I felt this falls under multiple categories. My apologies if this is the wrong one for the matter.
I am about 1.5 years from transitioning out of the Navy. I have spent the last 3 years overseas in Japan and will spend the next 1.5 here in Japan. Rarely when I come into contact with a civilian I receive advice such as "before getting out go to job fairs!!" The issue is I am in Japan. I have no idea where would be the best place to move once I return to the states, what college to attend and I have an idea of a group of subjects I'm highly interested in working with.
How do I set myself up while overseas like someone who is transitioning out from a stateside command? I feel like I am just going to have to draw the short end of the stick and cram it all in ASAP once my DD214 is in my hands haha.
I know I'll figure it out eventually I always do. However, any and all advice is greatly appreciated! Thank you!
Answers
Hi Steven- 1.5 years will be done before you know it. Good call on being proactive. You could start looking around for employment with a Japanese company that does business in the U.S.. Japan is little as compared to the U.S.. Where you are in Japan, you could take the Bullet Train for interviews. At one time I worked for the largest trading company in Japan, C.Itoh (Itochu). C.Itoh has huge interests in the U.S. from coal to electronics. Perhaps you can start on your employment quest with a company like them? These type of trading companies need "locals" in every country. Another bullet train ride is over to Nagoya. There you get to see the auto OEM's like Mitsubishi. OEM's such as Mitsubishi need "locals" in the U.S. for sales, marketing and engineering support. I suggest you leverage your "world" experience in any of the Japan interviews. As you will find out when you get home, the "world" of your high school buddies is visiting Disney World.
As for college, take it slow. You will be older and of a different mind set then your 18 year old classmates. In the past, I have been an adjunct professor at a private university and a community college. The Vets in my class had some hard transitions to a society that spends all its time watching reality TV. If you take the first 60 credit hours of college in general courses, you will be happier then making a firm decision on a major at the start of college. My experience as a college prof. with Vets: do not "hold their hand", let them inform the class of their knowledge and experience, ask them if they need guidance. Many Vets drop out of college after accumulating 20 or 30 credit hours. The Vets drop out of college because of family responsibilities, having to take too many remedial courses and they are the first in their family to go to college.
College should be fun and a learning experience for life. Not a means to an end. Stay away from the colleges that prey on recent returned Vets.
Contact me for questions. Neil
Technical areas, particularly IT areas, are used to giving phone interviews and hiring people all over the world. You don't say what your specialty code is, but if you have any technical skills it will be easy to get phone interviews. If you don't have technical skills, but have technical aptitude and enough spare time to learn, you can pick up some marketable skills. Right now, everything is moving to the Linux operating system at Allstate where I work. Very large servers for databases and applications are all moving to Linux. This is great, because you can get applicable Linux experience very inexpensively. If you can get an old Windows computer, you can download a version of Linux for free and get started learning it for the cost of a few downloadable Kindle books. If you can't find a used machine, you can buy a Raspberry Pi for $35 or less and be up and running for under $60 total, as long as you have a flat screen TV. If you don't, add $25 for a used monitor. I have done all of this myself at home and would be happy to help you with it. Just send me a message with some more of your details and we can get started. I have taught quite a few people how to program. One of my early students was an Air Force Technical Sergeant who worked for me. I ran into him 10 years later at a computer users' conference. He had used what I taught him to be reclassified from a computer operator to a programmer at his next duty station and then used that to get a civilian programming job when he retired at twenty years. He had no college. This is something you can do if you have the aptitude and the will to do it.
Hi Steven,
My advice is do the following. Learn software programming on your own time:
1. Get a laptop. If possible a MacbookAir. This would be the best investment.
2. Buy this book Head First HTML and CSS
3. Google this: Hartl Tutorial and follow that
4. Google a book called: Ruby Pickaxe
Guess what. Software programming is not hard to learn, it just requires dedication. Like everything in life.
The material I mentioned above is sort of a requirement to become a Ruby on Rails software developer. Guess what. There is a shortage of these workers in the US. The average salary goes above $80K for a 2+ years experience.
You got about this exact time to reach that level.
Bonus point:
You are in Japan. They invented the Ruby programming language in this country. Which means there are big circles to network and to learn. The best is that this crowd is very open to new developers and many just mentor for the sake of karma.
If you need more help please let me know
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