you are choosing a very difficult path by trying to pick an area based on personal preference rather than job and network availability. I also retired from J-action-ville and, being from Durham, preferred a NC location. I did a lot of research and found that the predominant industries in Charlotte (banking) and Raleigh (Biotech/Pharma) did not provide the same level of opportunity for me that an area with a strong defense industry would. Since I needed to maximize income, I chose Huntsville AL where I knew no one at all but found a job in a strong defense industry. It was a good call for me because the number of companies and positions has enabled me to move around for new opportunities without relocating the family. My recommendation to you is to first look at your experience and find the area that provides you a network and job opportunity rather than choosing a location and hoping the rest falls into place.

HOWEVER, to your actual question... the first thing you need to address is the lack of directly-relevant HR experience because you are trying to enter a commercial/retail/banking market in which your military/govt HR background is as different as Chinese is to Arabic. There are a few good posts in a LinkedIn Group for military transitioners (MC4) that are specific to the difficulties of mapping military HR to corporate HR. Suffice it to say the rules, laws, processes, systems and language are all different which forces you to choose a lower role for entry and then hope to work back up to management. You may need to shape salary expectations accordingly. You will also need to ensure you have the right degree/cert mix- the SHRM certs are fairly critical for aspiring corporate HR folks and those take time to earn so best to plan early. Joining LinkedIn Groups associated with HR and the Charlotte area is equally key, and you should allow time to participate in them actively, and ideally segue that into meeting some folks F2F on trips to Charlotte. Networking takes time. You need to build a strong network that consists of hundreds of LinkedIn Connections, with over half of them being HR/Charlotte folks and way less than half being friends from the military.

Although a lot of folks who have tried to travel this path will tell you it's too hard to do, your goals are achievable. The reason so many folks fail on this path is they do not allow themselves time to prepare adequately and/or are unwilling to do everything required to make their goals happen. If you have less than 2 years to go before taking off the uniform, and/or are not already actively engaged on LinkedIn, the deck is really stacked against you. However, there is a solid back-up plan if you are willing to start in an entry-level HR position and can cope temporarily with that salary range while building a network on-site in Charlotte for a year or so. It's not easy, but these are the ways it can be done.

Good Luck and S/F,

Joe