Moving from military to civilian jobs isn't just a career change — it's entering a whole new world.
In honor of Veterans Day, four T-Mobile employees sat down to share their personal stories of chasing a new profession after service. Whether T-Mobile was their first civilian job after a decades-long military career or they held many new jobs since transitioning years ago, these employees agreed on one common challenge: Translating military prowess into civilian speak during interviews.
By the end of 2023, T-Mobile achieved an expansive, company-wide initiative from 2018 to hire 10,000 veterans and military spouses over a five-year period. Now, veteran employees are sharing advice from their lived experiences in hopes it will help fellow veterans who are stepping into their next chapter in the civilian world to walk confidently into their first job interview.
Meet T-Mobile’s proud veterans and hear their tips to walk confidently into that first civilian job interview.
- Russ Nelson, T-Mobile’s Senior Regional Facilitator for Leadership Development, former U.S. Army Combat Reconnaissance Scout.
- Stephen Gundrum, T-Mobile Team of Experts Coach, former Nuclear Machinist Mate for the U.S. Navy.
- Jeff Rhodes, T-Mobile Group Project Manager for IT Business Development, retired Battalion Commander and 21-year U.S. Army Veteran.
- Jessica Cody, T-Mobile’s Senior Regional Facilitator for Leadership and Development, eight-year Veteran Chemical Specialist in the Army Reserves.
Tech to the Rescue
Russ Nelson says his biggest tip is to leverage cutting-edge AI to bridge the gap between military jargon and civilian job requirements. The former U.S. Army member and current Senior Regional Facilitator for Leadership Development at T-Mobile says that when he transitioned in 1997, he had difficulty translating his military experience into terms that are meaningful to civilian employers.
"I did not know how to articulate my experience, especially with the military occupational specialty (MOS) I had," he says. "I didn't know how to share the soft skills that I'd learned beyond all of the hard combat skills that came with reconnaissance."
AI tools can help veterans prepare for interviews by listing the soft skills they may not even recognize they’ve acquired during military service, Nelson says.
"ChatGPT, Copilot and other AI platforms are incredible tools because you can take your military title and figure out the equivalent job description through a more civilian or corporate lens," Nelson explains. "It can help you word things that really will help you connect the dots, especially if you don't know how to do it yourself."
Stephen Gundrum, a former Nuclear Machinist Mate for the United States Navy and current T-Mobile Team of Experts Coach, also says he is excited about how easy it can be to use web tools that allow veterans to input their MOS to find applicable civilian jobs.
“This tool called Military Skills Translator has been available for a couple of years now. You can put in everything that you learned while in service under your MOS and it can give you a list of certain jobs within the civilian field that you would immediately qualify for,” he explains.
Craft Your Narrative
Nelson says your stories are your strength. He recommends job applicants prepare three or four key moments from their military experience that they can share during interviews. He also suggests these stories follow a situation-behavior-impact (SBI) format to effectively illustrate the candidate's skills and experiences.
“It’s great to prepare for your interview by thinking back to your previous military roles in terms of stories, because we all have key moments or things that we've done that have been impactful and naturally illustrate our skillsets,” he says.
Jessica Cody, a former eight-year Veteran Chemical Specialist in the Army Reserves and current T-Mobile Senior Regional Facilitator in Human Resources, says veterans can seem nervous in an interview because it isn’t as common a practice in the military.
She hopes preparing these key stories ahead of time instills in every veteran that their experience makes them a unique candidate in the corporate world.
"Think of your skills not just in terms of your MOS but also look at it conceptually. What you've done is extremely valuable even if that specific hard skill listed in the job description is not something you immediately recognize as your expertise," Cody says. "You have a lot to offer because of how you've been able to learn and accomplish prior to transitioning. You don't have to hide what you think you don't have."
Assert Your Value
Jeff Rhodes, T-Mobile Group Project Manager for IT Business Development and who spent 21 years in the U.S. Army, says veterans must be proactive in their civilian interviews. T-Mobile’s Veterans and Allies Employee Resource Group has supported his initiative to give presentations to prepare hiring managers before interviewing veterans to understand skill-based hiring practices.
"Veterans should know as they transition into civilian roles that they are their own career managers," Rhodes says. "We need to advocate for ourselves and our many hard and soft skills during the interview process. Personally, my main contribution is being able to look at T-Mobile operations through the same lens that I would look at military operations and make suggestions based on my training how I would solve it."
Military experience has equipped Gundrum to lead by building productive, goal oriented programs.
"The nuclear field is very technical and very analytical," Gundrum says. "I've been able to utilize some of the tricks from that time into my coaching and can help locate patterns and analyze what an Expert can be doing to find the one or two things that's going to turn it from an okay experience for the customer to an excellent one."
Cody recommends getting ahead of an interview by connecting those dots early on.
"Organizational skills in supporting and running multiple programs is something that the military trained me to excel at because when you're following a 67-page manual just to get your radio to turn on, you need an attention to detail," Cody says. "T-Mobile doesn't necessarily care about my knowledge of detecting radioactive contamination, but the company cares that I can operate well under pressure during stressful situations."
Veteran Support Networks
Many organizations, including T-Mobile partners Hiring Our Heroes and Blue Star Families, are ready to assist veterans during their transition into civilian life, especially when it comes to preparing for their new career search.
“I am a huge advocate of Hiring our Heroes,” says Rhodes. “It’s the program that is most responsible for me landing the job here at T-Mobile. The organization pairs separating service members with a Fortune 500 company for a 12-week fellowship, after which they can apply for a full-time job.”
Rhodes also reached out to The Commit Foundation, which provided him a transition coach, Four Block, where he attended classes on how to research for potential roles, and Candorful, which supplied him with real hiring managers who volunteer to help veterans better understand job postings and rehearse before their interviews.
Gundrum says reaching out to these organizations doesn't have to serve an interview prep purpose. They also offer moral support by helping veterans recognize that they are not alone in the transition process.
"These organizations made me realize I'm not the first service member that went from active duty into the civilian world," Gundrum says. "There are so many others that have experienced this, and once you can wrap your head around that, it makes the process just a little less isolating, especially when you encounter letdowns."
Feedback Is a Gift
Rhodes says it's important to be aware that you will have to navigate cultural differences between the military and civilian workplace. He explains how his initial interview interactions, which he believed to be respectful in the military context, were perceived as abrasive.
"The feedback that I got in my interviews showed me that I was putting people off because my formality seemed standoffish," Rhodes explains. "And in my mind, I thought I was being respectful."
He adds that he had to change his mindset to be open to the fact that sometimes those who would be considered junior to him in the military environment could have valuable feedback in his new environment. Gundrum agrees that understanding the importance of feedback and how it functions within a corporate setting can be crucial for a veteran's success after transitioning.
"One of my mentors at T-Mobile told me his favorite sayings is, 'Feedback is a gift, so get ready to receive it,'" Gundrum explains. "Whether the feedback is praise or whether it's constructive, it's all designed to help you become better so don't just receive it - implement it."
On Veteran’s Day and every day, T-Mobile has long been a champion for the military community. Since 2020, T-Mobile has donated and sponsored over $2 million to military and veteran initiatives. The company received the gold standard from GI Jobs Magazine, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Military Spouse Employer and Mentorship Award and is an original signatory of the 4+1 commitment — an initiative that is tackling unemployment among military spouses by encouraging other companies to adopt policies that help military spouses with finding jobs and navigating their own career path.