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One of the most important lessons I’ve learned is to look at every challenge as an opportunity. The challenge of not knowing could provide you the opportunity to learn something new. The challenge of the unknown is an opportunity to help you become uncomfortable with uncertainty. And difficult challenges take you from your comfort zone and into that space where personal growth occurs.
Transitioning from the military is a challenge. But in this challenge, there are opportunities.
There is a lot of concern for service members about what they will do after the military. And rightfully so. That’s pretty much the point of this blog- helping veterans develop meaningful careers after the military.
You will have a lot of decisions to make. What type of career should you pursue? Should you go to school? If so, for what degree and where?
All of these are important decisions that this blog is aimed at helping you make, but I’ll give you an important piece of advice as you think about your own personal transition timeline (visit this page to see my own personal transition timeline):
You can take time off before your next career
You can take some time off and just focus on yourself and your family. You can slow down, enjoy life, reflect on your military experiences, and think about what it is you really want to do in the next phase of your life.
What can you do during this time?
Anything. You. Want.
The world is your oyster.
If you want to go vagabond about the globe, you can. I have a good friend who left the army at the same time as I did, and he is currently rock climbing in SE Asia. His plan (like mine) is to travel and explore the world between now and starting his MBA in the fall.
If you want to go volunteer, you can. After taking off the uniform, a lot of veterans can still feel a strong need to serve others. Organizations like The Mission Continues and Team Rubicon offer veterans a way to spend significant time working in local communities. You may also want to travel abroad, where you can find lots of opportunities to volunteer.
Or maybe you just want to spend time with friends and family. You could travel around the country and just stay with those you care about.
The point here is that your transition from the military presents you with a unique opportunity of time. Your time is now yours and you can choose to spend it as you wish.
This will not ruin your life.
Especially for Americans, there can be a serious pressure to feel like we always have to be doing and accomplishing. The internet is full of hustle porn which will make you feel like your nose has to constantly be on the grindstone. There can be this feeling that if we aren’t engaged in a career or education, then we are just wasting time and will fall into a pit of doom from which we can never escape. We can feel that a few months taken off will irreparably ruin our career and those few months of not contributing to a retirement plan will destine us to a life of poverty and misery.
Quite the opposite, actually.
Time spent on yourself and your family is never wasted.
Military life can be hard. There are busy training calendars, multiple deployments, and a lot of time spent away from friends and family. Taking a short period of time to pause can provide you space to fully digest everything you experienced and learned in the military. You can take this chance to pause, reflect, and think about what you really want to do next. In the infinite wisdom of Ferris Bueller, “Life moves pretty fast. If you don’t stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it.”
This can also be the time to re-balance the scales and give time back to your loved ones who likely didn’t get all the time they wanted with you during your military career. Military families make some of the most underappreciated sacrifices out there, and now can be the time where you pay them back.
You may even improve your outcomes afterward.
Gap years, or taking a year off after high school before starting college, are a big thing in much of Europe and Australia. Interested in finding out how taking this time off affected student academic performance, a former dean from Middlebury College found that students who take time off before starting school tended to outperform their peers by 0.1 to 0.4 on a 4.0 scale. And those effects lasted throughout their college careers. He found that the time these students gave themseleves to think about their lives prior to starting college helped mature them and focus their decisions.
You may be thinking, “Ok, great, but I’m not a 17-year kid who wants to go “find themselves.” I’m a seasoned veteran who is ready to go crush it in the private sector.”
No doubt you are. But I’m also sure that your transition process was probably a bit stressful. You may just need to take a break after the transition process. The data also shows that veterans are highly likely to pivot from their first career choice. The Veteran Job Retention Survey, conducted by Vet Advisor and Institute of Veterans and Military Families at Syracuse University, showed that only 14 percent of the survey respondents indicated that they were presently working in their first civilian job. And of those who left, almost half did so within 12 months and close to 65% did so within 24 months.
My personal take from this is that veterans are rushing into careers without really thinking about what it is they really want to do. I think that we as a veteran community are determined to just start moving and accomplishing, but that we don’t take the time to think about what exactly it is that we are trying to accomplish.
There is also data from the Harvard Business Review that shows the impact of taking time off. Their study found that people who took fewer than 10 days off a year had a roughly 35% chance of receiving a raise or bonus in the next 36 months. Compare this with the group that took more than 10 days off, who had a 65% chance of receiving a bonus in the same period, and you can see the benefits of taking time off.
It’s easy to think that taking some extended time off will come at a significant opportunity cost. You may think that those few weeks or months will ruin your retirement funds or keep you from earning money such that you will never recover. But the data tends to show that the return on investment (ROI) of taking time off will pay off for you in the long run.
Ok, this all sounds great. But how do I do this?
There are definitely some planning factors to consider when looking to take some time off after the military. I wouldn’t recommend just waiting until your ETS date and buying a one-way ticket to Madagascar without thinking about some of these factors.
Planning factors
Take advantage of terminal leave.
You could theoretically sign out with 90 days of terminal leave. That’s 3 months of pay and benefits, with all the time in the world to do whatever you want. That’s also access to services like Space A travel and tremendous prices for vacation spots through the Armed Forces Vacation Club. Especially if you are separating and not retiring, this provides you time to take advantage of these resources while you are still considered on status and before you lose access to these benefits.
Have a backstop.
I am by no means encouraging you to think “Screw it! I don’t need to plan or think about my next career. I’ll just get out and figure it out with all this time I now have!”
Don’t do that.
If you are planning to start a new career, factor taking some time off into your timeline when you talk with your new employer about when you want to start. They don’t have a copy of your orders and know when your ETS date is. You can tell them when you will be available.
Starting an educational program can also be a good way to bookend your time off. Like my friend rock climbing in Asia, I am taking off the time between leaving the military and starting my MBA in the fall to travel and pursue some entrepreneurial ideas. Having that firm time off when I have to start the next phase forces me to pursue more adventures in the time I allocated to myself.
And you know what? If you find that during your time off you don’t want to start that next job or don’t actually want to go to school, you have the freedom to make that choice and decide what it is you really want to do.
Savings.
If you are planning to take time off past your ETS date and your terminal leave, you will need some money. I’ll talk about some options to help with this in a bit, but having solid savings built up to cover emergencies and your expenses will set you up for success. I purposely saved the extra money I made on deployments for exactly this purpose.
Health care.
While on terminal leave, you and your family will still be covered under TriCare. After your ETS date, the service member (not dependents) will remain under TriCare for 90 days. If you had a deployment to a combat zone, you (again, just the service member) are also eligible for 5 years of health care (but unfortunately not dental) from the VA. You may also consider the Continued Health Care Benefit Program, which can provide you the coverage you need as required by the Affordable Care Act.
This area gets complicated and there a lot of options. The bottom line is don’t overlook it.
Doing this with a family.
You may be thinking that this isn’t possible because you have a family you need to care for. While there are absolutely some practical considerations to make, like living expenses and health care, there is no reason you can’t take some extended time off with your family. Taking the above factors into consideration, you may even find that you are able to plan some time with each other that makes you a better and stronger family.
A good option for families can be through a program called Work Away. You may be able to find a family that will host you for free in exchange for some basic work. Or an NGO somewhere may need some help for a few weeks that you all can contribute towards. There are lots of options via this site, for families and unaccompanied service members alike.
Financing.
Work options.
If you don’t have enough terminal leave or savings built up to give you the time off that you desire, there are creative ways to seriously cut costs and/or earn some income to sustain you.
A friend of mine is taking a few months off before starting grad school and is choosing to work a small part-time job. This is giving him just enough money to cover his expenses and he is also getting some healthcare-related benefits out of it. He then spends the rest of the time doing whatever he wants to do.
If you play your cards right, you could find a unique DoD Skillsbridge opportunity and transition that into remote work or part-time work as well to help fund you during this time. That’s partly how I’m doing my own time off, after interning at a startup.
Veteran-specific adventure programs.
I think at least a part of every veteran joined the military for a sense of adventure. We wanted to test ourselves and push ourselves outside the “normal” path to try something new and different. There’s no reason to leave the military and not still pursue a strenuous life where you push yourself physically and mentally. This time off can present you a great chance to fit these opportunities into your life.
I recently went on an Outward Bound trip specifically for veterans. We spent a week dog sledding in the Minnesota wilderness and it was one of the best experiences of my life (I’m planning to do a whole post on this- get ready for some awesome pictures).
If you desire to do an extended trip like biking across the United States or hiking the Appalachian Trail, Warrior Expeditions can help fund your trip and provide logistical support.
Geoarbitage.
This sounds like some fancy business term, but all it means is that you can save money by going to live somewhere with a lower cost of living. There are lots of places in the world where things are just cheaper and you can make your money last you longer. Who knows, you may even end up just staying there and starting the next phase of your life abroad.
The point of taking this time off is not to forego all your plans to crush it in your next career. You should still totally do that. The point is to give yourself the time and space to reflect and think. Rarely will life give you such a timing opportunity as leaving the military to take some extended time off. This transition point can provide you some unique resources and benefits that you can use to have a powerful experience for you and your family after you take off the uniform.
As you plan out your transition timeline, be deliberate. Figure out a way to have some unplanned life time that is totally yours to fill.
I have a friend who signed out of the military on a Friday and started his MBA on the next Monday. This is what he told me about doing that:
“That was stupid. I really wish I had taken some time off.”
I also have a friend who traveled the world for a few months before starting grad school. This is what he said about that:
“Best decision I ever made.”
Related:
Outward Bound for Veterans: Dogsledding