Newsflash: Nothing New
Military transition is still misunderstood by civilians
A new Report by the Rand Corporation called Translating Military Skills into Energy and Infrastructure Careers, Occupational Matches, Credentials, and State Planning Guidance set out with the intention to “…examine how service members leaving the military can smoothly transition into jobs in sustainable energy and infrastructure sectors…”
Honestly, when I saw the title, I was excited as I hoped that someone had spent the time and money to answer the pressing questions that we need to focus on to accelerate this industry and shorten the pathway from service members transitioning out of the military and into fulfilling careers. After all, unsuccessful military transitions are the root cause of so many tragedies in our veteran community.
Instead of that, we got something else…
After reading all 49 pages, I can summarize the report in three bullet points:
There are a lot of energy and infrastructure jobs
Enlisted technicians should get civilian technician roles
Someone should make training programs so they can get those jobs
I honestly don’t even know why this report was made or for what purpose. Mapping jobs codes from the military to the civilian workplace is the most overdone piece of self congratulatory BS I see in this space. There’s a dozen MOS translators out there, and they do absolutely nothing for veterans. It’s an easy way to claim they are doing “something” for veteran career transitions, without putting in the effort to ask what veterans really need, review existing veteran transition data like Combined Arms. or talk with industry trade groups like American Clean Power (ACP) They obviously didn’t talk to any of the community colleges and trade schools like Texas State Technical College: (TSTC) or check in on the Troops to Energy Jobs (TEJ) website created by the Center for Energy Workforce Development (CEWD). Oh, and CEWD helped to found the Veterans in Energy (VIE) organization that brings together many companies in the energy and infrastructure space, mostly utilities. And guess who is one of the top employers of veterans in energy? Hint: it’s the same companies that have multiple full time military recruiters (NextEra alone has six!). It doesn’t talk about amazing non-profits like NextOp which are embedded in bases and focused on mass placements for early enlisted service members directly in trade roles.
Instead, they refer readers to a site that isn’t aligned with the energy industry and ignore the fact that there are so many programs training veterans for this industry already.
I’m not sure if this was just a literature review or created by ChatGPT, but there are real programs at work helping veterans through their career transition. So Im’ not sure if this is just lazy writing, the budget didn’t call for any actual effort being put into seeing what is already being done in the industry, or if someone who scoped out the project didn’t understand where this industry is going.
I’m probably more insulted than I should be because I just came back from hosting an industry family event for workers, veterans, and landowners at TSTC last night in Sweetwater, Texas, hosted by Clearway Energy. They are killing it! One of the wind tech students we interviewed had just gotten a job offer 30 minutes before we interviewed him for a video testimonial. This report does absolutely nothing to support the work that TSTC is already doing. It doesn’t help companies like NextEra or Clearway find amazing veteran talent, it doesn’t help policymakers do anything except say “Thank you for your service”, and it certainly doesn’t move the needle on career transitions for service members.
No one asked, but here’s what I would have scoped out for researchers to focus on if they really wanted to move the needle on Translating Military Skills into Energy and Infrastructure Careers
Conduct an Energy Workforce Survey
Identify the number of veterans working in the energy industry (all technologies, not just sustainable energy)
Identify their starting role, company, and salary when they joined the industry
Identify their MOS, rank, last duty station, and time in service at the time they left the military
Identify their length of time in currently in the industry, number of promotions, and current salary
What state they work in (by voter registration address)
Using this data, we could then identify where veterans have most successfully transitioned into the energy and infrastructure industry. We can double down where we have a high concentration of success in translating skills and the military culture into long term careers that pay well. Doubling down is an easy way to use Praeto’s Law to make sure we are getting the best ROI by investing into existing programs and institutions already benefiting veterans.
We will also inevitably observe gaps in the employment data which we intuitively know that veterans work out well through anecdotes of individuals within our network.
We then can look at bases that are underserved at transitioning service members into the industry but have similiar demographics of folks that typically do transition. I once saw a program to recruit wind techs from an Air Force intel base. If you need an MOS translator to explain to you why that won’t work then I can’t help you.
I hope this report doesn’t get in front of policymakers. It also cites the high growth opportunities of Chief Sustainability Officers. What executive search firm is going to showcase a recently transitioning service member to a public company for a CXO role? I mean, you’re not going to see a private small to midsize company with that role. Besides, if you want to place a high quality, high speed veteran into a CXO role for high growth company, you just have to hire Sitreps 2 Steercos for top military talent placement… but those vets will also have an MBA and time in ops or consulting that make sure they’re set up for success in a CXO role.
Again. What is the point of this report? Whoever paid for it should ask for a refund. I’m not going to even start on the real problems with military transition and how the government isn’t solving them. Afterall, an earlier RAND study last year found that they never help, are a waste of funds, and actually skipping them is the only correlation to improved outcomes and higher salaries.