WHAT’S NEXT Transition to Civilian Life By Eve Nasby
Prime Advice to Getting Hired - Delivered by Amazon While the unemployment rate has dropped since the March 2020 high, there are still over 10 million unemployed Americans. There’s a good chance that you unfortunately know someone (or are someone) who’s been looking for a job for months with no success. Struggling to make ends meet has become all too commonplace. The longer the job search goes on, the harder it is to stay motivated and positive. Beau Higgins, former Commanding Officer, USMC now Senior Manager, Military Talent Acquisition, Amazon, has a great story, and some well-packaged advice and information for those looking to get hired. Some Good News! First, here’s some good news: Amazon has over 30,000 open positions! Which prompts the next question of, “how do I get hired there?” Four years ago, Beau had the same question. After transitioning out of the military, he faced the tough reality of figuring out what he wanted to do next. He also realized that even more importantly than figuring out what he wanted to do, was recognizing what he didn’t want to do. Beau knew he didn’t want to stay in DOD as a GS employee. He also knew he didn’t want to be a contractor. These steps led him to realizing he wanted a business or operations role in Tampa, FL. Suddenly, a laser-focused approach to find a business-related role in Tampa became a tangible, achievable goal. So, that’s what he did. The Power of Your Network Yes, the dreaded word “network.” Sounds overwhelming. But, Beau made it simple. He talked to his friends in Tampa and said “I’m looking for a business or operations role here.” It worked. He was hired for a role at a midsized custom cable company because of a referral in his network. The company manufactured and installed fiber 50
WWW.SanDiegoVeteransMagazine.com / JANUARY 2021
optic cable, which wasn’t something Beau knew much about, but he got in the door, learned the ropes and got experience doing various roles there, including assembly line work, operations, marketing and sales. Now, how this ties to Amazon. The cable company did installation work for Amazon in Tampa. Beau was in sales at the time, and reached out to his friends who worked at Amazon to sell the fiber optic cable. One of these friends told him that Amazon was bulking up their military network and creating a new position to lead it. And, that Beau seemed like he’d be a perfect candidate for the role. One call led to one referral, and Beau landed the job at Amazon. Onwards and Upwards Beau’s work was cut out for him. Amazon CEO, Jeff Bezos, announced at the White House that their goal was to hire 25,000 veterans in the next 5 years. To date, Amazon has hired almost 45,000 veterans and military spouses. Sounds like hiring Beau was the right guy to spearhead the program! After almost 4 years since starting at Amazon, Beau is honored to be able to share valuable advice to help veterans, spouses and active-duty military. His tips relate both to transitioning out of the military and how to get hired at Amazon. 1. Focus, Fire, Repeat. Invest time in determining what you DON’T want to do. This also means, don’t say “I’ll do anything.” That’s not focused, has no end goal, and is just randomly firing shots into the air. Finding your focus isn’t as hard as it sounds. There are resources to help you figure out where you’d best excel. For example, Korn Ferry offers personality assessment tests, including a free trial. Many of the roles at Amazon fall into maintenance and IT. So, you can determine in these tests if you have an aptitude in those areas. Or once you know where your aptitude is strongest, you can focus on those areas. Dave Grundies